I must be easy to please; I’ve been watching Letterman since I was about 12 years old (I’m 33 now), and I still find him funny. Often very funny, and always, always better than Leno. Dave on his worst night has twice the edge and zing of Leno at his sharpest.
He’s been showing his age lately; I dread the day he retires.
Put me in the “He was never really that funny” category.
Back in the 80’s I was in high school and several people told me to start watching him so I did. For about a week. I gave up.
The only late night talk show I ever watched regularly was Conan and that was about 10 years ago.
I mostly remember “The Great Grady Hunt”
On a related note, is anyone else digging Craig Ferguson?
Maybe it’s because he’s new, but I’m enjoying watching him much more than the other three.
I like the style of monologue he’s employing. Usually a riff on a single, sometimes basic topic instead of the inane celebrity/political/newsmaker one-liners we’ve become used to. Kinda-sorta like Jerry Seinfeld doing a Dennis Miller rant.
Though I do believe the bad skits could go.
But the bad skits are kind of endearing… because you KNOW that Craig realizes they are bad as well ;).
As for Letterman/Leno, Letterman wins… by a very laaaarge amount. I never got into Conan… especially after I heard about his manner with interns (ie, not really nice to them).
I was also a huge Letterman fan back in the 80s.
His CBS show has been pretty lame and is getting worse every year. My wife actually uses the show to fall asleep - fast.
the main weakness, beside not being funny is that He does the same crap over and over.
The Biff Henderson viewer mail point-to-the-map thing went on for years…tedious.
The Rupert Gee Deli visits have been a nightly thing for years…super boring.
Will it Float…will it ever end?
Anytime he makes a phone call (especailly to that girl in the office or Les Moonves)…zzzzzz
Every Friday he goes into the audience to play some stupid game but spends 90% of the time chatting with incredibly boring tourists.
zzzzzzz. Give me Conan!!
I still like Will it Float. There’s something about dumping things into water that just attracts me.
You can have him.
The only thing I’ve seen lately that was even remotely funny was Gun-totin’ NASCAR Jesus.
Must. Not. Comment.
I haven’t seen David Letterman for years, not since I started going to bed earlier and earlier. Sigh. I caught him when I was on holiday last month, and the show seemed pretty lame. I recall it being wickedly funny back in the 80s.
I don’t mind Leno, but I just can’t stay up that late any more.
I used to LOVE this guy.
Then he got all big-money on us, and started wearing the little glasses and the buzz-cut, and just repeating things.
I’M REPEATING THINGS TONIGHT, PAUL! SOMEHOW I JUST FEEL LIKE REPEATING DUMB TAG LINES THAT HAVE NO HUMOR VALUE! Y’EVER FEEL LIKE THAT, PAUL?
He did have Sleater-Kinney on the other night, though. So somebody over there’s still awake.
Aftwerards he addressed them as “girls,” and called their music “peppy.” :rolleyes:
Please tell me that your fascination doesn’t involve human bodies and the East River.
I’d just like to say that none of you haters will be there when the big door swings open.
…and you’ll be pelted with rocks and garbage.
I haven’t seen Letterman in years, since the local CBS channel switched over to UPN and I don’t have cable, but the last few times I did see him, he was doing what Soylent Gene described, and my opinion pretty much matches Soylent’s. Dave’s had his ups and downs. When he was at his best (like right around the time of his switch from NBC to CBS) he was brilliantly funny, and he could be again someday if the right thing comes along to shake him up, but right now it sounds like I’m not missing much.
I avoid Leno. I don’t have anything against him as a person, but his show seems too L.A. and obvious and mainstream pop-culturey for me. Maybe that’s why he appeals to the sleepy masses.
I watch Conan sometimes, with at least a reasonable expectation of laughing out loud. Bits like the Walker Texas Ranger Lever, Actual Items, What’s On Other Channels, and In The Year 2000 often provide some solid comedy. And Conan himself exudes comic energy (didja see him dancing around wildly while Dan Aykroyd sang “Rubber Biscuit” last night? Try to imagive Jay or Dave doing that!) and actually seems (at least sometimes) to be having fun with his show. I just hope he doesn’t run out of funny before he takes over the Tonight Show in 2009.
Nobody’s mentioned Jimmy Kimmel (with good reason), but he does have one funny bit: Unnecessary Censorship.
Anyone, besides me, remember when he was on in the early afternoon?
I was a huge Letterman fan back in the 80’s. I still have a VHS tape recording of the very first episode on NBC in (I think) 1982, with Bill Murray. Those were the days when he was crushing stuff with a steamroller, throwing things off the NBC roof (he still does that occasionally, but it’s not as funny any more), and bringing on very strange guests like “Brother Theodore”. Brother Theodore was awesome. He’d rant at Dave like this:
“I hate you. You are slime. You wil return to the dankness of the earth and rot, and rot, and rot, AND ROT!”
Dave: “Is that a Ban-lon shirt you’re wearing?”
One of the things that has happened to Dave is that his quirks and tics have aged into strange personality flaws. Bizarre stuff in a 30 year old comic winds up vaguely creepy in someone pushing 60. Does anyone remember when Norm MacDonald did his devastating impersonation of Letterman on SNL? He would spend the entire show mugging, pulling his collar with his finger, making strange noises, and it was perfect. Dave has pulled it back from there (maybe as a result of that impression), but as a result he’s lost his edge.
I think this is a particularly dangerous thing for comedians - trying to age gracefully while still maintaining a comedic edge. Conan is really susceptible to this because much of his humor revolves around mugging, strange quirks, and basically showboating in front of the camera. I don’t want a 60 year old Conan calling the crowd “My Babies” and banging his hips around. It’ll just look stupid.
Some comedians manage this by essentially morphing out of comedy - Robin Williams and Steve Martin, for example. Can you imagine Steve Martin doing ‘happy feet’ and his wild and crazy guy thing today? It would just be sad. So he’s matured into an actor/writer who moves from romantic comedy to drama. He’s been very successful in that transition. Robin Williams, not so much. He still tries to be the crazy 20-something coked-up Williams, but it usually just comes off like a parody of himself.
The trap talk show hosts are in is that they have no path to a more ‘mature’ career. They have to keep doing the same things they’ve always done, or find new funny things that they can grow into. Carson managed it very well. Letterman has stumbled along the way. Jay Leno I suppose managed it - does anyone rmember the young, angry Jay? The guy that would do the “What’s my beef?” schtick? He was hilarious. One of my favorite comedians. Now he more like your mildly amusing father. But the angry schtick is hard to pull off when you’re 55 years old and making millions of dollars a year.
I think Conan is really at risk here. That transition to the Tonight Show is going to be tough. In his favor is intelligence - he’s probably the smartest of all the Late-night hosts, except for maybe Jon Stewart. Also in his favor is that at heart he’s a comedy writer who got his start on the Simpsons and SNL, and he has a great ear for comedy. But he’ll have to morph into something new to stay viable, IMO.
Superb analysis, Sam.
Well said, Sam Stone. And yet…
Yeah. Me too. The best “Will It Float?” moment so far:
The sublime inanity of making a GREAT BIG PRODUCTION out of testing whether a car battery will float resonated powerfully with my inner Dadaist.
I think TV’s Craig Ferguson is the only late night talk show worth watching. He’s just freakin’ adorable.
But yeah, bad, bad skits.
I concur.