Late Night writer and contributor Amber Ruffin remade art by “sketchy dudes” on Tuesday’s (Aug. 14) episode.
“Are you tired of trying to separate the art from the artist?” began Ruffin in a prerecorded clip. As a solution to this problem, Ruffin, who proclaimed she hasn’t “sexually assaulted a single person,” created her own versions of work from disgraced artists like Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey and Woody Allen.
Ruffin acknowledged that she is not the most talented actor or singer, but she argued, “No woman’s ever gonna wake up in my bed talking about ‘How did I get here?'”
She then shared her versions of art made by problematic men: The first clip is a rendition of Chris Brown’s “Run It,” now called “Fun It.”
“It’s not just music these nasty fuckers have infiltrated. It’s also television,” she said. Ruffin then took over Spacey’s role as Frank Underwood on House of Cards. Dressed in a suit and donning a short haircut, Ruffin inserted herself into a scene where Frank is bribing Congressman Alex Romero (James Martinez). After ending the scene, Ruffin turned to the camera and stated, “I can’t believe you all watched this show in the first place.”
“Are you a fan of Woody Allen?” Ruffin asked as she introduced the next clip. “Stop it.” Ruffin then appeared as Allen’s Annie Hall character Alvy Singer, dressed in a white button-up shirt and black-rimmed glasses. Ruffin, as Allen, stumbles over her words while talking to a visibly annoyed Hall.
She next took on Bill Cosby. Dressed in a trademark Cosby sweater, Ruffin replicated the opening of each episode by dancing around to The Cosby Show theme song.
“And that’s all the perverts there ever were,” she said. “Just kidding. There’s also a billion stand-ups.”
Dressed in a black T-shirt, Ruffin steps on stage in front of a brick wall backdrop and grabs a microphone as she says, “Hey, I’m any number of guys.” She began the set with, “Hey, have you guys ever noticed that sometimes your date is into it and sometimes she’s not and the difference is really important?”
“Stand-up is hard, but recognizing consent is easy,” she said concluding the stand-up set. “So act now and you’ll receive this fake Picasso.” Ruffin held up a framed drawing. “Picasso was a creep, so I drew this so you can have it for free. Hang it in your house and when people are like, ‘Oh, is that a Picasso?’ say, ‘No. It was made by someone who respects women.'”
“Live the problematic, free life you’ve longed for. With my free takes on the classics, there’s no need to separate the art from the artist,” she said. “You can throw them both in the garbage.”
Watch the full clip above.
