Top 30 Celebs Who Clapped Back at Talk Show Hosts

Nathan Lane is no stranger to playing games with Jimmy Fallon. For this edition of “Password”, the Broadway legend dishes out a life lesson in response to Fallon’s usual competitiveness. The game hasn’t even started yet, but he clearly knows what to expect. So, with nothing but love, Lane reminds his partner that it’s all just a friendly competition. The actor doesn’t mince words in a funny rant that levels Fallon. It’s definitely overdramatic, but also so well thought out that it functions like a powerful monologue. Fallon’s reaction says it all. One thing is for sure, these two have a chemistry that elevates the moment.

Despite their political differences, these two seem to have an unexpected rapport. Here, Jon Stewart keeps getting pelted with questions about Common being invited to the White House. After Bill O’Reilly presses him on the issue, Stewart dishes out an effective comeback, breaking down the host’s argument. He articulates his defense by pointing out O’Reilly’s hypocritical position. Not only that, he manages to inject his trademark wit and astute commentary into his remarks. He even includes a surprise phrase that you wouldn’t expect. The interviewer doesn’t quite give up, but it’s clear that Stewart wins the war of words.

After the turmoil surrounding his “The Tonight Show” exit, Conan O’Brien emerged on the other side reenergized. He spends part of this 2012 interview discussing the debacle with David Letterman. The host shares his delight in the entire mishap, inspiring O’Brien to clap back with a sarcastic answer. The response shows how quick he can be, while also revealing his ability to make fun of himself. It’s all in jest, but still. Clearly, O’Brien can joke through the pain, endearing himself even more to the audience. It’s moments like these that remind us of his enduring charm as a performer.

Unafraid to talk about big ideas, Ricky Gervais enjoys a spirited debate about religion with Stephen Colbert. It’s often a taboo subject, but the pair manage to have a civil discussion about it. Indeed, Gervais boils down his views about science and reasoning into one powerful response. Even Colbert acknowledges the clapback, giving him credit for the logical breakdown. The British comedian also engages with the idea without talking down to anybody. Finding the humor in a serious topic, he arguably wins the debate. It might not change someone’s personal beliefs, but he certainly makes an intriguing and compelling point.

Outspoken and outrageous, Howard Stern never censors himself. This interview with David Letterman covers his blunt feelings about Jay Leno. Letterman confirms that he’s spoken with Leno on the phone, which annoys Stern. His response, where he makes said annoyance abundantly clear, is nothing short of passionate. Then, when the host asks him if he’s ever tried to do the same with a former enemy, he objects in an entertaining way. Through it all, he doesn’t let Jay Leno off the hook, and the result is both funny and surprising. He’s been on Letterman’s side in the whole “The Tonight Show” hosting feud debacle, and he’ll continue to fight the proverbial war! His raw emotions and unfiltered opinions are on full display here.

As an international pop star, Shakira endures all kinds of interviews and press coverage. This particular segment on “Skavlan” captures how adept she is at answering hard questions. When the host asks people’s preconceived notions of her, she gives a brilliant response. Indeed, the singer describes the complexities of being a woman under scrutiny with a clever analogy. You can tell from her response that she has a good sense of humor and a detailed thought process, taking the subject seriously. Impressing the other guests, Shakira clearly wins the day by delivering a nuanced response.

Any time he appears on a talk show, Martin Short proves he’s an incredible roaster. Just look at how he works wonders at Conan O’Brien or Andy Richter’s expense. This is especially true after a tense exchange about the host’s potential in animated films. Needless to say, Short doesn’t hesitate to bring O’Brien down a few notches. His performance feels effortless. Somehow, he can throw out a seemingly hurtful line, but still manage to win the crowd over. Clearly amusing O’Brien, Short reminds everyone that he can take over a room with his unique energy.

Among the more underrated performers of his era, Charles Grodin didn’t want to have a typical interview with Johnny Carson. This appearance on “The Tonight Show” is much more abrasive, as he starts a hostile exchange with Carson. The latter tries to explain one analogy he makes, to no avail. Naturally, Grodin steps in with a hilarious quip that takes aim at the host’s years of experience while mocking his content. You can’t deny it takes courage to confront an iconic TV personality for comedy’s sake like this. Turning the classic interview format on its head, he knows exactly how to be off-putting and entertaining all at once.

Courtney Thorne-Smith joined “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” to talk about her career, mentioning her upcoming role in a movie with Carrot Top. This sends fellow guest Norm Macdonald into a frenzy as he cracks jokes and makes trouble throughout. After the title of the film gets mentioned, O’Brien sets him up for a classic clapback. Of course, the quick-thinking comic barely misses a beat, making fun of the “Chairman of the Board” title with clever wordplay. It’s a hilarious moment that gets a huge wave of laughter, securing Macdonald’s place in the hall of the greatest talk-show guests.

While some looked to “Crossfire” for political discourse, others like Jon Stewart saw it as something much more negative. His appearance on the show prompted a few choice moments and arguably contributed to its initial downfall. As co-host Tucker Carlson tries to needle Stewart over the latter’s interview skills and political biases, “The Daily Show” personality snaps back. His brilliant takedown of Carlson and the entire operation is a sight to behold. No matter what gets thrown at him, he responds. Stewart easily dismantles his interviewer with multiple clapbacks for the ages throughout, showing that he can deliver incisive commentary and jokes in any venue.

When transgender model Carmen Carrera went on Katie Couric's short-lived TV show, she was subjected to an invasive line of questioning. Couric, who stated that the questions came from a place of "mystery", asked Carrera everything from if transitioning was physically painful to if her “parts are different now”. While visibly uncomfortable with the questions, Carmen gracefully shot down Couric's inquiry by stating that she wants to focus on what is going on with her career and her life post-transition. As well, when actress Laverne Cox joined them on stage, she very eloquently explained to Katie that when the discussion revolves around transition and surgery, it takes the focus away from the more pressing issues that face the transgender community.

Michelle Obama is no stranger to Ellen's playful antics after having appeared on her show numerous times, and each time Michelle seems to hold her own. This is most evident in a segment from “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” which followed the pair as they went on a shopping trip to CVS. Between Ellen constantly opening store items that weren’t paid for, not helping at the self-checkout, and announcing to store-goers that Michelle needed cream for a rash, it was only a matter of time before the First Lady jokingly clapped back - not only calling DeGeneres out for being annoying and acting like a child, but also shutting down Ellen’s request to be featured on American money.

Joan Rivers was known for holding nothing back when it came to her comedy, and this interview with ‘CNN Newsroom’ anchor Fredricka Whitfield was no different. When Whitfield started off the interview by commenting on Joan's mean style of humor, the veteran comedian grew increasingly aggravated - and it didn't take long for Rivers to start clapping back at the anchor with her signature wit. Discussing everything from the hypocrisy of Whitfield calling her out for wearing fur to telling her that she is "not the one to interview a person who does humor", Rivers undoubtedly got the last word before storming out of the interview.

When Chris Christie appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in 2015, he and Fallon shared stories from their summer vacations in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. While the interview started out on the right foot, things quickly turned sour when Fallon seemingly made a jab at Christie's weight after the then-New Jersey Governor mentioned going out for ice cream. After Fallon made the comment - which mentioned how excited Christie must have been for frozen dessert - Christie took a bow before walking off the stage. While he did end up coming back to finish the interview, he quipped that ["If I ever leave public life, you're going to have to hire two writers just to replace the garbage you say about me”.]

Wendy Williams and Lil’ Kim are no strangers to feuding with fellow celebs. Things were no different when they got into a feud with each other following comments made by Williams on her show. Williams’ remarks were made in response to Lil' Kim's accusations that news outlets had photoshopped images of her. Not only did Williams disagree that the images were photoshopped, but she also went on to poke fun at the rapper for her plastic surgery, going as far as to say that she should "blame her plastic surgeon". Obviously, this was not received well by the rapper, who took to Twitter to clapback at Williams by referencing her alleged hookup with The Notorious B.I.G.

There are some questions you probably shouldn’t ask during interviews. While promoting her movie “Our Souls at Night” on ‘Megyn Kelly Today’, legendary actress Jane Fonda took issue with the line of questioning from the host. Megyn began asking Fonda if she was proud to have had ‘work’ done. While Jane has previously been open about her relationship with plastic surgery, it is clear that she believes there is a time and place for those kinds of questions - and a promotional interview are not one of them. Visibly stunned, Jane asks Megyn if they “really want[ed] to talk about that right now?”, before graciously shutting Kelly’s question down and quickly changing the discussion back to the movie.

While being on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ is a lifelong dream for some people, it might not live up to its expectations - just ask youtuber NikkieTutorials. After Nikkie de Jager was blackmailed into publicly coming out as transgender, she was invited on Ellen’s show to speak, not only about the situation, but also to discuss her experience as a transgender woman. While she was praised on-screen by Ellen for her strength and courage, Nikkie revealed a few months later that it was a different story behind the scenes. She called out Ellen for her coldness and accused the show of treating her differently compared to the other, more A-list, guests.

It’s no question that Cher is able to hold her own when appearing on talk shows. This was no different during her long-awaited, and now infamous interview with David Letterman. While the whole segment is a goldmine of hilarious banter between the two, one of the best moments happens when David awkwardly spends the first few minutes of their talk asking Cher about her perfume - to which she eventually replies “is this as good as it gets?”. Cher doesn’t hold back for the rest of the interview, as she goes on to tell Dave that she only came on the show because she wanted him to pay for her hotel bill, as well as, of course - calling him a certain word.

After Ellen found herself in controversy after she appeared to be chummy with former President George W. Bush at a football game, she defended herself on her show by saying, ["I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have."]. However, Ellen’s response furthered the backlash online - including from some of her fellow celebrities. Notably, Mark Ruffalo made a post on Twitter, stating that kindness could only be discussed once “George W. Bush is brought to justice for the crimes of the Iraq War,” while actress Susan Sarandon shared a quote from an ‘OUTMagazine’ article that criticized Ellen for her response.

Bill Maher isn’t known for being the most politically correct of talk show hosts, which can sometimes get him into trouble. Maher found himself in controversy after he suggested that “fat shaming doesn’t need to end, it needs to make a comeback”. One of his biggest critics was fellow talk show host James Corden, who clapped back at Maher on his show stating that, “fat shaming never went anywhere,” while also pointing out the detrimental effects it can have on people's mental health. While James spent most of the segment rebutting Bill’s argument and poking fun at the controversial host, he also made sure to teasingly joke about his own weight struggle while suggesting that Maher take on a more productive approach to the problem.

Not only is Aziz Ansari ridiculously funny, but he also uses his platform to advocate for better representation of minorities in the media. So, when “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert brought this up in an interview with the comedian and jokingly added that with the two of them on his show “50% of the people on the TV are not white,"Ansari did not hesitate to shoot back that indeed, such diversity was an "all-time high for CBS”. Their discussion of representation didn’t end there though, as they went on to joke about how a fact-checking mistake that led to Stephen calling Aziz’s book by the wrong name would likely lead to someone getting fired — and that someone being white — since, Aziz quipped, "there are a lot of white guys back there".

When releasing the video for their song 'Strip', Little Mix featured themselves, and other women of all body shapes and sizes, in little to no clothing, in an effort to promote body positivity. This didn’t go over well with “Good Morning Britain” host Piers Morgan who claimed that if men did this they’d be arrested, and that the nudity was just a ploy to sell records. When the comments were brought up to the girls in an interview, band member Jesy called him "a silly twat" - to which Morgan responded with demands that the group apologize to him directly. While the group never ended up going on “GMB” they included the clip of Morgan's demands in the intro to a song during the LM5 tour.

Wendy Williams is known for spilling all the tea - even if it gets her into controversy. This was no different when the host commented on Nicki Minaj's marriage to Kenneth Petty while including details of his criminal past. After seeing Willams' comments, Minaj called Wendy out in a separate radio interview for her hypocrisy, claiming that Williams has rappers on her show that talk about shooting and killing and that Petty had paid his debt to society. She also brought up Wendy's now ex-husband, Kevin Hunter, who had an affair that resulted in his mistress having a baby, saying that the money Williams makes from being "vicious" paid for his mistress's shopping sprees, hotels, and medical bills.

Following the death of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, host Piers Morgan( him again!) tweeted out that the boxer had said “far more inflammatory/racist things about white people than Donald Trump ever has about Muslims." and that he “hope[s] people don't make me sound too perfect when I die.” Chrissy and her husband John Legend were less than pleased with the talk show host - with John taking to Twitter to tell Morgan that "you could test us by announcing your retirement” while Chrissy informed her husband that "trolling isn't a job". Legend and Teigen aren’t the only celebrities who have taken shots at the host, as Sophie Turner has also schooled him on Twitter about the importance of mental health awareness.

While Ellen mispronouncing Hasan Minhaj’s name during his appearance on her show in 2019 may not have been ‘Adele Dazeem’ level bad, it was enough to have the Patriot Act host call her out on it. Not only is Minhaj clapping back at Ellen, but also at anyone who has ever mispronounced his name, as he goes on to call out the hypocrisy of those that mispronounce his name while being able to pronounce the names of other celebrities with odd names, quipping that “there’s an actor just named Ansel Elgort and we all just walk around pronouncing it, completely normally”. Minhaj also joked that when ordering Starbucks he goes by the pseudonym “Timothee Chalamet’ to keep things simple. Zing!

When Anne Hathaway appeared on the “Today” Show to promote “Les Misérables,” the interview took an odd turn as later-disgraced host Matt Lauer got weirdly invasive. Lauer started the interview off in an extremely inappropriate fashion by saying that he'd seen "a lot of [her] lately" - referring to an incident where paparazzi took a photograph at an angle where you could see under Hathaway’s dress. Lauer then went on to ask what she had "learned" from the incident, placing the blame, not on the photographers who had invaded Hathaway's privacy but instead on the actress herself. While Lauer continued to push the invasive line of questioning, Hathaway shut him down with incredible decency and grace: “It kind of made me sad on two accounts. One was that I was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of another person in a vulnerable moment and rather than delete it, and do the decent thing, sells it. And I’m sorry that we live in a culture that commodifies sexuality of unwilling participants, which takes us back to Les Mis, because that’s what the character is.”

When Jerry Seinfeld joined Larry King on his CNN show “Larry King Live,” things quickly turned very awkward as the conversation turned to the “Seinfeld” finale. King, who asked the show’s namesake if the show was cancelled or if Jerry had "cancelled them", quickly retracted the inquiry as Seinfeld began questioning if King even knew who he was and asked to see the longtime host's resume. While it is uncertain if the comedian was actually hurt by Larry’s lack of knowledge or was only joking, we can be sure that no one will ever ask Jerry if Seinfeld was cancelled again.

While E!'s “Fashion Police” provides a platform for fashion commentators to discuss the stylistic choices celebrities make on the red carpet, the commentary went too far when host Guiliana Rancic said some less than appropriate things about actress Zendaya. At the 2015 Academy Awards, Zendaya showed up with her hair styled in dreadlocks - a choice that didn’t go over well with Rancic, who said the style made her feel like Zendaya "smells like patchouli oil. Or weed.” Not only did Rancic's comments spark outrage with viewers, and online, but Zendaya took to Instagram to clap back at the host stating that "certain remarks cannot go unchecked" while calling the comments "outrageously offensive" and a "large stereotype".

It probably wasn't the best idea to bring Jimmy Kimmel, a long-time friend of fellow talk show host Conan O'Brien, on “The Jay Leno Show” in the midst of a major feud between Leno and O'Brien - but it sure was entertaining! During one of the show’s segments, “10 at 10”, Jimmy Kimmel joined as a guest via webcam to answer what appeared to be easy questions; however, Jimmy took every opportunity he could to throw shade at Leno - commenting on everything from his appearance to his cancelled show to of course - the Conan feud.

When Dakota Johnson appeared on “Ellen,” things turned awkward very fast as the long-time host questioned Johnson for not inviting her to her 30th birthday party. Despite Ellen’s protestations, the actress insisted that she had indeed invited her, and had never actually gotten a reason as to why Ellen didn’t attend. It wasn’t until after Ellen’s producers stepped in and informed the host that she had been invited that Ellen gave in, choosing to change the subject to Dakota’s favorite comedian: spoiler alert, it’s not Ellen. This isn’t the first time Dakota Johnson has clapped back at a talk show host; she also hilariously called Jimmy Fallon out for talking over her during an appearance on “The Tonight Show”.