When late-night TV as we know it began in the 1950s, there weren’t any rules. So the early icons of the genre, starting with the forever-imitated Steve Allen on the “Tonight” show, literally made it up as they went along: There were bit characters, pie-throwing demonstrations, guessing games and comically large vats of Jell-O. The result of this experimentation is what you see on television – as well as your social feeds – today: It’s not late-night if you aren’t having some fun.
Inspired by some of late-night’s famous sketches and comedy bits, we’ve come up with a game of our own. Let’s see how you fare with this puzzle challenge.
Each puzzle below represents either the name of a late-night host or one of their popular jokes. Solve the puzzle and then match your answer with the late-night show it represents. Good luck! If you don’t score as well as you hoped, learn more late-night history with CNN Original Series “The Story of Late Night,” Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT and on demand via CNNgo.
