# David Letterman sans audience **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297 "2012-10-30T03:41:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/1 "2012-10-30T03:41:06Z")
Wow. This is one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/2 "2012-10-30T03:45:51Z")
This prompts a question: If you tell a joke and no one is around to laugh at it, is it still funny? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/3 "2012-10-30T03:51:22Z")
Some of them are – and some of them wouldn’t be even if the audience were there. Agree, this is seriously surreal. Perfect thing to be watching after nonstop storm coverage all day. ---
**Author:** ![sco3tt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/4 "2012-10-30T03:54:52Z")
Letterman used to do a lot of strange shows back in the early NBC days. I remember three in particular: the time they did the show flying cross-country on a passenger jet (with Paul doing the music on a cheap Casio keyboard), the time they broadcast a rerun with all the voices dubbed in over-dramatic Spanish, and the time the screen rotated 360 degrees over the course of the show. Too bad it takes an act of God to make Dave’s show interesting now. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/5 "2012-10-30T04:10:45Z")
The strangest late night talk show that I’ve ever seen was when Conan replaced everyone with skeleton puppets. I think it was Jimmy Fallon a couple of years ago who had a power outage and recorded the whole show using a laptop webcam. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/6 "2012-10-30T04:15:13Z")
Craig Ferguson did the entire show with puppets once. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/7 "2012-10-30T04:15:50Z")
Sounds like an average day on the Craig Ferguson show. ETA: OK GuanoLad, choose your second. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/8 "2012-10-30T04:21:55Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > This prompts a question: If you tell a joke and no one is around to laugh at it, is it still funny? 😕 I don’t know. Without an audience, I have no idea when/if I’m supposed to laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/9 "2012-10-30T04:36:11Z")
Didn’t Conan do a whole episode in stop-motion animation? ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/10 "2012-10-30T04:42:50Z")
When the Ed was being renovated, Dave did the show for several nights out in the lobby with a small audience. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/11 "2012-10-30T04:46:08Z")
I thought it was surreal. Watching from Houston Texas and once we got used to no laugh track or audience–it’s a readjustment. There were some good jokes. And I couldn’t believe was actually there with the empty audience. I kept waiting for the audience to be there. I did love the hand written posterboard TOP TEN LIST sign. That made it worth watching, by itself. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/12 "2012-10-30T04:56:07Z")
> [@sco3tt](#): > > Letterman used to do a lot of strange shows back in the early NBC days. I remember three in particular: the time they did the show flying cross-country on a passenger jet (with Paul doing the music on a cheap Casio keyboard), the time they broadcast a rerun with all the voices dubbed in over-dramatic Spanish, and the time the screen rotated 360 degrees over the course of the show. Too bad it takes an act of God to make Dave’s show interesting now. He also did his NBC show as a [fake morning show](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZzGHb2YCHc), since so many of his viewers were watching the show on VHS tape the next morning. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/13 "2012-10-30T12:19:10Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Craig Ferguson did the entire show with puppets once. And it was surprisingly good, too. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/14 "2012-10-30T14:33:01Z")
Dave also did one on NBC once where they adjusted the audio so that everyone sounded like they were huffing helium. Jane Pauley was a spoil-sport and wouldn’t say a word while she was on. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/15 "2012-10-30T14:36:10Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > I think it was Jimmy Fallon a couple of years ago who had a power outage and recorded the whole show using a laptop webcam. Last night, Jimmy Fallon recorded his intro while walking out on the street, and did his regular show sans audience as well. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/16 "2012-10-30T19:57:16Z")
Dave will be alone again tonight. Jim Cantore tweeted he’d be on. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/17 "2012-10-30T22:25:22Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Sounds like an average day on the Craig Ferguson show. > > ETA: OK GuanoLad, choose your second. Too bad Craig is on record (in a nerdist podcast)saying the puppets have gone the way of the sound machine. It makes me feel sorry for Josh Thompson, as Craig is likely to tire of Geoff Peterson eventually, too, and Josh thinks he’s the hottest thing ever right now. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/18 "2012-10-31T07:25:08Z")
Long time Letterman fan here: > [@sco3tt](#): > > Letterman used to do a lot of strange shows back in the early NBC days. I remember three in particular: the time they did the show flying cross-country on a passenger jet (with Paul doing the music on a cheap Casio keyboard), the time they broadcast a rerun with all the voices dubbed in over-dramatic Spanish, and the time the screen rotated 360 degrees over the course of the show. Too bad it takes an act of God to make Dave’s show interesting now. The airliner one was his NBC 4th anniversary show. He had his desk facing backwards at the very front of upper deck first class, and they painted a huge WWII ‘nose-art’ of Conny Chung on the outside of the airliner and named it “The Anniversary Special”. I don’t remember an entire show dubbed in Spanish, they did a running bit at the end of several shows with Dave speaking Spanish in this fake cheesy Telenova soap opera “Dr. Suarez!” (really funny!) They once played a rerun at like 8% sped up speed so they could include a few bonus minutes of new footage at the end (which consisted of Dave & Paul without an audience looking at Paul’s vacation photos). > [@Shoeless](#): > > Dave also did one on NBC once where they adjusted the audio so that everyone sounded like they were huffing helium. Jane Pauley was a spoil-sport and wouldn’t say a word while she was on. They didn’t do the whole show with helium voices, that was the ‘Viewers Choice’ show where before each segment the audience got to choose different things. One was to replace Dave & the guests chairs with dental exam chairs, another was to make him & the guest (Jane Pauley) sound like they were breathing helium. Pauley refused to speak until the very end when she said, “Its been fun” and she sounded \*really \*silly (like a chipmunk _on helium!_) Other theme shows were **Parent’s Night** (all the crew’s parents were there including Dave’s mom), the **Japan Show** (they filled the studio audience with Asians and pretended they were in Japan), the **Show From Dave’s Office** (he got Teri Garr to take a shower in his office’s bathroom!). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/19 "2012-10-31T07:38:28Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It makes me feel sorry for Josh Thompson, as Craig is likely to tire of Geoff Peterson eventually, too, and Josh thinks he’s the hottest thing ever right now. I think Geoff is less of a gimmick ever since Josh started voicing him live. He’s a genuine sidekick/co-host now, and is key to making a lot of the humour work, and sometimes he’s very very funny in his own right; I think he’s a permanent fixture. Secretariat will go one day, maybe soon, but not the robot skeleton. ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297/20 "2012-10-31T14:44:25Z")
I miss the puppets on Ferguson. Especially the opening sequences. “What a do ev’rybody…what a do.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-letterman-sans-audience/639297.md?page=2)