The Amber Ruffin Show: Ruffin shows off her singing skills

The Amber Ruffin Show continued to make its mark on late night television with another brand new episode last night. And once again, Amber Ruffin proved she is among the genre’s best performers.

In last night’s episode, Ruffin starts off in her usual position behind her desk. She continues to speak to her viewers by addressing the elephant in the room: missing from this week’s episode is Ruffin’s trusty sidekick, Tarik Davis. Davis was replaced for the night by Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Jeff Wright, who has had notable on-screen appearances on Meyers’ show. As the show progressed, it’s clear that Wright proved to be a great alternate companion to Ruffin’s absurdist personality in lieu of Davis being absent.

The first half of Ruffin’s news commentary includes her own personal announcement of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees Dionne Warwick, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, and Tina Turner. She also cracked a joke about country star Morgan Wallen’s album being ranked number one on Billboard last week being connected to the recently revealed footage of the country singer drunkenly shouting derogatory language including the n-word outside his Nashville home. This news comes not even a month after Wallen was the musical guest on the Jason Bateman-hosted Saturday Night Live episode back in Dec. 2020.

This episode was particularly characterized by another round of Amber Ruffin’s musical comedy complete with the host and Wright performing in a gospel choir-style skit. The duo sing in conjunction with a video of New York State Representative Hakeem Jeffries disapproving of the actions of GOP Utah State Representative Burgess Owens. Watch the video here:

Amber Ruffin’s ghostly take on Trump’s departure 

In the second half of the 30-minute episode, Amber Ruffin jumped back behind her news desk to comment on former President Donald Trump’s continuing impeachment trial. She declared that she cheekily “didn’t want to talk about this” and dreamily says that wishes that Trump had never been born. As she says this, Wright appears in character as Ruffin’s “guardian angel” showing what Ruffin’s life would be if this were the case.

The duo sees “future” Amber Ruffin celebrating her 3000th episode in front of a “live” studio audience next to a very familiar face, sidekick Tarik Davis. The sketch made light of how Trump’s impact has been on late night and the general public’s approach to social discourse.

In the last sketch of the night, Ruffin encounters the joke book of a fictional former comedy writer, Morty Swanson. The ghost appears in front of Ruffin and warns her not to read from the book but in true Amber Ruffin fashion, her curiosity gets the best of her and she spends the majority of the segment critiquing the pitches as Swanson’s ghost. Truly a wonderfully humorous and nonsensical  sketch to end the show with:

Comedian Wanda Sykes comes on the show to sign off for Ruffin in this week’s episode, jokingly telling Ruffin a quote that Oprah told her, “If you ever make more money than me, I’ll kill you.” I’m sure that quote definitely made a lasting impression on the late-night host.

What did you think of last night’s episode? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. You can watch The Amber Ruffin Show for free when episodes premiere on NBC’s Peacock website and app at 9:00 P.M. EST.