Nope, but I have noticed that “jerk” is pretty imprecise, subjective term that prevents us from reaching an agreement.
Well, his mom lives in my neighborhood, and I met him once very briefly and he was very nice and appreciative when I told him I was a big fan and had been watching him since he was a weatherman here. I think that people are confusing him being a jerk with him doing things that are a little out there that will get an unexpected reaction which is exactly why he has been paid quite well to do that for more than a couple of years. His mom is also very sweet although I don’t see her walking nearly as often as I used to.
I believe it was Lindsay Lohan who spent 84 minutes in jail.
It’s disingenuous for “stars” to appear a on Letterman then get all huffy he was abrasive to them or made fun of them. He’s been on the air for almost 30 years, it’s not like you don’t know what you’re in for. Plus if you are high to the point of incoherence, or have (effectively) nothing to say, and are just relying on your personal magnificence to carry you along you’re likely to get a smack down.
I don’t know what you want me to site? He constantly interrupts guests. The reason you heard it before it because other people who find it annoying have brought it up.
What talk show host doesn’t? He has a show to run and people to entertain.
Jon Stewart does it too. I can understand it, since the hosts have to keep to a schedule and most guests would ramble on for an hour if you let them, but it’s still annoying as hell, especially when the guest seems on the verge of making a point.
He has gotten better over the years, but I recall one night when he went into the audience for some bit and was speaking to a pretty girl and asked her who she came with and when she pointed to this poor unattractive kid sitting next to her, he really humiliated the kid with some fucked up remark about his appearance. the audience laughed, but you could feel their discomfort.
Another time, when they used to show people in the audience randomly, a surprised couple saw themselves on one of the monitors and started waving. He VERY rudely said something like, “it always amazes me how stupid people can act when they see themselves on tv”
I was thinking how great it would have been if the man walked up onstage and slapped him across the face.
I think CBS or his agent or one of his gf’s told him to tone it down a bit, because he seemed to knock off that MEAN, uncalled for behavior.
Speaking of slapping in the face, Wayne Newton tells the story about how he flew to Burbank, stormed into Johnny Carson’s office and slapped him across the face because of all the mean spirited jokes Carson was making about his sexuality.
He said Carson just sat there and made excuses like “just kidding”. Newton also said he dragged McClean Stevenson into an empty office for the same reason and Stevenson started crying.
Tell Dave not to fuck with Wayne Newton.
I’m not sure that this is what the op is asking for since it ha to do with his interaction with the public, not guests. But, we were talking about the Letterman infidelity thing at work the other day. One of my coworkers was a stewardess for Pan Am in the 80’s. She said she had Letterman on flights many times and that he was really nasty. Apparently he was such a jerk to the stewardesses that he had developed a reputation for it.
Take it for what it’s worth.
That’s not what I was referring too. People seem to think he’s toned it down and I don’t watch him enough now to see a difference. But he would often interupt someone continually (like every sentence). It was done in a snarky way at the guest’s expense. It’s not like they didn’t prep before the show with softball questions in order to segway into a story. I realize that many of the guests are there to promote their movie but yow it was annoying to listen to.
In the movie American Splendor he came off as a jerk to Harvey Pekar, but it’s been four or five years since I’ve seen it and I don’t remember the details.
The story is that he’s a jerk to some of his guests behind the scenes (unless it’s an A list star.), or if not a jerk then cold, unwelcoming and offhand, if he makes any pre-airtime contact with them at all.
The comparison is with Jay, who always has flowers sent, drops in for a chat, and treats all his guests the same.
Don’t know if it’s true but that’s the buzz.
Yeah, but comparing Dave to Jay isn’t really fair. Jay is a super nice guy. I saw him filling up one of is Dusenbergs here in Burbank, and he was happily chatting with the guy at the next pump. And pumping his own gas. I get the feeling that Dave would send an assistant to fill up his tank for him. Jay has also been known to pull over and help people with car trouble. Probably just because he is a gear head, but still, can’t imagine Dave doing that, or anything remotely like it.
Because that’s not the right way to treat people, whether they’re stoned or not.
And especially not on national television.
Well, Harvey Pekar wasn’t exactly Prince Charming, and the movie made about his life isn’t necessarily an objective view of the relationship between them. Watch this video and tell me who’s being rude to whom. Then watch this one, and see Dave give back as good as he gets. (The second clip is mostly discussing Pekar’s rant against General Electric – owner of NBC – in the last few minutes of the first clip.)
But I don’t think this really counts because, Pekar was one of those guests like Brother Theodore and Andy Kaufman, a performance artist whose appearances were always weird, unpredictable, and good TV. Dave had him back again and again because regardless of who insulted whom, it was compelling to watch. And I think both of them knew that, and knew what they were doing.
Sorry, I disagree, precisely because it was national TV. They were both there to entertain. If you come out looking like a weirdo, and act as if you don’t even know what I’m talking about when I comment on it, you’re the one being weird or obtuse or even insulting to me.
And this reminds me of something that may be one of Dave’s issues: he has certain expectations of his guests, and (sometimes, at least) sees any failure to meet those expectations as an insult to him.
One occasion he displayed this very clearly, and made me (yes, even me!) think he was being a jerk, was when Matthew Broderick was a guest, and walked out with his fly open. Dave made a point of asking him about it, and seemed to think that Broderick was doing it on purpose to insult Dave. I thought this was bizarre and rude on Dave’s part.
So rather than assume that he had had a minor “wardrobe malfunction” and quietly advise him about it during a break, Dave embarrassed Broderick on national TV. Because his assumption was that it was done on purpose. AFAIK, there had never been any bad blood between them, so I can’t understand why he might think that.
But Dave expects his guests to meet certain basic standards in appearance and behavior, and if they come out looking like crap, he’s likely to comment on it, as in the Harmony Korine interview linked above, and many other instances. Similarly, if he feels they’re trying to make him look bad, or are just not being entertaining (which he may feel is the same thing!), he sometimes takes it personally and lashes out.
I think he’s gotten better about this over the years, but the Matthew Broderick incident was just a couple of years ago.
I think he has pretty strong sociopathic tendencies myself, and getting pissed off at and making fun of guests who don’t meet his expectations of how they should behave fits in line with this. Someone like Johnny Carson views it as his job to make poor guests more entertaining, whereas Letterman views it as the guests’ co-responsibility to be entertaining. A poor guest makes Letterman have to work harder and be more on his toes. And he feels that a poor guest performance reflects poorly on his show.
In short, it’s all about him. Same as his affairs and the way he makes fun of or is mean to people. He has no compassion for others and is concerned very much with himself and his own desires. These are classis signs of a sociopathic personality.
I agree in general with this, although I think you overstate the case somewhat, and don’t take into account that he has been getting better.
But you go way beyond the demonstrated facts here, and let what I see as an unreasonable prejudice color your outlook. Also, I suspect your dislike of Dave may be exacerbated by your perception that he is politically liberal. Actually, I’ve always thought that at heart he’s a pre-Reagan-style moderate Republican.
No, my dislike for him far predates my perception of his political leanings. I disliked him even when he was a virtual unknown doing stand up on Carson’s show. He’s mean-spirited and a wiseass, and that came through even then. I will admit that perhaps he’s gotten better, but I imagine that that is more the result of outside influence, coming maybe from his wife or perhaps even CBS.
As far my contention with regard to his apparent sociopathic tendencies, perhaps I should have said empathy rather than compassion. Lack of empathy is at the heart of why he does such things as telling people to their face that they are acting stupidly on camera and putting his own (and presumably unstated)expectations of his guests’ role on the show ahead of theirs and treating them badly accordingly. It’s also the reason for the lack of guilt that so obviously characterizes the long-term cheating that he has engaged in with his various girlfriends and his current wife. It takes a certain kind of person to engage in the long-term, serial types of infidelity that he has engaged in, and that is a type of behavior that is self-involved and not particularly concerned with the feelings of others. I suspect that the only true sorrow he feels is that he finds himself in this situation in the first place, and that his affair with Birkitt is likely over. For now.
For someone who doesn’t watch his show often, you seem to know an awful lot about the inner workings of his mind. I’ve probably watched 90-95% of everything he’s done on TV since 1984 (when I graduated from college), I’ve read a couple of biographies about him, most of the interviews he’s done, and more, and I don’t have the slightest idea how guilty he feels about the way he has treated the women in his life.
You must be awfully perceptive.
That’s narcissism not sociopathy.