Desus and Mero: how two kids from the Bronx revolutionised late night – then imploded

Desus Nice, left, and The Kid Mero, the Bodega Boys from the Bronx behind the Desus and Mero late-night talk show on Showtime have split as a comedy team. Photograph: Kristin Callahan/REX/Shutterstock

In a late-night landscape filled middle-aged white guys sitting behind studio desks, Desus and Mero (real names Daniel Baker and Joel Martinez) were a breath of fresh hookah, two shit-talking, first-generation Caribbean Americans from the Bronx who could free associate on any topic: from Donald Trump shooting paper towel rolls at Puerto Rican hurricane victims like free throws (“Swoosh!”) to ESPN’s Stephen A Smith spiralling about the Knicks.

So it was painful for fans when, late on Monday, Showtime announced that their late-night talk show would not be returning for a fifth season, due to creative differences between the co-hosts. There will also be no new episode of their podcast Bodega boys.