Daily Gut: Letterman’s Obsession with Sarah Palin
by Greg Gutfeld
Here’s my take on Letterman’s obsession with Sarah Palin:
-ideology clouds what you find funny. If you’re a lefty, then a Palin joke is priceless. If you’re a righty, it’s lame. That’s just the way it is.
-Letterman is a comedian, and he tells jokes, and he shouldn’t have to apologize for them. If they’re not funny, or in poor taste, or horribly offensive – the marketplace will deal with it. That’s free enterprise.
-Having said all that, Letterman still makes me sad. He’s an old, rich man relegated to choosing easy targets for cheap laughs. He has an entire bumbling administration to poke fun of – along with a conference room full of writers to do it for him- and he goes after the daughter of an Alaskan mayor. Letterman was a god in the eighties – now he’s just a mere, sad mortal driven by fumbling bitterness. And that makes me sad for him – and for those who never saw how truly great he once was.
Which leads me to my final point: Chris Elliott was the true genius.
Governor Huckabee!
Marc Lamont Hil!
Jill Dobson!
The awesome awesome awesome Billy West!! (you know, from Futurama, among other things)
Mark Ebner!
Plus, my mom!
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221 Comments
I thought his so-called apology was as tasteless as the original joke was.
Dude, she's the Governor, not a mayor!
Some of Letterman's old top tens were funny. He began his major decline into senility during the 'Oprah, Uma, Oprah, Uma, Oprah, Uma…He now is like most comedians, predictable.
beat me to it!!
Love to your Mom! We love Greg's Mom around her.
Sorry, sex jokes about the fourteen year old daughter of anybody is just wrong. A grown-up sould own-up. Letteman should make a legit apology without the smarmy wink that goes with it.
Letterman is a coward just like Jon Stewart. They both betray their craft by catering to the extreme left. Instead of being entertainers, they both strive to be more relevant and the quickest way to do that is to be lock-step with liberals.
Just once I'd like to see either of those 2 ass-hats say something nasty about Obama, or even semi-nasty. You know, take a nice cheapshot at Obama and see what happens.
Sadly, they are both too cowardly to do anything like this.
Letterman isn't a comedian. He's a court jester.
i think it's advisable to keep 'old' out of the commentary. everybody gets old, if blessed with the years. i know plenty of folks older than Dave who are frickin hysterical. why not stick to critiques of character, elements that are within one's control…there's plenty to legitimately lampoon.
Letterman began his decline some time ago and has been on a slippery slope since then. Letterman, and all the other so-called late night comedians, must think that conservatives/Republicans left their viewership and they are free to engage in insulting behaviour. You can't watch any of those shows for more than a few minutes at a time without being insulted for your political beliefs. As far as I am concerned, I stopped watching their crap a long time ago and that's the way it's going to stay.
When I can stay awake, I do watch Gutfeld though!
Letterman is an example when a liberal takes himself seriously. Wasn't Ellen's sitcom funny until she started with the gay rights story lines? Now Dave has gone down the same alley. I used to love watching Bud Melman and Chris Elliott. Those days are long gone.
Do you have Marc Hill on because he's so clueless that he's actually funny?
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Isn't Sarah Palin (assuming you were referring to her at the end) the GOVERNOR of Alaska, and not its mayor, seeing how states don't have mayors of it?
I'm no comedian, but Damn that Michelle Obama has a big ass.
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The thing is – didn't SNL beat him to the punch on this with that NYT sketch about Palin incest?
I don't know what Letterman's deal is really, but I'm sure a lot of it is just ego. Any celebrity that starts believing their own press has pretty much turned the corner toward irrelevance. Letterman's had a nice, safe job for quite a while. All he has to do is be marginally funny and do a decent interview and that's it. So I suppose the whole Palin thing is his idea of being edgy, yet it's pretty safe to go after Palin because the leftist media isn't going to feel any outrage over anything that's said about her. Hue and cry from the feminists? Perish the thought. But his ego seems to be seeking relevance. Maybe he tells himself that he had a part to play in Obama getting elected and by going after Palin he's keeping himself in the game.
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She was mayor before she was governor, so either works.
I can't even watch Letterman anymore because it's so sad to see how far he has fallen. It's one thing to tell a tasteless joke. It's another when it's so far from funny you forget he's a comedian. Back in college, we watched him every night. Of course, we were drunk a lot, so maybe my memory is clouded. But it's literally painful for me to watch him now. If he was an animal, he would have been put down awhile back.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it Stewart (maybe Letterman) who said Barry just doesn't give comedians a lot of material, like Bush did?
Can you say Teleprompter? Hello? Class! Anyone?
Too late for me to stay awake and watch these liberal suck-ups. When do the Obama jokes start? Oh, wait … Let's see … 8 years of Republican jokes and they're still making fun of Republicans. Guess what … Dems aren't FUNNY!!!!
If a comedian shouldn't have to apologize for tasteless jokes, and the market place takes care of it, how come Don Imus lost his job over the Rutgers flap of a few years back?
The constant attacks on Palin prove a couple of things. First is that she's extremely relevant on the current political scene, otherwise she'd be ignored. Second, they're afraid of her.
Exactly.
Someone suggested Greg, you should get Todd on your show and let him really rip into Mr. "Old Grouch"….
Dave doesn't have the brains God gave Paul Shafer's hairstyle.
But about that last item – Mark Ebner's dating your Mom? Does she know about his pit bulls?
Nick DiPaolo is a comedian with conservative credentials, and he wouldn't be allowed to hide behind his "comedian" moniker to make tasteless jokes such as Letterman did. Then again, Nick has too much class to do it.
Hey, Gut (if you or your minions ever read these things), get Nick on your show and have him weigh in.
Then maybe we should just refer to Letterman as a weatherman, since that's what he used to do.
I stumbled upon the Letterman apology while waiting for Jimmy Fallon to come on. I thought the same thing as Greg. It is a shame because he really did used to be funny.
Which leads me to my final point: Chris Elliott was the true genius.
Funny…though I would've picked Calvert DeForest aka Larry "Bud" Melman.
You know .. as someone once wrote.. it's amazing how Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, George Burns, etc. dId so well.. considering they NEVER ripped into someone like today's comedians…
Talking of marketplace:
here's a link to Letterman's sponsors: http://hillbuzz.org/2009/06/10/list-of-david-lett...
filing a complaint/contacting CBS to Imus Letterman.: http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/lette...
BTW: some feminists have weighed in on Letterman's blatant sexism
http://thenewagenda.net/2009/06/11/press-release-...
And of course one can always contact the Ynkees about Letterman's racist joke about A-Rod (see, playing the race-card can be fun)
Obama Bought The Presidency
http://www.firedavidletterman.com
The other distasteful comment was about Sarah Palin having a "slutty flight attendant" look. I sure hope he has a private jet, as I'm betting he'd be the last one off the plane in an accident.
in fact THAT would make a great SNL skit…..Dave Letterman on a flight going down and being ignored by the flight attendants!!!
I can remember years ago when Letterman was the bomb. He really seemed to loving doing the show. His material was current events, the trends or 'the government/washington', and not mean spirited. Apparently that changed because now he seems to be phoning in his performances, he's angry and edgy, and way too political and way too personal. Now, seems he's just working for the paycheck. For him to claim Palin doesn't have a sense of humor is cowardly. He shoud have eaten his pride and said he was sorry for the offense and then shut up. His apology was a typical politicians non apology. I miss the old Letterman.
I thought we decided that one should never make fun of a god or his disciples. Letterman is just trying to uphold that tradition. If you make fun of Obama, you're making fun of a god. That only leaves making fun of the anti-gods, and since those people challenge god, they and their entire generation of vipers are fair game. Do I have that right? The opinion of this old man is that Letterman should have stuck with "stupid pet tricks."
I like it!
But how about a "Cage Match"…………………
Bingo! What a perfect way to describe him. He's no longer a comedian because that would mean everything/everybody is a target. Obama, his teleprompter, his radical associations, Joe Biden, etc.. they are all prime comedy material but they are off limits. Letterman has become just that – Obama's Court Jester. Perhaps if everyone just began referring to him that way it will stick. How fitting.
David Letterman, Small man, small mind.
Chris Elliott:David Letterman :: Andy Richter:Conan O'Brien?
I realize that Letterman is one of their own, but his fellow lefties would have him on a spit if he'd made a similar crack about one of Obama's daughters, or about Michelle. Of course; he would never dare go there in the first place, I'm just saying…
Did you see her all dressed up like a cupcake the other day on the Brit Tabloid? They were calling it "chic" I call it outdated doughnut.
Ah, Chris Elliott. His show "Get A Life" was one of the funniest sitcoms ever.
You make a good point, but here I think the context is "old" as in tired, worn-out, stale, etc. I thought Carson was great right until NBC forced him out the door; unfortunately Letterman doesn't have that drive (along with many other aspects of Carson's talent). Here "old" refers to his "jokes", many of which are variations on a few themes he has used dozens, maybe hundreds of times before.
Groucho was great up until the end (Carson & Cavett made sure we saw him too). In Letterman's case he is more like 10-year-old milk than 10-year-old wine
I've wondered that same thing about Dr. Hill.
You guys are missing the point entirely. Letterman wasn't talking about raping Palin's 14 year old daughter, he was talking about raping her 18 year old daughter.
See how much funnier it is now!
I wonder how he feels about Obama's daughters?
Letterman is a bitter old leftist He stopped being "hip" around 1992.
Court jester is the right call, proving that the the new aristocracy is based on hatred for its soon to-be-oppressed slaves. The KKK did the same dis-respect of its under-class, as did Hitler's goons. The cnn prostitute actually underlined this, questioning why the victim would object to the victimization, just like the Kleagles before her. The court jesters and prostitutes of the ruling class court don't believe in the 1st amendment freedom the people writing here do, in fact, they will help shut you down for dis-respecting the power they serve. Keep dinging the phonies Greg, you are the 1st Amendment.
Letterman's problem is that he has an inferiority complex. Coming from the mid west (Indiana), Dave didn't grow up in the bright lights of New York…and so he has overcompensated for his background. As hard as he may try to act and look sophisticated, Dave is still just a dork with bad hair and teeth from Indiana.
Small….(ahem)…"member"?
Letterman's a Ultra-Liberal Hack Activist Coward who won't fess up to it and has pretensions to being the voice of the people.The only reason he apologized is because he got called on the mat for his stupid remark. He probably got the word from The Big Boys at CBS after all the e-mails. Going after Women and 14 year old girls is about his speed. Cher, Madonna and Shirley Maclaine had this Bums number years ago but then again their not Women their Creatures and well passed Fourteen.
these left wing cowards are the bottom of the barrel…their jokes attacking these women, young and old is clearly part of their hatred they have built into them..its funny to them…jokes about sex and a 14 yr old girl who was at the game (NOT BRISTOL) is funny.."funny" will be seeing letterman laying in the street bleeding after Todd Palin busts his head open with a genuine louisville slugger he bought at Yankee stadium…but thats just a joke!!!! see how funny it is???
Correction: Get A Life was THE funniest sitcom ever!
Letterman is a coward, plain and simple. There is a story that came out recently about Wayne Newton and Johnny Carson. If you get beyond the legend, Carson was known to be a petty and mean individual, much like Letterman is now. Newton had been a frequent quest on the show, but for some reason that Newton never discovered, Carson grew to dislike him and began making gay inference jokes about him in his monologue. Newton tried contacting Carson in many ways asking what he'd done to offend him and to please stop referring to him in this manner. All were ignored.
Here is what Newton did and I suggest Todd Palin do the same:
“I went to NBC, Burbank, and walked down the halls into his office, and Freddy de Cordova, his producer, was in the office with him. And I walked in, unannounced, I said to Freddy, I said, would you excuse us, please? He was so shocked that he did get up and leave And I said to Mr. Carson ‘I don’t know what friend of yours I’ve killed, I don’t know what child of yours I’ve hurt, I don’t know what food I’ve taken out of your mouth, but these jokes about me will stop and they’ll stop now or I will kick your ass’.”
Newton said Carson mumbled something about being Wayne’s “biggest fan,”
Newton responded, ‘Don’t give me that crap. Don’t give me that. I am here to straighten out whatever your problem is. And whichever way you want to straighten it out is fine with me’,” he said.
Oddly enough, Carson stopped the jokes about Newton.
I liked Super Dave Osborn.
The game is up for Letterman, at least in his current incarnation. He relies too much on an image of cranky but benign disinterest in things to survive the glimpses he’s given us of his viciousness.
Steve, Willow was at the yankee game, not Bristol…the joke states the "knocking up" the daughter during the 7th inning. Of all the reports Ive heard, Bristol was not present.
Nicely played, sir…
*golf clap*
Your mom? Cool.
I agree too.
Carson and Groucho (my favorite comic genius) were funny for as long as they were, in my opinion, because they had class, something the graduate from Ball State and Stewart do not have. Greg's right about Dave in the 80s; he was hilarious then, but I think he lost his edge and started becoming bitter when NBC gave the Tonight Show gig to Leno, who actually worked to get it, instead of Letterman, who thought he was entitled to it even though he was constantly biting the hand that fed him (GE, the network's parent company).
Maybe Greg was following community organizer Obama's lead. Throughout the campaign Obama would refer to her as the mayor of Wasilly and not recognize her higher office.
He sure does seem to obsess on her… methinks he likes the "slutty flight attendant" look.
Hey Sal, did I miss the part where he said 'I'm sorry' or 'I apologize' somewhere?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbCzTNJgoxQ
If anything, the guy continues to mine the field of cheap laughs by telling the 'jokes' all over again to the hearts content of his audience. Lovely. I'm sure pseudo feminists all across the country enjoyed the hell out of it.
A non apology. Much like Dave, weak at best.
they sure did but they did the sketch with the NYT as the ones who called it incest..they found a way around getting blamed. no one paid attention to it anyway
You may think this is weird but I see it all the time with guys like Letterman: Sexual tension. He just hates himself for it and doesn't have the proper intelligence to deal with it internally and makes up for it with the constant half ass attacks.
Imus isn't a comedian…is he?
To those of you under 35, believe it or not, a long, long time ago, David Letterman used to be "the" show to watch (after Johnny Carson). But that was long ago, and those days are gone forever.
Even back in the day, there was always a mean-spirit lurking behind that Alfred E. Newman facade!
Over the years, his ugly spirit has slowly worked it's way into his face.
He's an ugly, angry bitter man. Kind of sad, when you think about it, with his relative success in life and all…
What else can a second rate talk show host do, now that Conan threatens his empire? Pick on someone that the left hates, go after her and her family with a vengence and cajole her to come on the show. This is pandering for ratings, IMO.
I finally caught the apology on you-tube… and yes it was…I think everyone's thrown enough out there to match my outrage…
I think Letterman was purposely using A-Rod's blackness to sterrotype african-americans as rapists.
I think Letterman was purposely using A-Rod's blackness to sterrotype african-americans as rapists.
That too. NOT that I've ever seen it or want to cuz it's probably just as ugly as the rest of him anyway.
stereotype – sorry
If only! Were court jesters not supposed to speak truth to power?
"In societies where freedom of speech was not recognized as a right, the court jester—precisely because anything he said was by definition "a jest" and "the uttering of a fool"—could speak frankly on controversial issues in a way in which anyone else would have been severely punished for. Monarchs understood the usefulness of having such a person at their side."
Obama can´t handle the truth. Therefore he has no court jester.
If Letterman stands by his "joke" why has it been removed on the top ten archives of his TV show website?
He said "an Alaskan mayor," which is still not correct these days. But, it would have been funny if he had called her the "Mayor of Alaska" just for silliness. Would be in keeping with Greg's general style.
Well, right after the GOP convention Obama preferred to call her Mayor (of "Wasilly").
Hey, don't call the Pres–ent a big ass.
But he is an entertainer. Or so they say.
Remember he's a PhD. In what I do not know. It's not economics – unless it's Marxist economics.
Liberals control the White House, Congress, the MSM, and the entertainment industry and they're still NOT HAPPY. Les Moonves fired Howard Stern, why can't he do the same to Letterman?
Greg, in that picture of Obama and Letterman above, I think Letterman is smiling because Obama just said, "I gave this much to Olbermann and I'll give you the same."
I'm glad someone said it – I still think she might just be an average looking guy…. kind of in drag…
ok, folks, give Greg a little break- she used to be Mayor of Wasila. Ak… and was in the city council, represented the state in negotiating oil interests with Big Oil- all the time raising her brood, commercial fishing for several months a year, and just being the gorgeous type A Amazon warrior queen that she is..
yum…
The left is terrified if anyone other than a white man is a conservative. They need keep alive the notion that all colored people, women and gays can only be Democrats. Apparently for the left, it is only white men that get to choose which side to be on. Tell me that aint racist.
I don't think it's as simple as "ideology determines what you find funny". That's only true for idealogues. I find lots of jokes about Conservatives funny, just as I find lots of Chris Rock / Dave Chappelle jokes about white people funny. Heck, even Jon Stewart's writers are funny pretty often.
But these Letterman jokes just weren't funny. They were mean. They revealed deep, abiding, irrational hatred – something he confirms when he's off script and just speaks what passes for his mind. He's always spouting off about how much he hates everyone except Obama.
I'm assuming you're not talking about the troll over at Hot Air ; )
Larry Bud Melman, toast on a stick, the Fat Guy- the Strong Guy- and the Genius, pastie white thighs……. those were good times.
He's making a point by calling her "mayor". Lots of the MSM and company refused to call her governor. They considered her just a lowly mayor from some podunk Alaskan town. If she's such a nobody, why bring her up at all? Greg's subtleties are tremendous! Bravo dude!
Bravo! See…can't David Letterman's writing staff come up with that one?
The problem that liberal men have with Sarah Palin is that she is really attractive,but because she is a conservative she would never have anything to do with them. It drives them nuts. Think of all the attractive liberal actresses. They usually have zero morals so they are much more accessible to liberal men. Look at the way these women drool over pigs like Bill Clinton. He literally had the pick of the litter of these women. A conservative woman, like Gov. Palin or Miss California, would not give them the time of day and would think very little of them as men. Their egos can't stand that. That is my take.
Damn good points, both, Steve.
by the bye, it also seems that the old horndog (and we have gathered that he is such a person) is actually really 'hot for teacher', as it were…
all of the leftties really seem to like porn and such references, which is why there is so much sexually suggestive
humor aimed at the Palins- there is a lot of really bad stuff out there- and she is a faithful wife and devout Christian- maybe because she is hot and unattainable- that could be what's driving them nuts…
I'd never heard this story, if true…it's a good one.
Thanks.
Also, love the Steve Reeves pic. As a kid, 'Hercules Unchained' was one of my favorites.
Don't forget Joe Biden's daughter caught on video snorting coke. How many jokes did Letterman do on that? And she's an adult.
"Now that there is funny. I don't care who you are."
David Letterman should makes some jokes about the President Obama daughters or about Mrs Obama, .lets see something about the President's daughter being raped at baseball game .wow.funny.and Mrs Obama looks like a slutty stewardess…..wow funny…………We all know if he did .David Letterman would be FIRED.
I will not buy anything from the sponsors that advertise on his show.
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