If Jay Leno Wants Better Reviews He Can Start By Removing the Lapel Flag
by John NolteCritics love David Letterman. They love him because he’s mean and liberal and does everything they demand: further the leftist agenda through the brutal use of humiliation to target any public figure (or their child) who might derail Leftist causes.
And contrary to conventional wisdom, Letterman’s not edgy. In fact, he’s just the opposite. Doing exactly what those who can criticize you want you to do is not edgy. Kissing the big Manhattan/Los Angeles bi-coastal ass of the elite is not edgy. He’s their jester; their puppet; their bitch. Worse, he’s about as funny as watching your old, half-deaf Uncle intimidate, humiliate and demean your Aunt and then smile at the rest of the family as though he’s just reaffirmed his manhood. Letterman reminds me of the Jason Robards character in “Parenthood” in more ways than you can imagine. In other words, he’s a jerk, but in a sad end-of-his-life kind of way.
Oh, and how the elite critics resented nice ole’ Jay Leno for cleaning Letterman’s ratings’ clock all those years. And now that Jay’s back eating up primetime, they couldn’t wait to jump all over him with sniffing disapproval fed through a filter of wrist-flicking dismissal.
After exactly one show the knives came out:
L.A. Times: “Sixteen minutes into the new ‘The Jay Leno Show’ it was difficult not to panic. This is the future of television? This wasn’t even a good rendition of television past.”
New York Times: “So much ink has been devoted to describing how Mr. Leno’s new show would depart from his old one that it was startling to see how little difference there was.”
NPR: [N]o one expected Leno to reinvent the wheel. It’s just that after so many years on the job, you’d expect he’d make a better one.
(For those of you unfamiliar with these organizations, the first two once had a reputation for doggedly pursuing news stories and holding the powerful accountable. As far as what they do now, other than perfecting the art of thinning their publications to the edge of not disappearing, no one really knows … as far as NPR, they’ve always sucked.)
Good heavens, the L.A. Times was ready to panic after only sixteen minutes. Panic! And did anyone’s irony-alert go off when NPR criticized someone else for not reinventing the wheel? I’m surprised their review wasn’t interrupted by a twenty-minute pledge drive promising a butt-ugly tote bag and a CD of “Neil Sedaka Goes Cajun” for Premium Members.
Jay Leno scored 18 million viewers yesterday. Letterman draws around 4 million on a good night. If you like your television personalities too cool for school that’s got to be troubling – if you prefer those with a hold on the popular culture five nights a week not parade around with a United States flag (unless it’s on fire), today you’ve got to be a little frustrated. First ACORN, now this... What’s happening to my Amerika?!?!
Even worse, those five hours Jay’s eating up could’ve otherwise been used to trash Christians and Republicans on “Law & Order: God We Love Obama.”
You have to wonder if it will ever happen… If the coastal critics and their ilk will ever figure out that today they are the establishment … they are The Man … and that the only real accomplishment of the cruel little needy Letterman who bounces at the end of their string is tarnishing a long history of sell outs.
You want to be edgy in the entertainment business today? Be polite and keep the politics as across the board as possible. Walk on stage with the “edgy” goal of wanting to entertain and take away from their daily frustrations as many people as possible.
Jay Leno’s the new edgy, the new ballsy…
And that lapel flag makes him a downright iconoclast.
I didn’t see his show, but I’m pulling for him because all the right people are not.
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333 Comments
I've never trusted critics since Ishtar.
I thought it was hilarious if not subversively clever.
Politically correct? Jay?…
He is, after all, a car guy. Mr Carbon, you could call him. So he is not on the short list of the left's faves- Maher, and to a certain extent Letterman. Jay is profoundly non-political but his All Americanism is tough to hide. He works hard, loves his petrol products and going fast, and is justifiably proud of it.
The New World Order types who tell us what we should like are not pleased. He must renounce his apostasy…
Maybe then he'll get passable reviews.
Great rant, btw.
couldn't have said it better. Brilliant article.
Wow, I have never heard anyone else say that about Ishtar! I totally agree, although I thought maybe because I used to be a comedian, it resonated, you know, road gigs..
I watched Leno's new show last night. It was OK. I'll try it again tonight.
I also thought "Ishtar" was funny, and I saw it several times in the theater. I liked "Hudson Hawk" and "Bonfire of the Vanities" too (it probably helped that I had not read the book). Sometimes the critics are just wrong. To quote Dustin and Warren in "Ishtar": "Tellin' the truth is dangerous business. Honest and popular don't go hand in hand."
I was never a big fan of putting on a new talk/comedy show at 9 p.m., even if the only alternative is for NBC to come out and publicly admit that they have NOTHING else left. However, I really do like Leno, I have no idea what his personal ideology is but I know he loves America, and that's good enough for me. While I'm still kind of leery about the show as a concept, I really hope he does well at it.
Jay has been America's favorite pal for a long time. Letterman, not so much. Jay has class. Letterman, not so much. Jay has charm. Letterman, not so much. Jay can be hysterically funny. Letterman, not so much. Jay has a devoted audience that will follow him in PrimeTime. Letterman, not so much. I guess that makes Letterman not so much in the ratings department, too. Good Deal. I like the smell of burning Letterman any time. Serves the dipwad lefty right to be a has been little drip under pressure ('Expert') when it comes to getting audience share.
I used to savage Jay Leno for being too 'jokey' – I was a Letterman fan. But Letterman stopped being funny around the time he moved to CBS, and I stopped watching anyway. Although I never became a Leno fan, watching his show now I can really appreciate how hard he tries.
A lot of people have pointed out that Carson didn't foist his politics on you. Frankly I don't even know what Carson's politics were. He just played the polite host and let the person talk. Leno was a lot like that – he tries to be nice and gracious to all his guests and avoid 'hot-button' issues. Now, I'm not a huge fan of chat shows, as they tend to devolve into "how can I make you cry" (c.f. Leno's show with Kanye West) but I can appreciate that more than Letterman's hateful, snarky nonsense.
BTW, does anybody know why Leno left the Tonight Show for a new show?
I loved Letterman 20 years ago. Sadly, he caught the same disease as SNL, and it's been over 13 years since I last watched either.
Some artists have views which, while we don't agree with them, are not in themselves morally objectional. With these we can live. However, we cannot negotiate with those artists who ally themselves with organizations that seek to overturn fundamentals of society. Some things are more important than "art".
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Obama is appearing on lapdog Letterman's show.That's all you really need to know.
I turned the channel a few minutes into the monologue. Leno seemed too eager to worship Obama, and I get enough of that at work.
I'll probably give him another chance or two, but if last night proves to be typical, I'm done.
There's a great Playboy article of Carson from the early 70s you can find on the web if you look. He's from Nebraska (or thereabouts) and is the self-reliance Libertarian type that most educated people from that area are. He was very intelligent.
WOW. I've never heard Letterman described in a better way: "their jester, their puppet, their bitch". You hit the nail on the head. I can't bear their other "bitch" either – namely Jon Stewart, who always looks constipated, and who I don't find at all funny. Spot on.
This is all well and good, but Jay Leno is terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible.
The next original Jay Leno observation will be the first one.
I always preferred Mr. Leno to Letterman; try to keep up the good work Jay.
[...] T. Simpson, Big Hollywood: Did You Hear the One About President Obama? John Nolte, Big Hollywood: If Jay Leno Wants Better Reviews He Can Start By Removing the Lapel Flag Carl Kozlowski, Big Hollywood: Coming Out of the Comedy Closet Black & Right: Broken Left [...]
You, sir, are most excellent again. Rave on.
Great read John! I guess we’ll need to put Jay Leno on the viewing list, not because of Jay’s politics which are dubious, but because maybe it’ll piss off the NY & LA Times, and NPR.
Oh I'll be sure to not to even turn on the TV… what a waste of protoplasm… the Big Mocha with a Big Sneer!
Uh, Leno, who masnaged to toss Carson off the air (and manage to blame his "manager") is an uncreative sneak who does reasonable stand-up and not much else. His real weakness is his inability to care about anyone and thus perform poorly in interviews. I'm not getting the political angle regarding wither him or Letterman. I do not see it.
I doubt people will watch it every night but Jay will be there offering some laughs for nights when there is nothing else worth watching.
Speaking of flag lapel pins, I re-watched the 1986 flick "F/X" and immediately noticed the flag lapel pin Brian Dennehy's good guy cop character wears throughout the movie. Something I never paid attention to back when I first saw the movie back in '86, but after so many years of Hollywood demonization of said lapel pins, seeing Dennehy's character sport one without a hint of irony was much appreciated.
I've been itching to use one of these posts to weigh in on the Letterman controversy for quite some time. To me Letterman's greatest fault isn't that he's liberal, it's that he's extremely, extremely, extremely lazy. I haven't even watched him for nearly 15 years now – the early 90's – and even then his show was an insult to the viewer. He'd always come out with these half-arsed sort of jokes that weren't the least bit funny and then try to make funny the fact that no effort was made to be humorous! His has always been the post-modern shtick – "I'm not trying to be funny and none of our writers has bothered to come up with anything amusing, but aren't you cool to be watching us." I can't even speak to his turning into a raging lib because the whole premise of his show was so insulting to people who tuned in expecting some sort of effort on his part that I'd long since given up paying attention to him.
(The only good word I'll put in for Letterman is the fact that he was a fan of the late, great Warren Zevon. Given that he can't be all bad.)
Actually, two days ago, I posted this:
2 days ago @ Big Hollywood – Obama's Health Care Sp… · 2 replies · +8 points
He has over exposed himself for sure. He really believes his press clippings, that his personal magnetism will overwhelm the argument.
I predict an appearance on Late Night with Letterman before thanksgiving.
I'm now calling Obama finished as a President. He's already had as many prime time Press Conferences as Bush had in 8 years during a war. He created a faux State of the Union speech last week. He babbled at children. He does nothing but travel around and give speeches. His rhetoric is empty cliches. I am predicting that even his base…the black voter will soon start peeling off. His best hope now is a terrorist attack to rally people to his side.
Actually, two days ago, I posted this:
2 days ago @ Big Hollywood – Obama's Health Care Sp… · 2 replies · +8 points
He has over exposed himself for sure. He really believes his press clippings, that his personal magnetism will overwhelm the argument.
I predict an appearance on Late Night with Letterman before thanksgiving.
***
I'm now calling Obama finished as a President. He's already had as many prime time Press Conferences as Bush had in 8 years during a war. He created a faux State of the Union speech last week. He babbled at children. He does nothing but travel around and give speeches. His rhetoric is empty cliches. I am predicting that even his base…the black voter will soon start peeling off. His best hope now is a terrorist attack to rally people to his side.
i have no respect for jay leno he cant stand up for the right things in life ,he should have never have invited west to appear in the show ,jay has no balls what a shame.
I'm with you. Letterman beats the same joke to death. He hasn't been funny in ten years. That's why people watched Leno.
Leno is a 3rd rate Vegas comic. He's not funny. He only appears to be nice because the comparison is to Letterman. He is a phony and a horrible interviewer. I firmly believe he was behind the Kanye West incident to gin up his ratings.
I can't stand either one of them. Conan O'brien has been sucking so far on the tonight show too.
Jay Leno at 10pm should boost Greta Van Susteren's ratings.
Even more amazing is that on his first show Jay Leno had a comedy bit at President Obama's expense! He had the obligatory "You lie!" reference, which was funny. Jay even made a sex joke concerning Michelle! The whole bit was funny and not one shot at "evil Republicans". No wonder the critics hated it. Jay Leno's show will be a success.
West was scheduled to appear before the VMA, similar to how Hugh Grant was scheduled to appear on the Tonight Show before his infamous "rendezvous ". West was only scheduled to sing. Jay Leno did not let him off the hook.
Critics dislike Leno because he's vanilla as they come and they dislike The Jay Leno Show because it's a white flag of surrender that says "We can't come up with good scripted programming, so here's *even more* fast food TV for you to slurp down". This from a stalwart like NBC, which not too long ago was the network of Seinfeld and ER, Hill Street Blues and The West Wing, Cheers and Frasier and more, many of the most celebrated series ever broadcast.
And they're right to dislike it. It really blows.
We'll add it to the DVR — he'll get credit and we don't have to watch it.
It was the idea of the braintrust of NBC. About five years ago, when Leno had his 10th aniversery, NBC announced that Conan O'Brien would take over in 2009. It was monolouge fodder for Leno since. Their rational was that since Conan's contract would be up in 2009, they wanted to keep him from bolting to CBS or wherever, so they promiesed him "The Tonight Show", by then Leno would be 59 and retired. Funny thing, Jeff Zucker is a idiot. Instead of Leno not wanting to retire, he started to make noise about moving to ABC. Also Sony started to court him (including letting Leno own his own show, something NBC isn't letting him do). NBC/Zucker was in a bind. They couldn't give "TTS" back to Leno and piss off Conan, Jimmy Fallon couldn't lose his show to give back to Conan. So, with their Prime Time line up in the dumper, Zucker thought it would be great to give Leno the 10pm slot. So here we are.
NBC stupidly worked out a deal five years ago where Leno would leave the Tonight Show in 2009 so that they could move Conan up into his spot, never suspecting that 2009 would, like, actually get here and they'd have to live up to their contractual promise to O'Brian.
Combine that with the network's head-first dive into the concrete bottom of the network ratings pit and their fear that Leno might end up hosting an 11:35 p.m. Eastern show on ABC or Fox, and they scrambled to sign him for the 10 p.m. hour.
I hope there is a plan in place.
Everytime BHO attempts to use talk shows from this point on, there should be plants in the audience that jump up and shout "You Lie".
Leno can be way over-eager at times to please his audience, but at the same time that makes him less willing to tell 50 percent of his potential viewers out there to pound sand if they don't like his political views. Letterman just seems to have gotten bored with comedy over the past 15 years at CBS, and seems to think that he needs to provide "teaching moments" to his viewers when anything political comes around, which ranges between boilerplate jokes about the usual conservative suspects — Dave was probably kicking small animals around on 54th Street for days after he had to make that second Palin apology — and what can best be described as Olbermann-lite screeds, especially when someone who he doesn't like, like a Bill O'Reilly, comes on the show (give Keith a studio audience full of liberals and Paul Schaefer and his band with a musical guest at 50 minutes past the hour, and at times it would be hard to tell the two shows apart on the political front).
I liked "Hudson Hawk" and "Bonfire of the Vanities" too.
Ditto.
I love Jay Leno and I am thrilled that he is back on TV.
He is funny, silly, ad he always makes me smile and laugh.
I do not pay any attention to critics.
I can decide what I like on my own.
The door to my house is always open to Jay!
So I just tune on Leno and they announce Michael Moore is one of the guests.Let's not hear any more about the flag pin.Letterman is a bottom feeder but Leno is swimming in NBC's pool so there are no heroes here.By the way,I am not so pure that I don't watch Sunday Night football on NBC but when Olberman comes on at the half I am gone until they start play again.
Really great piece. I too used to think Leno was not my ideal for a late night show. After letterman had his complete liberal breakdown on air night after night. I started more and more turning jay on. It was light and smart at times and really funny. Good luck to him on the failing network.
Leno is a left winger (said as much in an interview with Mother Jones) but he doesn't beat people over the head with his politics and follows Carson's rule for making sure that the joke is the important thing, not the target or some ulterior motive; thus, everyone is a target, left or right.
Letterman stopped being funny around 1990. How he's still on the air is a mystery.
I miss Johnny Carson.
"I’m surprised their review wasn’t interrupted by a twenty-minute pledge drive promising a butt-ugly tote bag and a CD of “Neil Sedaka Goes Cajun” for Premium Members." Now that was hilarious.
… adding to all who talked about Leno's all-Americanness – he also, in the few photos I saw, wears…. blue, faded, non-designer denim shirts or jeans… yakkkkkkkk…. a NASCAR guy?… a Wrangler guy? LA Times has good reasons to wail that the end is here.
I like Jay Leno, and if I can't watch his program, I will record it and look at it while Leftist Letterman is on. I never liked Letterman anyway.
I like Jay Leno, and if I can't watch his program at its regular time, I will record it and look at it while Leftist Letterman is on. I never liked Letterman anyway.
I think I'm going to make a habit of tuning in for Leno's monologues–now at a reasonable time. But his guests? Kanye? Moore? Pft. Unless he can to better than that, I'll be going to back to whatever I was doing after the first segment.
John Nolte goes off on a rant about how the wrong people dislike Jay Leno, and the right people do like him. Then he says, "I didn’t see his show, but I’m pulling for him because all the right people are not."
Granted, Leno's show is pretty bad, but I can't believe it is being politicized. I always perceived Leno as being pretty liberal…not as much as Letterman but still liberal.
And on top of it all, Nolte didn't even watch the show!!! He's just assuming from beginning to end. Awful, awful writing.
The writers for Leno are all liberals and he is too, but I give him credit for not shoving his political beliefs down our throats like Letterman and Maher.
Watching Letterman and Maher is just depressing. Both are rich, amoral jerks who live in a bubble. There is nothing remotely thoughtful or original about either one of them. They really hate the common man they pretend to care so much about.
Conan is the best. I'm sure he's liberal too, but he has made a few cracks about Obama–it's refreshing!
It doesn't matter what the critics think…never did…but the show is just Leno's old, rehashed pablum an hour earlier. It's McDonald's…nothing wrong with liking it, and it comes in handy in a pinch, but it never changes and why go there when there are so many better options?
I don't care for Letterman or Leno. They are both Jerks that are both stupid liberals. I recall Leno attacking Linda Tripp. He just said , with no punch line, "Linda Tripp is Fat!". WOW what a funny joke.
Leno and Letterman can kiss my A##, I never watch stupid TV.
I agree completely!!!!!! Great comment.
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Your last line says it all John, the right people don't like it then it is worth pulling for. I'll admit I didn't watch it last night or tonight, but as of right now I will be tuning in and giving atleast one more person's support to Jay Leno, not only for the reason stated above but because he truly is a class act in a medium full of trash and deserves the support of people like us who are on this website, granted getting almost five times the viewers of his "competitor" he doesn't need it per say, but I will be watching here on out.
With all due respect sir whom do you like? Just curious.
"Ishtar" , At the studo preview, more walk out than stayed at mid movie
I can see why you are a " use to be " whatever.
He played off the "car guy" thing , all right- I thought his quip about personally making five billion dollars from the "Cash for Clunkers" program was uproariously funny.
Good description of Letterman, John. After his 233rd pailin joke, I am starting to despise that guy. I watched Jay's inaugural show last night and was less than impressed, but then I think I will keep watching it just to piss off all the "right" people
Good description of Letterman, John. After his 233rd Sarah Palin joke, I am starting to despise that guy. I watched Jay's inaugural show last night and was less than impressed, but then I think I will keep watching it just to piss off all the "right" people
How did he "toss" Carson off the air? Johnny Carson was and remains the King of late night TV and as I recall he decided after 30 years to leave on his own volition, much to the consternation of NBC.
In fact his leaving was in itself a long drawn out event with his guests mentioning it for the last year of his show.
I have to admire Leno – imagine taking over **that** show with Carson – as he said in a recent article in Parade Magazine, his ratings were down from Carson but through hard work he brought the Tonight Show back to #1.
Why NBC forced him to retire is a mystery to me – all that I can ascertain is that they wanted "younger viewers" but to me #1 is #1 but then what do I know
I don't understand your believing he is "bad at interviews"; I have actually met him twice at the Monterey Historic races – and I can tell you he is a very approachable guy – not what you would expect a celebrity with millions of viewers to be like.
He is just a regular guy; a fellow car nut – there. He has some humility knowing who has made his audience.
Did anybody see the second episode tonight? The one with Michael Moore sitting down and being asked about his "unbiased" new film 'Capitalism: A Love Story'? Yeah, it seems that Leno is "not a genius when it comes to economic issues", but he sure seemed to enjoy promoting this thing. Does the idea that someone can go on national television and say that "capitalism is evil" give anybody else the heebie-jeebies? Just like Cass Sunstein nudging us to become vegetarians, and Obama nudging us towards socialism, Jay Leno will nudge us through laughter just as much as Letterman. Where are all the conservative comedians at? Cuz I'll tell you, some of the stuff thats going on right now is funny as s***.
Just thought I'd turn on the show just now to give it a shot and was greeted by the chubby jowls of Michael Moore. Even the flag label pin could not keep me from switching off quickly.
Leno lost me after his never-ending string of "Catholic priests are pedophiles" jokes. He might be less liberal than Letterman, but I just got tired of listening to this crap every night.
Yeah I saw it… it was creepy. Michael Moore does have a decent singing voice though. Reminded me of that scene from Cabaret where the Nazi Youth are singing "tomorrow belongs to me"
Letterman gives me nightmares. On the other hand, sometimes after watching Red Eye I have dreams of being stuck in a basement on a trampoline with Joannie Cunningham. I am OK with that as long as Andrew WK and Levy bust in to save me.
Having watched both shows for years, I'd like to make the following observations. Maybe because of CBS's older audience. Letterman's humor is more sophisticated than Leno's. His always seemed sophmoric and at least once a night would get panned by the audience. Leno's interview's were generally more interesting…Letterman's too predictable. However being in LA gives Leno an advantage in getting guest. Leno's taped bits were more interesting and had more production value. Maybe owning your own show kept Letterman from spending more while leno was spending NBC's money. However, Leno is too one dimensional for my taste. Beyond cars…what else do we know about him? As for the first show…I was generally disappointed. He's had three months to come up with a premiere show and last night's was nothing special. Sienfeld was Sienfeld and the West interview was interesting. The closing musical number was exceptional but the rest of the show was average at best. The lighting made him look older and heavier and the uninteresting set didn't help. See how odd and distracting the set looks behind him on the close up shots. What was the set designer thinking? I'll tape future show depending
on the guest but it wouldn't be my first choice.
I have been bored with Leno in the past, but I wish him all success with this new show. What I really wish, is that Leno would feature a jazz artist on the show every night! Old jazzmen, young jazzmen. Jazz performers of every kind. Bring on Sonny Rollins, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny!
"Even worse, those five hours Jay’s eating up could’ve otherwise been used to trash Christians and Republicans on Law & Order: God We Love Obama.”
Well said my friend. Although, I would hardly call Jay a conservative. At best, you could call him center-left.
Letterman and Leno are both asshats, turn the tv off, and read a book to your children for an hour. You'll find it much more rewarding…………………………as long as your not reading "Rules for Radicals" to them. Oh ya, Leno lacks an edge, and some balls.
Very well put. Especially the first sentence,
Outstanding post…….the observation about how the bi-coastal critics have become the establishment elite is spot on. The only "edginess" that Letterman and his ilk bring is akin to a sandpaper rubdown. Lets face it, the biggest difference in Leno and Letterman besides polemics is that the former is just plain funnier than the latter .
but he doesn't beat people over the head with his politics and follows Carson's rule for making sure that the joke is the important thing, not the target or some ulterior motive; thus, everyone is a target, left or right.
1. Doesn't beat people over the head with his politics
2. Thinks the joke is more important that whom it's targeting
3. Makes everyone an equal target.
How is he a "left-winger"? He doesn't fit the pattern. Most liberal entertainers like to give lengthy political opinions, and pick their targets carefully so as to grind their enemies down while not even getting close to any potential allies. Not to mention that to them, whether or not a joke is funny depends entirely on whom it's aimed at; they condemn even a good joke about President Obama, while laughing just a little too hard at even the lamest cheap shots at George W. Bush.
Well, say that there's a place near your house that's just as convenient as McDonald's, and doesn't cost you any more than a trip to Mickey Dee's would — but every time you go there, the staff are surly and contemptuous, if not outright abusive, and you walk out wondering why the hell these people haven't been fired and why you ever bothered to come back…
I suppose most of us are much smarter today than we were 20 years ago.
I don't know…if Leno really wants to be edgy, maybe he should retire the "Bush is clumsy" jokes and consider taking a shot or two at President Messiah. He still doesn't seem to think there's anything funny there.
Nice rant. I used to love Letterman, years ago. He has become bitter and way too unfunny, and frankly, an ass. Leno always put on a nice show, his monologue hit and miss, but he was a good personality. I prefer Craig Ferguson, personally. And Conan, and Jimmy.
That said, I watched Jay's premiere, and it wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't think it was funny at all.
I'm not wishing Jay to fail, but I would take Lost, Heroes, Desperate Housewives, etc. at 10pm any day over his show.
[...] This is a beaut: [...]
I turned of the new Leno show because I cannot absolutely CANNOT stand the sound of Jerry Seinfeld's voice. Even Leno was making fun of it. Then I'm supposed to have to hang around for Kanye West? Er…no.
Zevon gone but Letterman still here. We wuz robbed.
Well, I won't be watching Leno just because he's into cars and Letterman's a tool. Great rant though.
after reading all these comments, I will give Leno a chance and watch him…at least until Castle and CSI Miami come in…lol
Excellent observation… "Letterman is… lazy."
I can remember a few years back, when I was a Letterman fan, bouncing between Letterman and Leno. In the opening monologue, Letterman would have, maybe, four or five jokes. He would finish, and they would go to Paul for the musical segue into "Know Your Meats", or some such. Then, I would jump to Leno and watch another 7 to 10 minutes of monologue… almost every single night. Leno was SO much more creative and capable in the joke-writing department.
Hey Leno you got a note from headquarters.
Get Joe Wilson
Come up with your usualy retean, you know Joe's a racist.
Joe hates Blacks.
Joe's rich Republican.
You know the usual lies and innuendo you've been spitting out for 20 years, it's so funny..
Bisexuals across America are bristling at being associated with "bi-coastal critics".
Just kidding. Great article. I love that we have this clear, shining contrast in the form of these two men. Like some others in their comments, I used to like Letterman until he became so vicious and then political and finally the worst sort of creeper. Leno is a very funny man — I'll have to give his show a tumble. Thank you Nick for presenting this stark relief.
I would hope your kids would be in bed by the time Letterman or Leno is on.
Leno's edgy because he's not? It's hip to be square? No, no it isn't. it never will be. Letterman may not be edgy–okay, he definitely isn't–but that does not make Leno so.
By the way, his asking West about his mother was dispicable.
There is no doubt in my mind after listening to Dennis Miller's interviews with Jay that he is a humble and decent fellow. He seems like he would be a fun guy to just hang out with and shoot the bull, about cars or whatever, over a couple of beers.
Jay makes me laugh far more often than Letterman does. Jay has better writers, and I like his personality better.
Obama needs a hobby. I don't know – maybe being PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?
"He'd always come out with these half-arsed sort of jokes that weren't the least bit funny and then try to make funny the fact that no effort was made to be humorous!"
Anti-humor is what they call it. Letterman often gets lumped in with the "ironic" (actually, all humor is ironic, but that's the name they give to it, so I must oblige), smart-ass comedy that gained popularity in the 70s. Think Bill Murray. Or with the avant-garde, "performance art" comedy. Think Andy Kaufman (who, by the way, was anti-joke but not anti-humor). However, Letterman was none of those. He was a smart-ass, don't get me wrong. And he did enjoy eschewing the conventional talk show format. But deep down, he was interested in getting laughs by being an a**h**e. Not by being funny, but by annoying people.
I don't consider that a noble pursuit. Accolades like Conan O'Brien–who practices an entirely different comedic style, involving randomness and absurdism–should wake up and realize there is no Letterman legacy in comedy because Letterman, though a naturally funny guy, had no comedy style of his own. People laugh at him despite his style, I'd say.
He basically admits that he's a lefty here: laweekly.com/2004-09-16/news/does-mr-middle-of-the-road-lean-left
You can't really make this stuff up. The obsession with lapel pins? Goodness. "Hollywood demonization" of lapel pins? What a wanker. The reason that they are so front-and-center in the nation's dialog right now is because, for eight years, the morons on the right thought that, if they wore a lapel pin, they could claim they were patriots while at the same time murdering, torturing, stripping the citizens of rights, and sticking it to normal americans.
I don't like it either. The lapel pin should be demonized not because it is the flag – a wonderful symbol – but because of the self-righteous, hideously contradictory clowns that portray them as the end-all, be-all of americanism. Reminds me of the priest talking about wholesome living whilst whacking it under his robes while thinking about the little boy in the front pew.
"Letterman's humor is more sophisticated than Leno's. His always seemed sophmoric"
I really can't tell the difference in sophistication between Stupid Pet Tricks and Headlines, or Know Your Cuts of Meat and Jaywalking. Neither of them are verbal wits on the level of Moliere and Shakespeare, as evidenced by their prepared jokes. I'd say Jay wins by pure volume, but qualitatively, I can't tell the difference.
What remains is the general feeling you get watching the show. It's just this sense you get. With Leno, there's a big whiff of pandering, which Letterman lacks. Letterman, it would seem, is in on the joke that talk shows are lame. He endlessly drives this point home by intentionally not being funny, whereas Jay will cut off his left arm to get you on his side. Except, for me, you have to be both funny and self-aware to be a sophisticated comedian. Parodies like "Scary Movie" aren't better than what they're parodying just because they're parodying. They have to be good parodies, as well.
Oh, and I forgot to say, the way he milked the O.J. scandal was disgusting. Double murder just isn't funny to me.
"I didn't see the show" But the critics are wrong anyhow. I've read stupid things before, butt that one takes the cake
Haven't seen Ishtar, but I agree about Hudson Hawk, it is criminally underrated. Loved it.
Okay, first let me say.. I turned the channel during the Moore interview… I refuse to listen to that pompous arrogant ass… (I caught one line: "Capitalism is just greed on a large scale" or something to that effect.).
Even Leno pushed on West for his antics.. and no, to the conspiracy individual who says that Jay set that up… West probably did it on his own as a set up, but to blame Leno?
But I actually enjoy Leno's show… yes, he might be a centrist-leftist, but he NEVER seems to push that on you, and he tends to come across as likable and watchable.. .(although I've yet to catch one of the segments where he's asking audience / people off the street questions.)
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