Two Of The Jokes In Letterman’s Star-Studded Final Top 10 Were Written By A 21-Year-Old Intern

Ahhh, interning. The monotonous grind of underpaid grunt work done under the guise of “important work experience.” We’ve all been there… making copies, writing jokes for two of the world’s most beloved comedians to deliver in a broadcast legend’s final episode, fetching coff-… holllllllld on. Did that second thing say what I think it said?

Yup, it sure did. In a lengthy Tumblr post about all the behind-the-scenes goings-on at Letterman’s last show, Late Show veteran Bill Scheft revealed that two of the entries in the all-star final Top 10 List — the ones delivered by Tina Fey and Bill Murray — were written by Caroline Schaper, a 21-year-old intern on the show.

The other moment happened during the Top Ten rehearsal. 8 of the 10 celebrities were happy with the lines we had written for them. Tina Fey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus wanted to consider other takes. Julia settled on a line written by Mike Leech (”Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale….”) which the next day was proclaimed the “winner” of the Top Ten. Tina took something a little more subtle and much more pointed (”Thanks for finally proving men can be funny….”) That line, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and ladies, was written by Caroline, whose last name I don’t know. I don’t know because she was the writer’s intern and we never got that formal. But on the last day of the last show, she scored the final two entries on the final Top Ten. Oh yeah, she already had Bill Murray’s line (”Dave, I’ll never have the money I owe you….”) We were all genuinely thrilled for her. This 21-year-old has all the resume she needs going forward. I will be happy to help her in any way I can. But I’ll need her last name. (UPDATE 6:30: My pal Brian Koppleman found her on Twitter. Caroline Schaper @carolimeschaper)

“How was your college internship?”

“Pretty cool. I didn’t have to do much besides take lunch orders. Got to go to the corporate headquarters in Minneapolis for a few days. How about you?”

“I wrote jokes that Tina Fey and Bill Murray said out loud on national television in front of millions of people, and now lots of people know the words were mine.”

“Yeah, well, uh, my… the hotel had a pool.”

×