Interesting analysis below, but what’s most glaring is that neither Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid nor House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi received enough attention from our brave Late Night gang to even rank on this list. However! Two years-plus out of office, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney got hit 36 and 66 times respectively.

Takes an awful lot of guts to Speak! Truth! To! The! Out! Of! Power!

U.S. News and World Report:

Republicans were joked about by a margin of 3 to 1 over Democrats on late-night talk shows last year, but the biggest joke for Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon was President Obama, according to a new George Mason University study provided to Whispers.

Republicans took the top title because so many of them were speared by Fallon, Leno, and David Letterman, according to Robert Lichter, president of the school’s Center for Media and Public Affairs. …

But when it came to the top target of the 2011, Obama and shamed former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner came in first and second. Obama was gored by 342 jokes, Weiner 220. Third was former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, followed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 186 and Osama bin Laden at 172.

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[T]his is how it works in the world of late night.  The last election cycle saw the late night hosts go into overdrive for the Obama election campaign.  Between January 1, 2008 and July 31, 2008, the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that Jay Leno​, Conan O’Brien, and David Letterman​ made a grand total of 169 jokes about Obama, compared with 428 about Bush and 328 about McCain.  Comedy Central comedians were more even – Colbert made 129 jokes about McCain to 91 for Obama, and Stewart made more jokes about Obama than McCain, although the vast majority of jokes about Obama were fawning compliments and the vast majority about McCain were brutal slams.

Perhaps that was the real purpose of Obama’s routine appearances on late night television as president of the United States, an unprecedented breach of traditional decorum: he wanted to make it routine for all candidates to appear on the shows run by his allies.  By appearing himself, Obama essentially dared anyone who opposes him to take the seat opposite the Jon Stewarts and Jimmy Fallons of the world – and, as they have to, Republicans have taken the bait.  That’s why we’ve seen Rick Perry reading a top ten list on Letterman about his debate foibles.  That’s why Bachmann was on Fallon.  That’s why McCain deigned to appear with Stewart, even knowing what was coming.

Dennis Miller​ was both brave and correct when he bashed Jay Leno​ for kissing Obama’s royal arse last week.  He actually recommended that Leno hire Obama after Obama loses his re-election effort: “I could see you guys doing comedy bits on here where you come out as Carnut the Magnificent and you have the turban on and the mechanic overalls and he reads ‘You are correct, sir!’ off a teleprompter.”

More likely, Obama will end up hiring all of these comedians as his court jesters sometime in the near future.  Their ratings are dropping, and their biases are now obvious.  And we already know the relationships are good: the Comedy Central writers are Obama’s brain trust of hilarity, writing jokes for his speeches and giving him tips on how to win over an audience.

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Stay classy, NBC.

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The video above confirms that the National Broadcasting Company’s house band for the “Jimmy Fallon Show” serenaded a sitting Congresswoman and presidential candidate with more than a few notes from Fishbone’s “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.”

What a cruel thing to do, and it’s the last thing you’d expect from someone like Jimmy Fallon, who does come off (or used to) as a pretty decent guy. Michele Bachmann was a “guest” on Fallon’s show and yet he and his house band sucker punch her with “Lyin’ Ass Bitch”?

Unbelievable.

Actually, it’s not.

The game is rigged and has been since the beginning. Candidates today are expected to go on Late Night as part of the presidential ritual, but the outcome more often than not is something like this. Democrats receive respect, Republicans get grilled, gotcha’d and humiliated, and Obama gets his boots licked.

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“I‘m glad they didn’t nominate [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie,” my friend Louis (whose Acme Comedy Company is about to celebrate twenty years in the business) said. “A lot of comedy clubs will not survive 2012; Christie would put the final nail their coffins.”

He was really concerned that with President Barack Obama’s dismal approval ratings the Republican primaries would become a winner-take-all contest, with the popular Christie making it all the way to the White House.

Louis believes that political satire is the finest form of the comedic arts, and he has seen it die twice over the last two decades. When the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal broke, every hack in America became a political comic just by appending Bill Clinton to their favorite oral sex gag. As we moved into the new millennium, comics who specialized in blonde jokes could call themselves political just by substituting President George W. Bush into the punchline.

With this new administration, political humor became very tricky, and only a few comics will attempt to make fun of the President. Heck, even the guys who did those “What if a Brother ever got into the White House?” routines were forced to write some original material or abandon the political arena altogether. Louis believes that the political edge of his club is part of what has kept him afloat three years into a recession. (more…)

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President Obama’s joint-session, prime time, pass-it-now jobs speech was so feckless that even Jon Stewart’s ridiculing it.

The American people aren’t all that impressed, either.

Obama becoming a late-night punchline and subject of ridicule might be the most glaring example of how much trouble he’s really in. The easier the jokes are to write and deliver, the more of “a joke” the subject becomes. Watch the first clip of Conan O’Brien. All he has to say is “jobs plan” to get a laugh.

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I think he’s wrong about some of these things, I just can’t tell you why. – David Letterman

This is two days in a row where a glib, lefty comedian has taken off his clown nose, engaged in a serious debate with someone from our side they disagree with politically and found themselves caught off guard by a prepared presentation of facts and logic.  Wednesday it was Jon Stewart being schooled by Donald Rumsfeld on the Iraq War and last night a calm, cool, and educated Senator Rand Paul gave David Letterman a terrific lesson on the basics of economics…

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Like Jon Stewart, you have to give Letterman credit for his willingness to seriously engage on this issue. You just have to wonder how long that will last if our side keeps presenting our ideas so well. Will the clown nose and cheap shots return soon?

What is great, though, is that thanks to Secretary Rumsfeld and Senator Paul’s willingness to enter the hostile territory of popular culture, a whole new audience has been exposed to a range of ideas unheard of on these shows before. Instead of our worldview simply being ridiculed or marginalized as punchlines, it’s being presented in reasonable and even attractive ways.

If Letterman and Stewart want to expand their audience; having more of our political stars on, engaging them on the issues, but doing so with this kind of respect would be an excellent way to go about it. 

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I think Craig Ferguson is the funniest, smartest most innovative host on any of the big three networks today. To me he has clearly been the star of  Late Night talk for a number of years. What those of you with day jobs may not realize: he is also an unapologetic American. 

In the entire gaggle of Late Night Hosts, I believe that Craig is the only one who comes close to filling the big empty shoes left behind when Johnny retired. While Leno and Letterman each have some of Carson’s characteristics, Ferguson is able to capture both sides of his genius. He is warm and goofy like Leno, but he’s also cool and sophisticated like Letterman. Like Johnny, he can handle a shy guest with disarming charm; hold his own against a tough guest; then put on the buck-teeth, the big fake ears, and do an impression of Prince Charles that is both ridiculously silly, and satirically eviscerating.

Craig Ferguson’s latest book is entitled “American on Purpose.” It’ spans his career  from the beginning as an alcoholic punk rock drummer, to becoming one of Late Night’s brightest stars. There are some marvelous insights about what it’s really like growing up in Europe, from a person who has seen the side that the tour buses usually avoid.

He grew up in one of the bleak concrete housing projects that popped up all over Europe in the wake of World War II. (You’d think a continent so ravaged by central planning, would have lost their affection for it.) Craig talks about his longing to be an American from the time he was very young, and made his first trip abroad; admiring the Americans for their beautiful straight teeth. Because he isn’t here by accident of birth, he is the only network talk host who recognizes American Exceptionalism. (He is also quite visibly the only host who actually had to pass a test on the U.S .Constitution.). (more…)

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First off, David Letterman should never feel the need to remind us he’s ignorant.

And good for Donald Trump, who hits the nail on the head when he says that the Ground Zero Mosque builders would engender a tremendous amount of goodwill if they would, of their own volition, move someplace where — as Roger Ebert was good enough to remind us – the ashes of the dead don’t still lay.

Below the fold you’ll find a video of Letterman taking a shot at His One. This makes a total of two jokes (I’m aware of) Letterman’s told at the expense of chronic vacationer Barack Obama. Think about how divisive and biased Letterman is that the strange occasion of his making a joke about our sitting president is found worthy of a mention. (more…)

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Hollywood A-listers avoiding Obama at fundraisers, Jon Stewart declaring the Race Card maxed out, and now the President’s number-one Late Night Palace Guard sees that he has no other choice other than to point to the vacationing elephant in the room.

Obviously Letterman doesn’t read “The American Prospect.” Which is about all the creepy Palin obsessive has in common with the rest of America.

By the way, does anyone know if Letterman’s been to Alaska recently…? (more…)

Press reports and even jokes on last night’s Jay Leno Show point to the likelihood that NBC’s experiment with moving Leno from late night to prime time is over, and that the instigator of the changes, Conan O’Brien, will have to accept a diminished role as a consequence of his successful campaign to force Leno out of his 11:30 slot.

The reports are that the Jay Leno Show will stop producing new episodes on February 1 or possibly February 12 when NBC begins broadcasting the Olympics, and will not return thereafter. Leno will go back to 11:35, and O’Brien-well, nobody is quite sure what’s happening with him yet. NBC execs are reportedly considering having a half-hour Leno show at 11:35, the Tonight Show with O’Brien at 12:05, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 1:05. Carson Daly will presumably remain the only thing in the world that’s not funny at 2 in the morning (hat tip to my number 2 son for that joke).

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As a candidate, Barack Obama was just as comfy on a late night couch as he was on the stump. The late night comedians and writers spared Obama from the barbs and prods they use to turn formidable politicians into laughing stocks. After all, they had their scopes set squarely on you know who… (paging Tina Fey).

A few weeks ago, a funny thing happened — call it a late night political paradigm shift. Conan O’Brien put some extra bite to his bark by featuring a tape of Sesame Street characters who earlier in the day had visited with the First Lady to talk about healthy eating. Conan overdubbed the clip and, suddenly, instead of talking about food, the muppets questioned Obama’s ‘United States birth certificate’ and his ’socialist health care agenda.’ In the past, satire like this might have been automatically assumed to be an attack on the right, but the skit ended up taking some Obama fans aback. Perhaps it struck a nerve. (more…)

David Letterman has been much in the news lately due to his fondness for the flesh of young female staffers, and the alleged blackmail plot regarding his exploits in that direction. It seems that old Dave is a bit of a lech who — like many powerful and wealthy individuals — uses his high social status to gain access to the sexual organs of women who would not look at him twice were he not so illustrious a figure. And so the furious debate rages in the papers, online and on cable news — will Dave survive the scandal? Will his audience follow him? The mystery for me however is much simpler — how did Letterman ever achieve the status he enjoys today? 

Allow me to explain. I’m not from around these parts. I grew up in Scotland, spent a decade in Russia, and arrived in the US three years ago. As something of a night owl I soon found myself confronted with America’s strange, televisual dream-world of nocturnal gibberish, and the even more perplexing national obsession with the personalities, rivalries and ratings battles that played out between the competing purveyors of this gibberish. The big one of course was Leno vs. Letterman, but who could forget the death struggle for comedic dominance between Conan and Craig Ferguson? Then there was the mystery of Jimmy Kimmel, floating around like some moth that had lost sight of the moon, detached from these wars as if no one expected him to succeed anyway. And lurking in the deep, deep darkness was the awful horror that is Carson Daly: charmless, entirely unfunny and visibly drowning in his own misery.  (more…)

David Letterman inspired my broadcasting career.  Twenty years ago, he was an awkward, self-deprecating guy who wore tennis shoes with his blazer and tie. He was edgy, silly, and unconventional compared to the traditions of variety television at that time.  He resonated with an awkward high school kid watching at home in Missouri.  Carson was still the king of late night, and some guy named Leno filled in for him a lot.  But Dave was cool because he didn’t seem to fit in.  Yet, when Carson announced his retirement, Letterman was said to be the heir apparent to the Tonight Show. 

As a fan, I didn’t want Letterman to move into Carson’s chair.   Not because Letterman couldn’t handle it.  It just seemed too refined for someone as eccentric and edgy as Letterman.  Turned out NBC saw it that way too when they awarded “Tonight” to Leno.  It pained Letterman.  But it helped to foster that continued edgy, underdog status that led fans like me to follow him to CBS. (more…)

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When felons were induced to talk, they were shown first the instruments of their torture. The King is shown the instrument of His… to induce Him NOT to talk.  - The Madness of King George

And with the full knowledge of what will happen next, the current King of Late Night. David Letterman announced to the world that he has been guilty of sexual indiscretions with some of his staff.

 That had to be difficult. Over the past 27 years we’ve enjoyed watching Letterman take apart people who have fallen prey to simple human urges. From Gary Hart’s Monkey Business, through Woody Allen and Soon Yi, into the Clinton years, and right up to the Palin scandal that forced an apology; David Letterman has been right on top of others’ indiscretions.

So he knew what he is facing. In a stifled apology on his show last night that sounded like it was written by Garrison Keillor, he got remorseful with the audience: (more…)

Watch CBS Videos Online

Obama on Jimmy Carter: “I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election… So the American people I think gave me this extraordinary honor and that tells you I think a lot about where the country’s at.”

David Letterman was just rising – earlier than you might think for a guy who’s show is on late enough for college partiers and “freelancers” to enjoy without fear of feeling tired the next day. You’d think that only if you didn’t know the show is taped earlier in the day – and what was taped this week certainly stirred the pot.

“You think maybe you would have edited that, David?” Mr. Carson asked, standing in the lavish bathroom.

“I mean your producer had the time. They could have cut it, right?”

Carson looked very young. Circa ‘66 young.

Letterman was incredulous.  “Johnny… what the heck are you doing here, how can this be possible?” the aging late night host queried. (more…)

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To be amazed at how low David Letterman will stoop in order to humiliate Sarah Palin means we still think of him as an entertainer, instead of what he is: a leftist ideologue willing to do whatever it takes to destroy a perceived threat to the Democrat majority. Letterman’s nothing special or unique. He’s merely joined the whole of the entertainment industry in sacrificing his place as an entertainer and legacy as an artist to wage ideological war.

Maybe our first step in fighting back is to wake up to this fact and stop being amazed. (more…)

Conan O’Brien played it safe in his debut as host of NBC’s Tonight Show last night. That’s a good choice, actually. The big question is: Will it last?

As I noted in an article reporting on NBC’s choice of personable Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon to host its Late Show as O’Brien moved to the Tonight Show, Fallon was closer to the style that had worked so well for the latter program in the past: intelligent, likable, and not too challenging or edgy.

O’Brien, I noted, was much less winsome and much more ambitious in his comedy, and for the Tonight Show to have success, either he or the audience would have to change, with the latter being highly unlikely except through serious shrinkage. And of course that would be a disaster for the Peacock Network.

Fallon has done well at Late Night since taking the reins on March 3, in both entertainment value and audience ratings. Late Night appears to be in very capable hands, and although it’s simply a timewaster, that’s all it is intended to be, while delivering consistent audience numbers for NBC’s advertisers. (more…)

April 29, 2009. 100 days. In case you were in a sensory deprivation tank, you probably know full well that Wednesday was the 100th day of the Obama Administration, and most of the news shows used it as an excuse to give Him the same exact grade they would have given Him for His first day in office.

That grade is completely unchanged by all the goofs and blunders made by this handsome community organizer, who was rushed into an office that was clearly over His head. Their grade was unbesmirched by the other grades given to Him by Wall Street, the President of France,  the North Korean missile launchers, or by four Somali pirates. (The same pirates who were allowed to humiliate the US Navy for three days before the Commander in Chief gave the order to shoot.)

What a great day to do another Late Night Review, and an opportunity to grade the Nation’s Premiere Satirists on their 100 days. In the time since the last review, we saw not only the aforementioned tense situations; but also an Air Force One flyover that created a panic, one heck of a carbon footprint, and a third of a million dollar addition to the deficit, all for the sake of a pretty photograph.

Certainly there must be something worth making fun of by now. We saw Obama calling for an end to privacy, giving a gag gift the Queen, and a bow to the Saudi King. We learned that He works out three hours a day (no wonder He needs a teleprompter to stay current), and thinks Austrian is a language. He again proved that Harvard isn’t so good at teaching American History, claiming He was only three months old during the Bay of Pigs. No news there, He didn’t think He was in government when the deficit occurred either. (more…)