Holy War of the Week: Late night TV hosts

Cafe Society
21

I second Jon Stewart. That’s the only show that consistently cracks me up.

After that, I usually flip over to Letterman. Some of his bits are clever, like Biff Henderson’s stuff, the Top Ten lists. Or sometimes he’ll do completely off-the-wall stuff, like guys trying to shoot baskets from rooftops or stuffing guys in Santa suits into coffeeshops. Dave sure seems like he’d be a real asshole in person, though.

I hardly ever watch Leno, I just don’t think he’s funny. Sometimes the headlines are, but usually it’s the same jokes over and over. The “funny wedding names” shtick is not funny anymore. “Jaywalking” and everything else just seems to be, “look how stupid everyone else is.” Oh, and Kevin Eubanks really needs to lay off the pipe.

I can’t stay up late enough for Conan. From the little bits that I’ve seen and heard about, I guess all he’s capable of is insulting people as well.

Watched Kilborn maybe once. Painfully unfunny.
Never watched Jimmy Kimmel’s show. Didn’t even know Carson Daly had a show.

22

I can’t watch Letterman any more. My skin just crawls. I’m old enough to remember when he first came on after Carson and he was an entirely different personality then. The show was original and funny. Today he does “Is This Anything?” and “Will This Float?” I’m sorry. His era is over.

For that matter I’m old enough to remember that Johnny Carson was a giant bore for at least the last ten years of his show. Everybody looks back today and remembers only the great days, but the reality was different.

Conan is the new Letterman. I can’t say that I like his monologues or bits very much, but he is by far the best with guests. He makes the bad interviews funny and the good interviews outstanding.

Leno is the reverse. I tune in for the monologues, to laugh at the idiots on Jaywalking, and for Headlines, the single funniest laugh-out-loud regular bit on television. But he cannot interview a guest and he’s even worse with comedians than with run-of-the-mill no talent wannabes.

Jon Stewart is moving up there with the best of them. The Daily Show is wildly uneven but it has extremely good nights and he is getting to be almost as good at making his guests funny as Conan.

I watched Bill Maher on Comedy Central but he became an egotistical self-righeous freak after his show moved to ABC. I stopped watching years before it was cancelled.

I saw three minutes of The Man Show once. So much for my ever watching Jimmy Kimmel. I don’t worry about it: the show will be gone in a moment or two. Don’t ever watch Kilborn or Daly.

23

I actually tape Jimmy Kimmel sometimes. It’s sort of like train-wreck television at the moment. The one thing he does that’s really cool is the rotating co-host. The first one was Snoop Dogg, who was amazingly good at it. The current one is Don King, who’s awful, talking over the guests & being a nuisance. It cracks me up. I sometimes try to imagine what Michael Eisner is thinking, or if he even knows what he put in this time slot.

24

Leno: Dull, fluffy jokes, with punchlines Ray Charles could see coming. I like Headlines because I work for a newspaper. The rest of the show - guests, Jaywalking, skits - is completely forgettable.

Letterman: Used to like him better on NBC. I watch occasionally now because he gets musical guests I like, but most of his show (especially Paul) grates on my nerves.

Daly: Seen it very few times, he makes a half hour feel like a dull hour, no prescence whatsoever.

Conan: Good with certain guests, but his mugging for the camera, joking about himself, and suing any excuse to flip his hair gets old and distracts from interesting guests. Triumph is great, as long as he’s not overused (TV Funhouse was overkill of the rude animal puppet humor). Best hosue band on TV.

Maher: I haven’t seen the new show, and don’t want to. He lost the ability to laugh at himself years ago, and the whole TV martyr thing was pathetic excuse making.

Jon Stewart: Great, has been for years, even on his short-lived syndicated show. Near perfect timing and always makes me wish the interview segments were longer because they’re so good and I hate most of the correspondents.

Kilborn: If the smug thing is an act, I hate it. If it’s him, I hate him. I can’t remember the last time I watched even five minutes of his show.

Kimmel: Pathetic and nervous live, only reason to watch is trainwreck fascination like foolsguinea said. Someone actually thought this was a good idea. Unfunny comedy bits (kill Cousin Sal). Proof that he needs someone prepared or polished to play off of (Ben Stein, Adam Carrolla, the Fox NFL guys). A second banana in lead man’s slot. Snoop was funnier than him, most of the guest co-hosts were pointless.The Man Show was tasteless and simplistic but at least that show had balls, Kimmel better find his if he wants to last on his own.

25

I only watch Leno because he’s on right before Conan. I was so mad when they put Carson Daly on five nights a week and they were no longer showing Friday night comedy. Craig Kilborn is on so late, I usually only watch if I have the next day off, and even then I fall asleep before the show is half over. I don’t watch any of the others mentioned.