Letterman = Uncool
by Tim SlagleLast week, I took a little bit of heat for calling David Letterman a hack (and also dashed any remaining hopes I had for ever appearing on his show). Just in case there’s any doubt of my allegation, I present to you the following videos. Here’s a clip that ran on Wednesday June 11, 2008:
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Now here’s a segment that ran just this past Wednesday, March 25, 2009 (Please note, that the man making his bracket picks, was far too busy to pay any attention to the stock market; and couldn’t find the time to shop for an appropriate gift for the British Prime Minister — or at least get DVDs that work in the UK):
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What’s most most amazing to me is that Letterman pays a sizable staff WGA scale to come up with this stuff. And you thought government workers were lazy. Of course, considering Letterman’s documented propensity to repeat the same exact jokes night after night, I’m beginning to wonder if he might be getting forgetful in his old age. Perhaps his writers are aware of that and have been been taking advantage.
Not only are these segments annoying idol worship of the new star in the White House, and downright mean to a President who was all too human, you really have to wonder how long they intend to run with the joke.
What a country!
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====Last week, I took a little bit of heat for calling David Letterman a hack.=====
Letterman is a hack and I think even he would agree with that. If he thinks he’s a nonpartisan “comedian” then he is as deranged as he seems.
Letterman is one of thise guys I want to like, but just can't
Letterman was cool… 20 years ago.
The last time I found Letterman funny was sometime pre-Bush. In fact, I could say that about most things involving TV and comedy. Although I happened to catch a bit of Leno's opening monologue the other evening, and he was poking some anemic fun at Obama.
Dear lord, when exactly did Letterman turn into Kathie Lee Gifford?
At the point where this society started elevating former high school "class clowns" to a position of respectability, we started our slow spiral downward. I mean, a dim wit like Bill Mahre defines stupid as a Batchelors degree from Yale, and a Masters degree from Harvard Business School, and no one bats an eyelash. What's HIS academic credentials? Probably didn't graduate from high school.
Even from the beginning Letterman was all that "inside joke" stuff. You know, like you're the last one in the conversation. I never saw where he was laugh out loud funny. And even watching his show with people who liked him, I still didn't think it was clever or smart, just kind of slick-stupid. Kind of a "you had to be there", except you were there.
Letterman knows that the angry conservatives want him to skewer the President. He seems to take a particular delight in not doing it. But not all is lost for people on this site. Dave usually does small town news a couple times a month. And I bet many of the posters on here know their cuts of meat.
I'm not sure why Tom Slagle would consider himself someone to be invited as a guest onto Letterman. No one other than the devoted hundred who post on this site knows or cares who he is. If he can get himself cast in a movie, or come out with a hit record, or do a stand up routine, then maybe. But a compulsive whiner and complainer on an obscure extremist website hardly rates.
Agreed.
He is not funny. Never was. Never will be.
Obama can fill out an NCAA bracket? Wow.
Color me impressed.
My kids sometimes watch Letterman, and I've tried to watch along with them a few times. Honestly, though, it is so mind-numbingly juvenile that I can't take it for more than 10 or 15 minutes before having to leave to do something (anything) else.
Letterman hasn't been funny since I was in high school, and that was over 20 years ago. He hasn't changed at all. So stale. So lame. He's just a east coast alternative to Leno, kind of like the Mets versus the Dodgers – who the heck cares? And what about the genre in general? How long ago was the opening monologue-interview guests-lame jokes format invented? He hasn't done anything that wasn't done 50 years ago. No originality, just the same old same old. It's a great thing to have 100 other channels to watch instead.
I'm just fascinated that the late-night comedians, who you'd think would treat **all** authority irreverently, have suddenly found a new sacred cow in a Chicago political hack who has never actually run anything more ambitious than a political campaign.
What would Lenny Bruce think of this milquetoast bunch? They save their ire for the previous President, who never lashed back at his critics and who has now exited politics and is now out of the public eye, because apparently these so-called comedians are unable or unwilling to make jokes about the present.
I'm just fascinated that the late-night comedians, who you'd think would treat **all** authority irreverently, have suddenly found a new sacred cow in a Chicago political hack who has never actually run anything more ambitious than a political campaign.
What would Lenny Bruce think of this milquetoast bunch? They save their ire for the previous President, who never lashed back at his critics and who has now exited politics and is now out of the public eye, because apparently these so-called comedians are unable or unwilling to make jokes about the present.
All you conservative Leno lovers can't take a joke. Who's the sensitive whiners now? Geez.
I stopped watching letterman 8+ years ago for this same type of mean spirited "comedy". Why don't they show Obama trying to open a window like it was a door? Was that cool or uncool?
David Letterman is as american as apple pie. Its sad that we have resorted to competing late night talk show hosts for a two party system.
I used to think Letterman was funny back when he was working at NBC. The Andy Kaufman stuff was hilarious. Since he moved to CBS, it just seems like he's permanently angry at the fact he didn't get The Tonight Show. Why should I be watching someone who seems so unhappy at his job? He just sort of sleepwalks through everything now, sort of like Harrison Ford.
Maher graduated HS and Cornell Univ. He may be self-righteous, but not stupid. As for Bush's attendance at Yale and Harvard, he's what is known as a legacy admission: he got in because his father and grandfather (a US senator) went there, not because of academic qualifications.
Letterman always seemed angry and channeled his rage to mock. Just like Roseanne Barr, the first time around it was funny, after the 1000th playing of the same tune, it just gets tedious.
Letterman would make a much better weatherman (weather predictor, not a domestic terrorist like Obammy's friend) than a late night "comedian/talk show host". The guy just isn't funny. Nice to see his hypocracy pointed out last week though, he was apparently relentless in making fun of Bristol Palin and her out-of-wedlock baby, but he just recently bothered to marry his old lady shack job, after several years and one kid. Letterman is a filthy pig.
When we make the Tonight Show the place for the President to try to sell his policies is he still cool?
I will respect the office again when the man holding it starts to do the same
Tim, as always well done
Thank you. Leno has no balls. He buys his million dollar cars with the money NBC pays him while generally peeing on conservatives. Yes he bashed Clinton, but feasted on Bush and conservatives. HE WON'T TOUCH OBAMA! No balls.
I used to watch Letterman until he got a pathological hatred of Bush with his nightly Bush jokes. He and Leno have different kinds of humor – Letterman's is more cerebral – and he can poke fun at himself. But the nightly Bush rants finally turned me off to him.
Letterman is just one more Lefty political shill.
"Color"?!?!?! Did you just call Obama an ape?? I'm telling!
(Sorry, practicing my 'troll' routine)
Is that the Coulter Cornell or the Olbermann Cornell?
He just sort of sleepwalks through everything now, sort of like Harrison Ford.
Ooooh. Burn.
Even if President Bush did get in solely on his last name, he still went to class, hung in there and graduated…the fact that he graduated with the people who relied only on their academic qualifications for admission, makes him just as smart, does it not?
Or is getting in SOLELY on your academic merit what really counts? In that case, what is it exactly that got Obama into HLS? I would love to believe that his grades were good enough…but then no one has actually seen his transcripts (both Columbia and Occidental) ,have they?
Taking the jacket off his first day in office was more than symbolic. It, apparently, was foreshadowing.
He still had to complete the work to be awarded the degrees. Or are there also Legacy Master's Degrees?
Let's get this right —
You and the other freaks on this GOP board think David Letterman = uncool…
but you guys think Rush Limbaugh= REALLY cool? HA HAHAHAHA !
you gusy think that Alfonso idiot is cool? amanda peyerd is cool ? Really…
The GOP is really a bunch of freaks. Talk about celebutards…
And WHO, WHY and HOW did winking Mr. Nobody Tim Slagle get a gig on here?
Oh that's right – like all the other bedwetters who complain all day here — Timn Slagle IS A NOBODY's nobody!
Palomino – Your snarky comment about Bush is willfully stupid. I've heard it before, and always from someone who didn't go to an Ivy League school and doesn't understand how it's done. (BTW, Bush was only a legacy at Yale undergrad. Harvard B-school doesn't admit on a legacy basis — neither does West Point or Annapolis.)____Being an Ivy Leaguer myself (but not a legacy admission
And I'm sure Affirmative Action had nothing to do with Obama's academic career at all…
As I was going to say before my post was swallowed: I can tell you that the legacy system doesn't get you into the school. Being a legacy gets you some extra points, along with the points you get for activities and your essay, but it isn't dispositive, and a lot of legacies don't get in. (Pinch Sulzberger, owner of the NY Times, was a legacy at Columbia but didn't get in. Too dumb.) But being a minority gets you a LOT more points than being a legacy. (Unless you are Asian, then you get screwed over because there are just too many of them getting into the good schools.) Now of course, we have a substantial cohort that are affirmative action AND legacy (Michelle Obama, anyone? Her brother's legacy at Princeton), and they will want to preserve that almost-insuperable advantage. So no one talks about abolishing the legacy system any more.
true trolls never ever apologize….
Obviously I need the practice.
Thanks Tim. I agree that Letterman is uncool, and appears to be full of seething hatred. This hate is getting old.
A few months ago, my husband and I were talking about two of the TV programs or Networks we no longer watch, which we used to watch regularly: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Comedy Central.
I was the Comedy Central fan. I watched that network almost exclusively for several years. Until Jon Stewart. From a marketing standpoint, it floors me that they are willing to lose people in my financial demographic as a viewer. But they are. They DROVE us away. We didn't want to go, but they did it.
When I realized that it has been over 7 years since we've watched The Tonight Show, I was surprised that the time had passed so quickly. We could no longer stomach the political attacks. Problem is, finding something else to watch is quite a challenge, if I am looking for fair, non-partisan, non-Marxist, non-socialist entertainment. (Also less vulgar and less bloody violence.) Prior to September 11th, we were already moving away from Leno, but after the attacks, he was actually patriotic for a while, and it was so refreshing and made us feel good. Then little by little the hate started rearing its ugly head again.
Now my entertainment comes primarily from surfing the web, which is hard on my eyes, and is not relaxing, at all. I do miss the days of being able to enjoy comedy or drama, on the sofa, at the end of a day.
Of course, "24" exists to give my life purpose! Thank you too, Jack Bauer.
So much hate in this one.
When Leno breaks after his nightly ten-minute original comedy monologue, I wander over to Letterman's "comedy morgue" to kill the few minutes of commercial delay. As usual, Letterman's act remains nothing beyond snide and hollow mockery of anyone or anything his lazy limited powers intellectually resents.
It's fortunate for us all that his ratings remain well below Leno's, otherwise it would mean that cynical empty-heads had finally become the majority.
ahem:
http://www.amazon.com/Europa-Tim-Slagle/dp/B000JL...
Hi Gary,
Well said sir!
Is there an online resource to view the ratings? … Connie Z
Has anyone? Anyone….seen my old friend, Johnny?….anyone?
Back when he was on NBC, I really liked Letterman. He has really grown tired at CBS. Leno is obviously the smarter of the two because he knows how to keep his humor balanced and free from bitterness. Letterman just seems like come cranky old man now. He used to be the young, hip guy. What happened?
Yeah, he was the son of a Congressman. Big deal. What matters with your life is what you make of it.
Bush flew a notoriously difficult jet in the National Guard. He landed safely every time. When you're the son of a famous man, and you're in an airplane, nothing about the name will save you if you make a mistake.
Just ask JFK, Jr. Oh, wait…
President Bush: our first affirmative action president
Obama has put out a link to help people like you to overcome your anger. Check it out.
http://www.samhsa.gov/economy
yep….and he got better grades than Jean Francios Kerri. Might even have better grades than the one. Who can tell without transcripts? Transparency, change we can all hope for and shuck at the first instance of political epediency.
you don't get into Harvard Business school as a legacy. And it's tough too- so at the end of the day you still must do the work to get the grades and Bushie's grades, while not stellar were solid and as good or better than the Haughty John Kerry (who, by the way served in Vietnam) and other so-called 'intelligensia'…
And yet his grades at both Yale and while doing graduate work were better than another Yale student by the name of Al Gore.
Gore also flunked out of graduate school. Yet everyone on the left trumpets that this imbecile is somehow smart because he can crank out inaccurate powerpoint slides.
How did Al get into Grad school with crap grades? Perhaps having a daddy that was Senator from Tennessee might have helped, y'think?
None of the late night comedic would bother me in the slightest if, it was applied evenly, or at least attempted. No, like many here, I was a big letterhead eons ago. I just lost interest when the "edge" was just like every other ones edge and so on and so on and so on…….
To some, I guess a talk show appearance is cool. I don't know. To me, it's a little disrespectful of the office. Maybe, I'm just not cool, anymore….
IMO, James he (Letterman) never changed.. he always came across (at least to me) as the cranky old man on the porch, who regailed you with the 'why he was so po'd at everyone'… it just used to be humorous to start with, and then it just slipped from an 'humourous retrospective" style to a "I know better than you and it's funny to me, screw what you think about it" style.
He flew F-102 Delta Daggers and their twin F-104 Delta Dart. They are Mach 2 capable and not so much difficult as they were dangerous- they had a tendency to explode- not good- and he was considered a top pilot. He volunteered for Vietnam duty under Operation Palace Guard but the F-102 series was obsolete and he needed to retrain on other aircraft. His active duty (2 years) was winding down so there wasn't enough time. As far as his Guard duties later on, attendance was always a problem- Kerry didn't attend his meetings either- because of the public's animus towards all things military. He did complete the minimum and was givenhis honorable discharge.
Now, as Paul Harvey (bless hi soul) would say 'You've heard the rest of the story'…
I've never trusted a man with a high-pitched giggle.
A nobody's nobody…. yet you feel the need to read his post and all the resulting comments, then post a few sentences of drooly jabber to apparently justify your pathetic existence to yourself.
Guess we know what you are then…
"Hate"? Can you please stop whining? Don't you people have any pride? I suppose Letterman should run his content past all of you unfunny squares first or something? GET YOUR OWN GD SHOWS THEN….
Or shut up! You whiny little tweens have some nerve questioning the masculinity of ANYONE else when you spend post after post here bellyaching and crying your crocodile tears over the focus of late night comedians. You couldn't possibly be weaker
I liked Stupid Pet Tricks. But that's because the animals were smart and funny. Not so for the host.
Paidforby theDNC: our 575th brain dead troll.
Go back to slurping the moronberry flavored kool-aid, dimwit.
Letterman is now officially at the same level of comedy as Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long over at FOX-NFL. "Hey, were did you get that ugly tie?" "Ha ha! Shut up!" "Hey Paul, would you like some gum or a beverage?" Yikes!
Which one's the Republican?
I am personally shocked to learn here that Letterman has writers. I assumed that Biff hung around Times Square with a tape recorder with a feed into Dave's earpiece, and when the feed goes wacky, that explains the skinny buffalo in the Hummer headlights look Dave some times gets. I thought the only writer he had was a Tonight Show guy who moonlights the Top Ten. Dave has that sad degenerative brain disease that afflicts liberal comedians and turns them into cranks, so please don't let his Angerzheimer's affect your opinion of him. Look what happened to Maher, O'Donnell, and Garafalo, and please, have pity.
Most folk don't know that Lanny Davis (yes, THAT Lanny Davis) was Bush's roommate at Yale. Although diametrically opposed on philosophical grounds, Davis found 'W' to be kind, gracious, funny- and smart as a whip… that's the big lie about him, that somehow he lacks the intelligence to govern (which if you ever see Pelosi you know takes very little) because like many guys he suffers from a mild dislexia… you all are going to miss this guy more than you think…
Wasn't Oblermann the janitor at the other Cornell until Matt Damon found him writing left-wing jibberish on the "absenceofcolor"board?
He drove a Dodge Dart? Maybe I should re-read that, I think I missed something…
oooh namecalling. that works.
LOL!! How zen!
"absenceofcolor"board. I'm so stealing that.
You know what? This really is a racist comment, even though I'm sure you don't mean it as such. Look, whatever problems you have with Obama, the guy is clearly intelligent and has legitimate academic successes. The University of Chicago tried to keep him on their faculty, and even the conservatives on the Law School staff respect his mind.
Sometimes black men accomplish stuff on their own, you know.
"absenceofcolor" is the new black!
Several years ago, I met Dana Gioia (Bush's appointment to head the NEA) at a conference. At a reception, we discussed perceptions regarding Bush's intelligence. He said that Bush is really quite a bit smarter than most people give him credit for being. He also said that his experience with Senators indicated that they're generally very intelligent, both Democrats and Republicans alike.
He said that the House is where all the idiots reside (these are my words, not his; again, he meant Democrats and Republicans alike). The careers of Cynthia McKinney and Michelle Bachmann certainly suggest that Gioia was right.
LOL!
Actually Skip, looking at the weak a… content Letterman produces, we should probably be more shocked that he has writers.
there is a truth to your statement. The House is an easier vetting process; it would make sense that the Senate would be a little higher on the food chain. Not sure I'd compare Bachmann with McKinney who is a true dolt… Biden claims great intelligence but displays precious little, McCain never stuck me as too sharp. Ultimately politics is not for the brilliant as much as the crafty…
ho! the Dodge Dart was a tad more reliable…
Norm Macdonald used to do the best Letterman impression. It wasn't a even a caricature it was just a literal impression–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyJ9iS8EQpE
stuff like quota filling?
How? Obama didn't specify his race on his Harvard Law School application.
Do you also think that Bobby Jindal benefited from racial quotas and affirmative action?
let this zero go back to his zero prez and the kook site to brag – he really gave to the dum rightnuters
just like all the radicals and their prez zero.
I liked Letterman back in the 80s when he used his biting sarcasm and dry wit for laughs. He was sort of the "anti-hero" of late night (compared to the nice guys of Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett). Over the years he has exchanged what made him "cool" for simple spite and meanness. He's become a "bitter American", to borrow a phrase, clinging to his acrimony and ridicule.
in lib code bush is spelled zerobama
cuz we all know that the quota prez is currently screwing the Real Americans
now go back to the dkooks and brag about your hit n run
Mr. Slagle, I see that you appear on WLS. I used to listen when Uncle Larry and Little Snot Nosed Tommy were regulars. Now it has gone the way of the other AM giants — into the dead zone.
BTW, an old girl friend of mine was on Letterman. Due to a number 1 album and number 2 single. I think it takes more than a self-produced comedy album to make it onto the show. But I'm always willing to listen and I bet Letterman would too, so long as you promise not to karate kick him during the commercial.
BTW BTW, the cool / uncool bit was very funny. In comedy, timing is everything. There is just something about George Bush, the way he speaks or plays a role, that comes across as funny. Actually, I like Bush the man. I just happen to think he was a lousy president.
BTW BTW BTW, Letterman still does Clinton jokes. He now has a segment about the Clinton family chronicles. It begins with Hillary traveling around the world conducting diplomacy while Bill is down at the local Hooters chomping on chicken wings.
I don't think we should throw away old personalities. That may be fine in a fast food, disposable, McDonald's world, but it is good to remember how we got here. It is American heritage.
BTW BTW BTW BTW look for me in my upcoming webcast.
Yeah, but it was really hard to fit the air-to-air missiles under the Dodge.
Man you really need to go find another site to spew your liberal HATE.
You got issues that you need to get looked at.
If you went to a party that everyone there continually pissed you off….you gotta ask yourself, WHAT AM I DOING HERE!!!!
Profanity is a sign of a WEAK mind and your posts are getting weaker and weaker !!!
Yeah, Obama is so cool because he thinks Louisville plays great defense. They lost this weekend. The O-man could only get one Final Four pick right. Not cool.
letterman is just not funny anymore. he used to be on the cutting edge; his stuff at nbc was great. he now just mails it in and cbs should sue him for lack of effort. he is an old, washed-up hack and congress should cut his pay for what he is providing us on the public's air waves.
Oh Tim, this is great. . .yeah, nothing like fresh, new material from the Late Night comic who won't be making fun of the prez because "now we have someone in the White House we trust". Sheesh!
TEHSTUPID: "oooh namecalling. that works."
Oooh, really funny for someone who lives under his grandma's porch.
I suppose YOU & Letterman are both so intelligent that you can fly jet planes. IOh, I suppose not — it takes intelligence to do that !
"you all are going to miss this guy [George W. Bush] more than you think…"
Oh, I miss him quite a lot already.
It's a shame about Dave. I started noticing about 1996 that he was increasingly irritable and cranky – like he needed a nap. There is clearly no passion left in him for television. It was fairly predictable that the Baby Boomers would have to be forced from the workplace at the point of a gun. They're all convinced that they're the center of the universe. The only problem is that when he goes, we get Jon Stewart in his place.
On a brighter note, Andy Richter wil soon be back.
"Sometimes black men accomplish stuff on their own, you know"
Then why do we need Affirmative Action?
I thought AA was based on the premise that Black Men could NOT achieve success on their own, because of institutionalized racism? You can't have it both ways.
actually, black=totalpresenceofcolor, and white=totalabsenceofcolor
" Obama didn't specify his race"
Do you have a link to support that? I had never heard such a thing? Why wouldn't he check the easy box, as long as it was available to him?
And since Bobby Jindal is Asian, he would have needed better grades than Whites or Blacks, to get through the Affirmative Action process. Not only does AA help underachieving Blacks, it makes it tougher for Asians.
Diversity quotas are unbelievably unfair.
And I'm sure all the Kennedy's that went to Haaaaavahd all got in on their academic merits.
At least I still have SNL to give me my weekly dose of balanced satire on Obama. I mean the sketch they did on the re-gift DVDs for Gordon Brown was hilarious material!!
Funny Stuff..
I remember seeing Norm doing his version of Dave and thinking that he completely and brutally owned him. He just took all of Dave's weird little laugh-getting mannerisms and ramped them up to 11.
He calls us squares and whiny little tweens, and then turns around and tells us not to use personal insults.
Gap toothed monkey boy is still hating on Bush?
A. This is not a "party"… it's a political blog.
B. Show me where I said anything "hateful". What a lame comeback.
C. "Profanity"? You must be kidding. Or the most lilly-white polyanna around.
D. Hey Price, shut up, donkey
I personally think that Barry Soetoro (aka Barack) was a foreign student when he got into Harvard. Why else is he covering up his school records and passport that he used to go to Pakistan when it was illegal to do so?
"Yeah, Obama is so cool because he thinks Louisville plays great defense. They lost this weekend. The O-man could only get one Final Four pick right. Not cool."
Really? I thought because he played in the pool and proved to have no special ability at it is what makes him cool. I don't know of anyone who is always right about sports. Even Yankee fans. Of course, having grown up with the Cubs games on all summer long, maybe I appreciate the effort more than the actual winning.
But the contrast with the Bush photo op is funny. The photo op is funny by itself, but I guess Letterman needed an introduction. Why would the Bush people go to the effort of lining up the shot and not check that the moving part — the under inflated basketball — was operational. Maybe that is a glimpse of the Bush presidency. But then again, when you grow up with the Cubs, you have to learn to laugh at things that some people don't find funny — or else you may never laugh.
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