From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK — A frequent contributor to a jihadist website has threatened David Letterman, urging Muslim followers to “cut the tongue” of the late-night host because of a joke the comic made on his CBS show.

The Site Monitoring Service, a private intelligence organization that watches online activity, said Wednesday that the threat was posted a day earlier on the shumukh al-Islam forum, a popular Internet destination for radical Muslims.

Jihadist didn’t like his joke…

The contributor, who identified himself as Umar al-Basrawi, was reacting to what he said Letterman did after the U.S. military announced on June 5 that a drone strike in Pakistan had killed al-Qaida leader Ilyas Kashmiri.

Al-Basrawi wrote that Letterman had made reference to both Osama bin Laden and Kashmiri and said that Letterman had “put his hand on his neck and demonstrated the way of slaughter.”

(more…)

Paul Bond in The Hollywood Reporter:

Sarah Palin will be joined by an unlikely group of co-stars in her upcoming film: Matt Damon, Rosie O’Donnell, David Letterman and Bill Maher, among other Hollywood celebrities who loathe her.

The stars appear in the feature-length biography of Palin from documentary filmmaker Stephen Bannon that is designed to reintroduce Palin as a woman who rose from nowhere to become the nation’s most popular governor. …

While the celebrities are only a small part of the film, Bannon’s goal is to remind moviegoers of the vile comments made about Palin, and he hopes the rest of the film makes the case that they were calculated and undeserved. …

Bannon made The Undefeated for $1 million and he predicts that, whether or not Palin runs for president in 2012, the film will help shape the narrative of the election and the various campaigns.
 
“This will go off like an atomic bomb in the upcoming Republican primary,” he says.

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Billionaire and potential GOP candidate Donald Trump deserves much of the criticism currently being thrown his way, but nothing The Donald has said is anywhere near as obscene as the MSM and Left-wing Hollywood attempting to brand him a racist. It’s the single worst charge you can hurl at someone in this day and age and to do so based on no evidence other than Trump’s questioning of a sitting President’s background is beyond the pale.

Yes, Trump said “the blacks.” So what? VP Biden said “clean and articulate,” Senate Majority Leader Reid said “negro dialect,” and Sen. Robert Byrd, a one-time Grand Wizard of the KKK, used the N-word on television just a few years before his death. Like him or not, watching  the same MSM that eagerly participated in the “high tech lynching” of Clarence Thomas now attempting to smear Trump as racist is no different than watching a witch hunt. Pure and simple, this is a baseless charge being hurled to intimidate and quiet a political opponent.

Moreover, you would think that of all people, Hollywood would be the most careful about participating in this kind of political-baiting, but just last week Letterman jumped right on the New Blacklist Bandwagon with a threat to ban Trump from his show for being a communist racist.

(more…)

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Was questioning George W. Bush’s intelligence racist — a phony narrative Letterman himself relentlessly pushed?

Was digging into Bush’s National Guard records three-years into his presidency racist and off-limits?

Letterman knows Trump is no racist, he’s just trying to chill the billionaire into silence and at the same time send a ‘dog-whistle’ to his showbiz pals to follow suit. They all watched Obama’s poll numbers drop as Trump went after their precious one, and now they’re hurling around the word “racist” just as readily as McCarthy hurled “communist” in order to shut Trump up and shut him down. 

This is nothing more than a variation of the showbiz blacklist of the 1950s; the creation of a phony charge in order to intimidate into silence and marginalize a political opponent.   

(more…)

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Ooh. So edgy, bold and original.

Maybe the card’s other side has a Top 10 Reasons Jokes About Sarah Palin’s Children Are Funny.

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Sam Kinison. I was never a huge fan.  Not from a “make me laugh” standpoint, anyhow. I didn’t mind him, I just never found him to be all that uproarious. Nevertheless, I respected the hell out of him. Of course now that he’s passed, the entertainment industry has made him into a martyr. A more modern if slightly chubby Lenny Bruce, if you will.  But I have to wonder if Sam were still alive, would Hollywood still fawn over him, or reprimand him as a homophobic race-monger?

I think we can all take a wild guess.

Whether it’s the feigned offense from the derogatory use of the word “gay” in Vince Vaughn’s “The Dilemma” or Tinseltown’s constant hurt feelings over the op-ed journalists at Fox News, one’s thing’s for sure; Hollywood doesn’t exactly have a thick skin.

At least not when it comes to the things that the media elite love to huddle around.  Sure there are the old whipping-post standby’s like Christians, conservatives and white men. They’re fair game. Turn the guns on the politically correct cause du jour however, and “funny” seems to go right out the window. Even equal opportunity offenders aren’t welcome (see Sean Penn’s feud with Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park).

Sam Kinison made fun of all of it. Actually “assaulted” is probably a better word. The man was a former minister, so he had his finger to the pulse of Christian hypocrisy and he knew how to push the right buttons within the community. Just as surely, he’d turn around on a blistering rant about neo-Liberals and their pansified antics. If there were targets, he would hit them. (more…)

I recently read John Nolte’s piece on Sam Kinison, and it really struck a chord. He asks if a young comic today could get away with some of Sam’s material.

I was a young comic, barely breaking in my comedy teeth when I got to work with Sam. I was booked at Yuk-Yuks in Rochester NY, when Sam did a string of dates around the franchise, in early 1986. I was already booked at the Rochester Yuks all week, and Sam came in for two nights of that tour. I not only got to see his show twice, I was privileged to hang with him late in to the evening at the condo that first night.

—–

It was a week that changed my entire perspective on the art of comedy. I like most other beginners had a pretty simple act, just trying to get people to laugh. I was looking for the funny in pop culture references, maybe making fun of a television commercial, or the new practice of putting missing kids pictures on the sides of milk cartons. I was just another happy eighties comic with a skinny tie, open collar and my blazer sleeves pushed up to my elbows.

Sam did something I had never seen on a comedy stage before. He took real issues and dissected them with a comedy scalpel. On second thought, make that a chainsaw. He tore through the status quo with the subtly of a Pete Townsend power chord, wailing like a heavy metal priest. His act was an hour stream of consciousness, alternating between calm rationality and the battle of the id. He was Speed Metal to the Billy Joel pop that was passing for comedy in those days

Something few people know is that Sam never actually screamed while he was on stage. What he did was raise the pitch of his voice to sound like he was screaming, and turned the mike way up to compensate for the missing volume. It was an elocutionary device he learned from his days as an evangelist preacher. (more…)

I was flipping through the tube last night, and found myself in an all-too familiar situation: watching reruns of Seinfeld.  Sure, you could chalk it up to my lack of a basic cable package, or it could be due to the fact that I’m no longer able to stomach Letterman’s increasingly senile, liberal spewage (and Leno is sort of hit-or-miss these days).  I would argue, however, that one reason stands above the rest: Seinfeld is honest.

The truth is that Seinfeld reflects the worst among us. It is made up of a memorable cast, all of whom play the most self-serving people you could ever meet. Self-absorbed, vain and often underhanded, the show is a perfect embodiment of many involved with the entertainment industry.  You’ve got to love its transparency. Unlike James Cameron (who is just as materialistic and self-serving as a George Costanza), you never have to worry about the show sermonizing the politically correct cause du jour.

Funnily enough, it is Seinfeld’s lack of a soapbox that spurs me to take a good hard look at myself more than any other show on television. How often do you find yourself disgusted at the selfishness of George or Jerry, only to realize that you’ve most likely acted similarly (if not identically) at one point or another? (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…)

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…)

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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.”

Forty years after man first walked on the Moon, and every single talk show opened their first monologue of the week with jokes about it.  Conan O’ Brien did a revisit to last week’s erased Moon tape bit, this week suggesting that a Mr. T rap video was recorded over the original moon landing tapes. Stephen Colbert claimed that the New York Times reprinted their July 20, 1969 front page as a “moving tribute to a time when people got their news from newspapers.”

Of course David Letterman did jokes on it almost every single night. Conspicuously absent on Letterman this week were the Ruth Madoff jokes about switching to Geico® and California Pizza Kitchen®.  The Bernie Madoff joke this week (Monday and Friday) was how a call girl is the only person who actually made any money off of Bernie. He also jumped on the joke Jimmy Kimmel started last week about Obama’s Bingo Pants, but of course, Letterman’s joke was at the expense of people who might look more appropriate in Obama’s pants (Hillary, Rosie O’Donnell, Chastity Bono). Kimmel did a redux, and claimed he doesn’t want a President in tight jeans, he just wants a President that shops in the men’s section. (more…)

It’s going to be a very sparse one this week, since Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart were all on vacation. (Last week, everybody but Stewart and Colbert were on vacation so I didn’t watch. They re-ran those episodes this week, but except for the Michael Jackson stuff, there wasn’t really enough overlap material to judge them fairly).

Lamest Attempt at Obama Joke: David Letterman claimed that Obama was in Russia, hiking the Appalachian trail.

Letterman also used John McCain as a foil on three different nights to compare the disparity between winners and losers of the last Presidential election: While Obama traveled to Russia to meet with Putin, McCain was chasing kids off his lawn. While Obama was in Italy, McCain was heating up a can of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee; While Obama was in Italy meeting with the G-8, McCain was on his front porch in Arizona, waving at cars. (more…)

While the President was pitching health care and the Speaker was rounding up support for Cap and Trade, the Late Nights were focused on Mark Sanford: a Republican governor that seemed like a comeuppance for Democrat Rod Blagojevich. In fact many of the hosts brought up the Illinois Governor in their jokes.

Craig Ferguson said after Spitzer and Blagojevich, the most normal governor was Jesse Ventura. He also said that a family values governor having a mistress is like Al Gore needing four SUVs to bring his lunch to him.(It was disappointing that Ferguson didn’t see the irony in his remark, because Al Gore DOES require multiple SUVs when he travels) Funniest line went to Conan O’Brien, who said the affair was a shock, because usually, Republicans don’t do well with Hispanic women. (more…)

After a week that will go down in history as the moment Republicans finally stood up for themselves, comics are not laying off John McCain’s former running mate just yet. Bill Maher said that Iran was propped up by oil revenue and run by a religious whacko, just like Alaska. Letterman, despite frequent jokes about the amount of hate mail he has been receiving, couldn’t help mentioning that Gay Pride week was the only time of year when you can see hundreds of men dressed up like Sarah Palin.

The big topics of the week were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the presidential fly killing:

The election of Mahmoud was compared by the talk show hosts alternately to the 2000 Presidential and the 2008 Minnesota Senate elections. Fallon claimed that now that his opponent lost, he’ll go on to make a documentary about Global Warming.  David Letterman actually did a joke almost every single night, changing the punchline from Florida voting machines, to Pat Buchanan, Al Gore, Al Franken and Jeb Bush.  Bill Maher used Norm Coleman then criticized his audience for not knowing who he was talking about. The funniest line was Ferguson’s who claimed that Iranian politics have finally gotten as corrupt as Chicago. (more…)

Dear Mr. Letterman,

Several weeks ago I wrote you a heartfelt letter expressing my concern for the direction that your show was headed. I am sad to see that you have not only not reined in the nastiness, but that your spin cycle is now on viciousness overload.

Mr. Letterman, this is not about your liberalism. I was a fan of yours for 20 years, and put politics aside as my fellow Republicans abandoned your show in droves. I defended you sir, and I am now being forced to eat my words. (more…)

The fact that I’ve needed to correct the record every time I’m involved in some sort of media firestorm (about once a month since the election, it seems), probably says at least as much about the pathetic nature of our news media as anything I put in my documentary “Media Malpractice,” a film whose truth I’ve dedicated almost all of the last year of my life to. The most recent episode involving the controversy over David Letterman’s comments about Governor Sarah Palin and her family is certainly no exception.  

First, let me tell you what really happened, and then I can explain what we should all learn from this.  Here’s the timeline… 

Monday, June 8th: Letterman uses Palin’s trip to New York to unleash a torrent of  ”comic” attacks on her and her family. The entire “Top Ten” list is devoted to the Governor and includes cracks about her updating her “slutty” wardrobe and possessing illegal drugs. The monologue includes a “joke” about Palin’s “daughter” getting “knocked up” at a Yankees game by Alex Rodriquez during the 7th inning stretch while her mother and a stadium full of spectators presumably watched.   (more…)

Although I rarely find any interest in the entertainment industry, I am very glad to see Conan O’Brien become the head of the “Tonight Show.” His ascension to the throne continues a tradition that Johnny Carson brought forth and Jay Leno continued. The new host of the “Tonight Show” is a nice guy. (Steve Allen was as well, but many would consider he and Jack Paar to be less relevant since they came before Carson. I avoid this debate since, again, I am not in the industry.)

Yes, Johnny Carson preferred that David Letterman get his job (I watch Letterman, although less so lately), but the network saw Leno as the logical heir. Letterman is just too acid-tongued. It makes for some fun comedy, but the “Tonight Show” is about harmless and lighthearted fun. It made sense that Craig Kilborn, who was harder-edged than Conan, followed Letterman. Craig Ferguson, like Letterman, let’s his liberal political ideology affect his monologues. (more…)

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. (more…)

It had been about three weeks since my last Late Night review, so I thought the time was right. Wednesday Night, May 20, 2009, I reviewed: David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon. I also took a look at the “Real Time with Bill Maher” from Friday May 19, and The season finale of Saturday Night Live.

Since my last review, we saw: A stand up comedy routine that was apparently gleaned from the mistaken assumption, that jokes about President Bush were standard Correspondent’s Dinner protocol. President Obama also announced his plan to save the auto companies by forcing them to raise their prices thirteen-hundred dollars (proving He has less business sense than the cartoon Wal-Mart slasher). He appeared on stage with a handful of people beholden to bailout money in a photo-op that looked very much like a hostage situation. Photographed on stage with Governors’ Granholm and Schwarzenegger, you had to guess which leader actually had a US birth certificate. He also broke his promises to end military tribunals, release the interrogation photos and suspend don’t ask don’t tell. He proved that He had as much problem speaking “Mexican,” as he has with “Austrian,” and promised to drastically slash the overdrawn budget by a whopping 1/2 of 1 %. (more…)