Hanging with Doctor Z is a YouTube channel with a companion website started by comedian Dana Gould in 2021. A superfan of the Planet of the Apes franchise since childhood, Gould dresses up as Dr. Zaius, the human-hating orangutan-descended character from the original film and first sequel, with makeup and facial prosthetics that are startlingly authentic to the film character, and performs with the premise of being a late night talk show host.
Creating a composite of classic TV talk shows The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Dick Cavett Show, among others, Gould interviews celebrity guests and banters with the show's band leader "Rusty Steel" of "Rusty Steel and the Steel Wheels" which consists solely of writer and comedian Paul Greenberg. Doctor Z is a pastiche of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and assorted old-school show business legends like Sammy Davis, Jr. and a few others that are too subtle for me to pick up on.
The whole schtick is a fabulous parody of the pervasively good-humored, smarmy, and insincerely self-effacing aspects of celebrity that seemed to permeate Hollywood's elite during the 1960s and 1970s. If you've ever seen old footage of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast or Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and think that funny, you'll get the joke. If not, it's still amusing to watch someone answer the question, "Hey, what if the simian characters in Planet of the Apes were real?!"
At the time of this writing, the show is beginning its fourth season on YouTube. Gould updates the stage decor with each season to try and keep the premise fresh, but the basic gag is the same, so it's kinda hard to see this making it to a fifth season.