What makes Craig Ferguson’s late night talk show worth it?

Maybe it’s the way he interacts with the audience every night. Or maybe it’s the way he uses sock puppets and a gay skeleton robot to get a laugh. Or maybe it’s his pet “horse” Secretariat, consisting of two people in a horse costume inspiring the whole audience to get up and dance like maniacs. Although these crazy antics may seem to belong to a bizarre and twisted children’s show, they are a regular occurrence on the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson which inspires a cult-like following of devoted viewers.

If you ask most people who Craig Ferguson is, they will undoubtedly either say, “Who?” or admit that they know someone who watches him religiously each night. Ferguson is overshadowed by some of late-night TV’s bigger faces such as Jay Leno and David Letterman.

Therefore, with a smaller fan-base to work with and the bleary-eyed airing time of 12:37 a.m. EST, pretty much anything goes with Ferguson’s show. Unlike his competitors, Ferguson’s comedic style is not so much focused on one-liners that make fun of celebrities, or the day’s news, but rather encompasses an extremely long monologue that jumps from topic to topic.

It may seem unusual of a late night talk show host, but Ferguson’s sense of humor is an acquired taste. For those of you used to puns and parodies that you can immediately understand, you may find yourself scratching your head after watching this show.

Ferguson’s approach to making an audience laugh is to say and do the zaniest, weirdest things that make you think: “WTF.” Ferguson relies on a lot of recurring jokes like his horse Secretariat, that make his show better the second, third or even tenth time watching it.

He also has multiple personalities that he takes on haphazardly throughout the show, including a double-entendre-obsessed side in which he spouts off dirty joke, after dirty joke. He also often acts flamboyantly and flirts coquettishly with male guests or audience members.

The show consists mostly of his monologue, which consumes about half of the 55 allotted minutes, during which he talks directly into the camera, and punches it or kisses it, making the viewer feel, ahem, an interactive element.

After this segment, Ferguson reads tweets and emails, throwing rejected letters onto the floor in the process. He then talks to his show’s guests, promoting an atmosphere of amusing conversation, as opposed to just merely promoting the actor’s new movie, or whatever it may be.

For me, what sets Ferguson apart from other comedians is that he moves at a very fast pace and is talented at improvisation. He does not tell a scripted one-liner once a minute, but rather quickly moves through multiple insanely funny moments, while also proving that he is not afraid to make fun of himself.