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James Corden recently celebrated his one year anniversary hosting The Late Late Show and it is clear that his success has a lot to do with the phenomenon of his Carpool Karaoke sketches.
Part of the sketch’s success is it’s brutal simplicity – literally a camera shows James and a celebrity guest driving through the streets of America, singing hit songs and doing virtually anything Corden asks.
Carpool Karaoke has taken the world by storm. As the writer and star of the hit romantic comedy Gavin and Stacey, the British public fell in love with Corden long ago.
We’ve watched his many hilarious sketches for Sports Relief over the years as his Gavin and Stacey character Smithy, where he meets the England football team, and even shares a bath with David Beckham.
So it has come as no surprise to us that Corden has done it once again, and has won over not only the hearts of the American viewing audience, but also of the world as he racks up millions and millions of views worldwide with his mini driving escapades.
Back in 2014, the documentary When Corden Met Barlow aired on the BBC. Here, we saw James sowing the seeds of what would become Carpool Karaoke with him and Gary on a road trip, singing their hearts out to Take That classics.
Corden is a natural born comedian with an extremely likeable personality and he makes his guests comfortable enough to for example, try on wedding dresses with him in the case of Iggy Azalea, and even hand over their phones to him.
On his most recent Carpool Karaoke with Jennifer Lopez, Corden scrolled through the celebrity numbers in her phone before landing on Leonardo DiCaprio. He texted The Revenant star: “I’m kind of feeling like I need to cut loose” signed, “J.Lo. You know, from the block.”
Corden’s wildest dreams came true when DiCaprio actually text back: “You mean tonight, boo boo, club-wise?”. You couldn’t make up this sort of spontaneous real life entertainment even if you tried.
Corden idolises the stars on his show, and this is seen through the pure joy on his face from the moment Carpool Karaoke begins to the moment it ends, as he looks over to his right and legends such as Elton John are sat wearing a feather boa, singing and acting a fool just for him.
What makes the sketch feel so real and engage the audience is the fact Corden is actually a genuine fan of the artists he is sharing the car with, and despite getting the words to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida wrong whilst sat next to Chris Martin (awkward!), he (usually) knows all the words to their songs whilst hitting all the right notes.
We don’t know who the next star of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke is, but what we do know is that they’re going to have a tough act to follow after the array of A List celebrities he’s already dueted with.
His Carpool Karaoke with Adele has broken records to become the most viewed online clip in the history of late-night television, with over 94 million views in 2 months.
The video kicks off with Corden talking on the phone, “Hello? It’s me. I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to meet”, followed by Adele perfectly rapping a verse of Nicki Minaj’s Monster.
Adele’s sketch is then followed by one of Corden’s 3 Carpool Karaoke sketches with Justin Bieber, with one of them being the second most watched clip in the history of late night television.
In fact, it’s so good that according to Hollywood Reporter, Corden and executive producer Ben Winston are in talks of making Carpool Karaoke into a stand alone show.
But this may be faced by competition from Spike who are proposing to premiere Caraoke Showdown, their own take on celebrities singing in cars, hosted by Craig Robinson.
One reason for Carpool Karaoke’s success is down to the way it makes the viewers feel, and Buzzfeed’s Jack Shepherd told the Guardian that one key element to a video going viral is that: “people are more likely to share something if they have a strong, positive emotional response to it”.
Corden is brought to tears in his sketch with Stevie Wonder, who sings his hit song to Corden’s wife, changing the lyrics to I Just Called To Say James Loves You, as well as being brought to tears of laughter with Jennifer Hudson as she sings her food order through a Drive Thru.
Comments on these videos have shown how viewers have felt the same emotions as Corden, and have not been able to help themselves from singing along and sharing the videos on their social media sites.
Despite any competition, it is ultimately Corden’s cheeky charm and welcoming presence, which is enough to make even the biggest of his A list guests feel comfortable, and Carpool Karaoke would simply not be the same without the man himself.