# Best and Worst of late night talk... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988 "2003-07-21T19:54:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![moejuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@moejuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejuck)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/1 "2003-07-21T19:54:23Z")
Vote for your favorite late night talk show host, and also give the host you despise the most. In this thread we will keep it to current hosts, so no Johnny Carson votes allowed. (we know he would win). Give as much or as little reasoning as you desire. Best–Conan. He is original, very funny, and not afraid to laugh at himself. I think his interviews are always very fast paced and interesting. Worst–Carson Daly. This guy is a putz. He has the personality of a piece of celery, and no sense of humor at all. ---
**Author:** ![Madawc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@Madawc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madawc)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/2 "2003-07-21T20:10:34Z")
best = letterman and o’brien worst = leno you can find out my opinions doing a search on late night hosts in previous threads ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/3 "2003-07-21T20:12:02Z")
Best- John Stewart, hands down. Worst- Conan. Sorry, that guy just gets on my nerves so much. He just seems so very awkward and unoriginal. Just MHO though. ---
**Author:** ![lilbtagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4491bb/32.png) [@lilbtagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilbtagna)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/4 "2003-07-22T01:58:36Z")
Best = Conan O’Brien Jon Stewart. Both consistently have me tearing up with laughter. Worst = Craig Kilborn or Carson Daly. Daly doesn’t have any personality, wit, or charm, while Kilborn is an arrogant jerk. Did anyone see his character in _Old School_? That’s exactly how I’ve always imagined him to be. David Letterman used to be really funny, but he’s a lot tamer now. Jay Leno’s annoying, but I can stomach his show. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/5 "2003-07-22T02:15:04Z")
Best- Conan (the self-deprecating bit gets a little old, but he guarantees a laugh no matter who the guest is) and Jimmy Kimmel. Words- hands down, Craig Kilborn. He’s painfully unfunny and gives the impression of being an all around sleazeball. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/6 "2003-07-22T02:18:26Z")
(of course, that should be “worst”) ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/65b543/32.png) [@Quiddity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/7 "2003-07-22T02:53:30Z")
Why does everyone hate Jay Leno? I think he’s pretty funny, and he (seems) to be an all-around nice guy. Still, the humor of Conan is unmatched anywhere. David Letterman gets old pretty fast. And Carson needs to go back to MTV where he came from. Who the hell let him out? ---
**Author:** ![lilbtagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4491bb/32.png) [@lilbtagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilbtagna)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/8 "2003-07-22T06:06:08Z")
I agree **Quiddity** , Jay Leno does seem like a nice guy. I just find him a bit annoying for some reason. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but his overall niceness is why I can handle his show. ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/9 "2003-07-22T06:50:44Z")
BEST= Either Jon Stewart or O’Brien. Both are very funny, and aren’t afraid to diverge from what’s written for them (or so it would appear). They always have hilarious segments and aren’t afraid to talk about themselves, or say things to guests (particularly Jon Stewart) that said guests might not appeciate. Yet they do it anyway. That makes me like them. Though, yeah, Conan’s self-depricating routine can get old. MIDDLE= Leno and Letterman. Leno’s got good stuff every know and again, decent monologue, and good segments. I like Letterman better, and what with them having the same time-slot, I usually don’t watch Leno. Letterman’s humor is just a little bit darker and he seems more of a real person than pre-fabricated for TV, as Leno can come across. And I sort of agree with what **lilbtagna** said: there are times when Leno comes off as just a little _too_ nice for me, but on the whole, I think he’s a pretty good host. WORST= Craig Kilbourne. I HATE this man. His jokes are nothing more than a bunch of obvious cliches that weren’t even funny the first time someone used them in the late 1700s. He does virtually nothing original, and he comes off (to me, at least) as a self-satisfied ass. N/A: I’ve never seen Carson Daly. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/10 "2003-07-22T06:57:03Z")
Jon Stewart is the best. The worst has to be Carson Daly. ---
**Author:** ![Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/11 "2003-07-22T13:00:15Z")
Letterman is the standard to judge all late night by. Still funny after all these years. Jon Stewart’s opening “newscast” is the most consistantly funny bit on late night TV. Conan’s best bits have a nice surreal quality. I always get a laugh when that big TV comes on showing the photographed head of some newsmaker with actual lips superimposed over it. You may have mixed feelings about Howard Stern’s show on E!, but his celebrity interviews are great. He gets people to say things they would never mention on Leno. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-of-late-night-talk/189988/12 "2003-07-22T14:03:13Z")
Best: Jon Stewart. Love the opening news bit and I wish the interview segments were longer since I enjoy them so much. They remind me of his late great syndicated talk show from the mid 90s. You never quite knew where they would go, but the ride was always fun. Other than Lewis Black, Jon is the only part of _The Daily Show_ I consistently enjoy. The “correspondents” get old to me because their characters are so intensionally stiff and off-kilter. Worst: Kilborn and Kimmel. The smug guy “act” wears thin, and that post-modern joke style Kilborn uses is just a bad combination of hipster attitude and laziness. Announcer: And now it’s time for “Craig says a pointless non sequitar in an inappropriate voice that he learned in an acting class.” Brought to you by Carlsberg Beer. Craig (trying to evoke “pathos”): Y’know, Mrs. Patterson, for a woman of 72, you look quite fetching in that apron this morning. Announcer: This has been “Craig says a pointless non sequitar in an inappropriate voice he learned in an acting class.” Brought to you by Carlsberg Beer. I’ve always called Kimmel a “second banana”, he proves it with this show. He can’t sustain any energy on his own. Everything about it grates on my nerves. The banter with the rotating announcers and the band leader. His pointless, stupid, and unfunny bits with his relatives. The uncle is just unhip and stiff, which I guess is supposed to be what makes the bits with him funny. The cousin is anti-talented, he’s so foolish, crude, and annoying he makes me hate anyone near him for not slapping him.