During James Corden’s recently concluded eight-year run hosting The Late Late Show, “Carpool Karaoke” was perhaps the biggest segment in all of late-night television. The series has a well-known origin story involving George Michael, but it turns out that Larry David and Curb Your Enthusiasm also played a role in helping the segment become what it did.
A new video shared on the Late Late Show YouTube channel today (May 4) goes over the history of “Carpool Karaoke.” In it, Late Late Show executive producer Ben Winston explained how for a Comic Relief skit, Corden (in character as Smithy from his successful UK sitcom Gavin & Stacey) picked singer George Michael up from jail (he had just gotten out of jail in real life at the time). Corden then put on a Wham! song and the two sang it together, and the segment was a hit.
Winston continued, “We started to think, ‘Well hold on a sec… maybe… because we can’t get people to come to us… maybe we go to them, and maybe they drive around and they listen to their music and they sing along.’ And it just so happened that I had watched Curb Your Enthusiasm the night before, where Larry picked up a hooker on his way to baseball, so he can go in the carpool lane to get there quicker.”
It’s ironic that David helped inspire “Carpool Karaoke” since it feels like something the actor/comedian might not be the biggest fan of. Even when David guested on Jerry Seinfeld’s somewhat similar show Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee for the 2012 debut episode, he said after Seinfeld asked if he was excited, “I wouldn’t say I’m excited, but I’m looking forward to it.”
When David was on The Late Late Show in 2021, he also spoke about how thrown off he was by Corden’s set design. Revisit that below.