When I’ve watched, I prefer Jay Leno to David Letterman. David letterman seems nasty, sarcastic and appears to be threatened by “strong” women (Cher, Madonna, Drew Barrymore) and “outre” guys (Crispin Glover).
I like Leno. He’s simple, friendly, and all-American. It may be an act, of course, but I’m satisfied.
Leno = lame
Letterman = lunacy (the inspired kind)
AKA: celebrities who take themselves too seriously. I, for one, am glad Dave doesn’t buy into their crap. On the other hand, he is genuinely sweet to many other of his guests - the unpretentious ones.
Er, Madonna came on his show and swore at him for about twenty minutes straight and bumped all the other guests, Drew Barrymore gave him a table dance including a quick flash, and Crispin Glover went absolutely batshit on Letterman a while back*.
That’s pretty much what bugs me about him. 
*-the video is as good as any trainwreck Pit thread here, if you can find it.
Letterman has been coasting on his early accomplishments for years now.
Ten, fifteen years ago he was the funniest thing on TV. In the last five years, at least, his show has been almost depressingly bad. I think people were so blown away by him, and the meme that he’s Really Funny is so implanted now, that they don’t notice that the man can barely tell a joke anymore. He literally can’t deliver a punchline properly; at least 80-85% of his jokes are either not funny or he screws them up.
He is now exactly what Johnny Carson was his last few years. Carson was hilarious, in 1972. In his last few years he was mailing it in so bad he should have been wearing a suit made of postage stamps. His show was old and boring and sad and not the slightest bit funny.
Leno isn’t great, but at least he’s trying.
I watch Letterman. I can’t stand to watch or listen to Leno, because of his lisp. It grates on my nerves in a bad way.
I like Letterman far more. Yeah, some of his jokes aren’t great and some of the bits are kinda weird–and some of them get real old real fast–but there’s still enough funny material for me to watch. And unlike a lot of people, I love Will It Float?
As if Leno had any say into it whatsoever…
RickJay, That’s remarkably close to what I feel about Letterman, although I hate his pounding into the ground every line that comes into his head even more. And all those tributes to Carson when he died ignored that simple fact that he phoned it in and only three times a week 40 weeks a year. I stopped watching him a decade earlier.
Leno has the virtue of being an old-fashioned showman who gives his all every week and polishes his craft every weekend. He is admittedly mediocre as an interviewer and so I record the show and fast-forward through the ones that just don’t work. But every single show is meaningful to him. That never goes out of style.
Leno & Letterman - old and busted
Jimmy Kimmel - the new hotness
Larry King. The others are infomercials plugging guests’ movies, books, CDs. etc.
In the words of Letterman, Larry King looks like an owl.
Geeze, how many years was it since he pointed that out? 8?
I’ll usually only watch Conan, though his shtick gets a little old sometimes. I think all these shows are best when tuned into only occassionally, as all the hosts tend to run new ideas into the ground – not surprising given the speed at which the shows have to be written. Still, I’m always guaranteed at least one good laugh watching Conan – I think he’s the quickest thinking of the hosts. I used to like Letterman, but I haven’t watched him for years – I think I just got bored with it for a while, and never got back into the habit. I’ve never thought Leno was funny. His interviews are so Hollywood that it feels like you’re watching Entertainment Tonight. His jokes are lame, and Kevin Eubanks has to have the fakest laugh I’ve ever heard. I’ve never seen Craig Ferguson, but I’ve started hearing good things so maybe I’ll give him a shot.
I HOPE Conan doesn’t actually get the Tonight Show, because I really can’t imagine his comedy playing well at that hour. He does just fine where he is.
Letterman.
I don’t think Leno is funny at all. Though sometimes he gets better guests.
I’ve been a Letterman fan from Day One. I’ll grant you that for the last few years he hasn’t been as inspired as he was in the early days at NBC, but I’d rather watch Letterman on a bad day than Leno on his best day. It’s a matter of taste.
I’ve just never found Leno funny. He’s an okay standup, but I find most of his skits and comedy bits stupid and childish. I find the Jay Walking bit incredibly depressing: it just appalls me that he can find so many stupid people. My only consolation is that they select for stupid, so it’s not necessarily a representative sample of humanity.
The only regular feature of Leno’s that I enjoy is the stupid headlines. But that’s obviously no compliment to Leno, since they just find the headlines. You or I could do that bit and get about the same laughs as Jay.
As far as Conan goes, the less said the better. He’s a third-rate Leno. I find his humor embarrassingly childish and awful.
I’ve always liked Dave’s style of humor: the self-deprecating, don’t-take-yourself-too-seriously style works for me. (I still laugh every time he says, during some particularly lame moment, “This is the only thing on CBS right now.”) But much as I love Dave, he clearly isn’t as hot and edgy as he used to be. Oh, for the days of the Alka-Seltzer suit, the Monkey-Cam, and the Guy Under the Seats.
I think one sign that they’re just not putting as much into the show as they used to is the fact that, for a few years now, apparently, they have been taping two shows on Mondays so they (or at least some of them) can take Fridays off.
The Late Show has certainly been doing Will It Float and some of the other regular features a little too long. And Dave never goes out on location himself any more, sending Biff or Rupert instead, who obviously don’t have Dave’s comic ability. On the other hand, they haven’t done Stupid Pet/Human Tricks in ages, trademark bits that hadn’t worn out their welcome, IMHO.
Despite all this, Dave’s style of humor, even if it’s not quite as sharp as it once was, still makes me laugh, something Jay almost never does. And if I’m not laughing as hard as I used to, and not stunned and surprised by him as often as I used to be, I still enjoy spending an hour with Dave at the end of each day.
I think the hot new talent is clearly Craig Ferguson. Although he got off to a rocky start–in the first few months the skits were pretty bad–I find him to be naturally funny and very likeable. I noticed in the last month or two that they have changed the opening format from a brief monologue followed by bad skits to a very long monologue–10 or 15 minutes–then a break and the guests. I was amazed to see Craig doing 15 minutes of good standup (which seemed to be his own stuff, not written for him) four or five nights a week. Very impressive, and much more entertaining than the lame comedy bits.
The only downside to The Late Late Show is that their guest line-up is often pretty weak. A lot of B- and C-list TV “stars” you’ve never heard of. But they get good ones sometimes. They had one show with Eddie Izzard and former CIA director James Woolsey. Izzard was great, of course, but what really impressed me was that Woolsey came out after him and said, “Is there a funnier man on earth than Eddie Izzard?” And he wasn’t just flattering him: he knew all about Eddie’s show “Dress to Kill.” (If you don’t know about it, run, do not walk, to your local video store and rent this video. It’s the funniest 90 minutes ever recorded.) Woolsey is one hip ex-CIA director!
I’m not anxious to see Letterman retire, but based on some of the carping about him here, maybe he would be wise to bow out before he sinks too much lower. I was never a big Carson fan, but I agree that he was coasting in his later years. He may have waited a little too long, but leaving before he started drooling was a class act that Dave would do well to emulate. (But not too soon.)
And I certainly hope that Craig takes over for him when he does.
Interesting; I just started watching Dave in his last days with NBC, the tail end of his supposed glory years, and IMO Conan’s style is very similar to Letterman’s. Based on what you’ve written, I’m surprised you don’t rank Conan above Leno. Leno and Letterman are just night and day different, and Conan’s more in the Letterman camp. He may be a third rate Letterman, but he’s no third rate Leno.
(Incidentally, I get the impression that even Conan doesn’t like Leno much – he’s made some not-so-subtle jabs at him over the years. He always speaks very respectfully of Letterman though.)
I get a mild chuckle at best from Leno’s headlines – about what I’d get reading the jokes in Reader’s Digest. I think Conan’s made-up headlines are far funnier.
Maybe I do hope that Conan takes the 11:30 slot, because that would leave me free to watch both him and Craig Ferguson, hmm…
Indeed. It seems most of that generation (Conan, Jon Stewart) hold Letterman is VERY high regard. Didn’t John Stewart say during the Emmys this year that Letterman would be remembered as highly as they were remembering Carson that day?
“Oprah…Uma…Oprah…Uma”
I rest my case.
I watch Letterman. I’ll catch Leno’s Headlines because Dave no longer does Small Town News - which is essentially the same bit.
Leno is much better as a standup than as a host. Pre-1993, he would show up on Letterman and do hilarious stuff (like a bit about circus people who were going around throwing anthrax spores on the audience).
Leno has become the ultimate corporate kiss-up.
It’s hard to be edgy when you’ve got $500 million in the bank, a sprawling estate, maids, luxury cars coming out the wazoo, and millions who will watch you good or bad.