Dave Letterman

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Misunderstood comedy genius or creepy unfunny old man?

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 June 2004 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Both!

― Patrick Kinghorn, Thursday, 10 June 2004 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Can anyone who saw it give me a decent account of his Oscar hosting - I can't really find more than a couple of lines about it on the net, a brief description followed by "it was excruciating" or something like that. What did he do??

― de, Thursday, 10 June 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

classic when he wore chuck taylors onstage

― kephm, Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

once classic, now dud.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

fucking killer until about the mid 90s. mostly dud since.

― Kingfish Disraeli (Kingfish), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I think he's still solidly classic. The only dud parts of his show are the interviews, but you could say that about pretty much any talk show. The recent 4AM show was great the whole way through (well, until Modest Mouse played) because there were no real interviews, just the comedy bits.

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

he goes through hills and valleys these days. lately the show has been pretty funny. I like Smitty, his assistant. but it also goes through dry spells where it seems like he's phoning it in. still always better than leno though.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

this thread shouldn't even exist. David Letterman is absolutely classic, whether it's the sport jacket days of old or the current suit days.

― cramedog, Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Used to be funny (especially when Chris Elliot was writing), then go less funny, then got to be kinda pathetic.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Some of those sketches they did on the old NBC show were great, especially the ones where Chris Elliot was the conspiracy guy and later the guy beneath the stairs.

― earlnash, Thursday, 10 June 2004 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

"Can anyone who saw it give me a decent account of his Oscar hosting - I can't really find more than a couple of lines about it on the net, a brief description followed by "it was excruciating" or something like that. What did he do??"

I remember enjoying his oscar hosting gig along with my family. He did video taped skits if I can recall. It wasn't disimilar to the comedy bits on his show. All of the aftermath about it being "bad" was kind of weird. If I could speculate, it could be because people take the awards somewhat seriously. His wiseass approach may have turned off soccer moms and celebrity journalism types. The following year was hosted by the pompous, unfunny Whoopie Goldberg who America inexplicably preferred.

― theodore fogelsanger, Thursday, 10 June 2004 17:32 (twenty-two years ago)

his oscar show was great! he did kind of treat it like his own show though.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 10 June 2004 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought his stint at the Oscars was amusing too. I'm not really sure who decided it was awful, I've actually never met someone who claimed it as an awful performance, particularly in light of other Oscar MCs

― Allyzay, Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

has anyone seen the old SNL skit where norm macdonald plays letterman? absolutely ABSURD shit!

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

"Got any gum?"

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

YES YES YES!

uhhhh.. got any gum?

i'm dying

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

That's possibly the funniest thing Norm MacDonald ever did.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:12 (twenty-two years ago)

So it's just become the done thing now to call his oscars bad, in the media anyway. Even he refers to it in a sarcastic or desultory way, sometimes.

― de, Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:14 (twenty-two years ago)

OMG I remember the skit now, that someone said "Got any gum". Holy shit, that was funny.

His David Letterman wasn't very dissimilar from his Larry King, now that I think about it.

― Allyzay, Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

dan, you are sooo right.

the most absurd thing about the skit is it hardly has anything to do with letterman. mostly just macdonald and mark mckinney acting fucking insane.

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

UHHH.. GOT ANY GUM

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"Hey Paul!"
"Yeah, man?"
"Uhhhh... got any gum? Heh heh heh! HOOO..."

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha ha ha.

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i must stop reading this thread, laughing uncontrollably at work thinking about this skit.

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, cutty?

― Allyzay, Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

stop it

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Got any gum?

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I really liked his Larry King sketches too, and they were made funnier by the fact that the audience never laughed at them.

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm totally bringing gum to John St. tonight.

― Allyzay, Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:24 (twenty-two years ago)

i never found him funny at all

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

oh jesus christ i cannot read that

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Letterman or Norm MacDonald? Or both?

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Dave's trip to London in '95 was fookin' killer.

― Kingfish Disraeli (Kingfish), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

William Hurt: Andie MacDowell's performance in this movie really drove the story..

David Letterman: Oh-ho, Andie MacDowell! Did Andie MacDowell ever give you one of these? [ starts mimicking boxer moves ] Ha haa!! Huh? Hee hee! Can you imagine such a thing? Just, boom! Boom! Ha ha ha haaa!!

Paul Shaffer: Ah ha, ha ha ha ha!

William Hurt: What is your trip?

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm practically pissing myself after reading that, holy shit. CAN YOU SELL ME A HOT DOG??? What is the SNL obsession with hot dogs, btw? I think Spencer and I can be completely conquered by someone asking either of us if we'd eat ourselves if we were a hot dog. And the Larry King skit I best remembered involved him suddenly yelling, "I like...HOT DOGS."

― Allyzay, Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:28 (twenty-two years ago)

"I would. I'd eat myself with some mustard and relish. I'd be DELICIOUS."

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 10 June 2004 19:28 (twenty-two years ago)

UHHH.. GOT ANY GUM?

Hee hee hooooo haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey Paul...you got any gum?

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

what the fuck is up with the popeye's chicken thing? have they really been shilling this for days?

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 05:58 (twenty-one years ago)

D with a capital D.

― Lo Boob Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 06:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know why but I always liked Norm's Burt Reynolds impersonation.

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 06:09 (twenty-one years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd500/d525/d52531d0v57.jpg

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 06:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the Popeye's thing has been going for a couple of weeks. They did the same thing a few months ago when Dave and Paul decided they liked the Schick Quattro.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 07:39 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

They reran an episode that was just on a month ago. They didn't even bother with a celebrity guest, Jack Hannah was batting lead-off. I loved Dave to death growing up, taping his shows and watching them after school the next day. However, the blatant sleepwalking is tarnishing his career.

Are his writers all in their late sixties? Why would anyone find him funny anymore?

Carson in '85 was funnier than this.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 28 October 2005 03:24 (twenty years ago)

he's still funny every time I watch, I watch him for weeks at a time then a bad show will break the habit for a while. Plus, he gives Tom Waits a TV home, he should get a medal for that. Classic. It's starting right now wow! I'm getting back on the horse, fuck it.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Friday, 28 October 2005 05:40 (twenty years ago)

I'm pissed I missed Jerry Lewis the other night.

Best 1982-86, esp when Sandra Bernhard or Pee-Wee were on. He's still gold compared to fucking Leno, but I watch maybe 3x a year.

The reason his Oscar hosting was called 'bad' is his sensibility jarred with that of the Academy. Since the ideal Oscar show would involve the host dynamiting the theater, he was fine. His joke that "Eat Drink Man Woman" was how Schwarzenegger first asked Maria Shriver on a date -- followed by a grinning thru gritted teeth shot of Ahnuld in the audience -- was justification for the assignment by itself.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 28 October 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

And "Uma.....Oprah, Oprah.....Uma" became part of the lexicon for a while.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 28 October 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

people watch Saturday Night Live???

― sexyDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 28 October 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

"Funny Headlines" are ten times funnier than "Does It Float?", and I can't stand Jay Leno. Dave needs an intervention. "Know Your Cuts of Meat"... Good grief.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 28 October 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 1039 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

have you not been following the new news?

― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 5 January 2018 19:14 (eight years ago)

nope

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 January 2018 19:24 (eight years ago)

what's the new news?

― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Friday, 5 January 2018 19:26 (eight years ago)

not turning up any

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 January 2018 19:29 (eight years ago)

An industrywide reckoning for men accused of sexual misconduct?

― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 5 January 2018 19:38 (eight years ago)

that's old news

― j., Friday, 5 January 2018 19:39 (eight years ago)

what's your angle, that Dave went on air and confessed all his sins but it was under the old rules and under the new rules he's a sexist fossil?

― mh, Friday, 5 January 2018 19:47 (eight years ago)

Also wasn't Dave's thing a consensual affair (with an employee admittedly, but still)

― Screamin' Jay Gould (The Yellow Kid), Saturday, 6 January 2018 02:27 (eight years ago)

yeah i guess I never heard that anything was necessarily bad about the affair unless you think any affair is misconduct

― Joan Digimon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 6 January 2018 02:29 (eight years ago)

Dave is so fucking boring

― calstars, Saturday, 6 January 2018 02:47 (eight years ago)

Personally, the weirdest bit for me was that I was back a home for a summer, working an intern job and crashing with my parents, and would watch Letterman with my mom. And Monty was a fixture during that time, so my reaction was very much “god damn it, Dave, wtf”

― mh, Saturday, 6 January 2018 05:37 (eight years ago)

there's a letterman interview with trump from like 1984 where dave goads him into running for office

― flopson, Saturday, 6 January 2018 05:51 (eight years ago)

eh, Stone was pushing that on him earlier than that

― mh, Saturday, 6 January 2018 05:53 (eight years ago)

a vanity fair article from 2009 by former writer nell scovell described the working environment as sexually charged and hostile.

― mizzell, Saturday, 6 January 2018 18:30 (eight years ago)

what the hell whiney

― k3vin k., Saturday, 6 January 2018 18:55 (eight years ago)

Chris Weingarten, Edge Lord

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 6 January 2018 19:05 (eight years ago)

Stern has talked about this on his show in the past couple of months. My take away was that it was a quid pro quo, Dave would finally do Howard’s show in exchange for H participating in D’s Netflix shit. Maybe an opening for H and Netflix, which he’s spoken of in a kind way before. And Netflix seems to have a bottomless wallet and their stock is flying, so yeah why not H as the fulcrum in a new audio division, where podacasters who want to make some $ could also go.

― calstars, Saturday, 6 January 2018 19:12 (eight years ago)

anyone watching this?

― kolakube (Ross), Sunday, 14 January 2018 04:03 (eight years ago)

Watched it last night. Liked it very much and was sad it was only an hour.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 14 January 2018 04:04 (eight years ago)

I got tired of them congratulating/jerking each other off after 10 minutes or so. I'll watch the Malala Yousafzai episode but the others don't sound appealing.

― LLAMAS ARE FOR CLOSERS (WilliamC), Sunday, 14 January 2018 04:13 (eight years ago)

Dave's side trip to Selma with John Lewis, cut into bits of the Obama conversation, upset the pacing a little bit but were very resonant (with me, at least...I'm not as jaded as some of yous).

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 14 January 2018 04:17 (eight years ago)

yeah I liked it, it was nice

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 14 January 2018 04:30 (eight years ago)

right there with you Johnny

― kolakube (Ross), Sunday, 14 January 2018 04:43 (eight years ago)

two months pass...

Jay z interview was good but letterman addressing his own sexual misconduct felt weird and stilted

― Droni Mitchell (Ross), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 17:04 (eight years ago)

this show sucks

― kurt schwitterz, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 19:06 (eight years ago)

yeah it's not great. just found letterman getting a pass and then talking about it to be profoundly jarring

― Droni Mitchell (Ross), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 19:12 (eight years ago)

it was undeniably cringey to see dave declare "they hate me" as he walked around oxford with malala yousafzai and a bunch of other college girls who, as far as I could tell, actually and truly did hate him

most other moments of the show also cringey. no part of me thinks he really wants to be doing any of this

― del griffith, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 19:17 (eight years ago)

lol del what made you think they hated him?

― Droni Mitchell (Ross), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 19:18 (eight years ago)

basically just things like their faces and words and postures and lack of words

― del griffith, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 19:20 (eight years ago)

one month passes...

The author, Tina Fey, and Merrill Markoe all properly call BS on Dave here.

https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/david-letterman-netflix-tina-fey-interview.html

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 17 May 2018 12:03 (eight years ago)

yeah that's a good piece

― martin short's interiors (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 17 May 2018 12:21 (eight years ago)

i know a couple of the original Late Night writers, and they're funny guys, but plenty of women could've been their equal

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 17 May 2018 14:31 (eight years ago)

the relationship between Dave and Merrill Markoe is very weird, that was a recurring theme from Jason Zinoman's Letterman bio of last year

― Josefa, Thursday, 17 May 2018 14:43 (eight years ago)

seven months pass...

1) Years ago when I wrote for David Letterman we would make these fake broadway shows and put them on at the end of the show and never tell the audience they were fake. No one ever knew. https://t.co/uPQtupwycz
— rodneyrothman (@rodneyrothman) January 4, 2019

― na (NA), Friday, 4 January 2019 21:17 (seven years ago)

the two fake musical numbers are fantastic

― na (NA), Friday, 4 January 2019 21:21 (seven years ago)

omg dying

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 4 January 2019 21:24 (seven years ago)

wow. totally worth perusing that whole thread. fresh step!

― rip van wanko, Friday, 4 January 2019 21:33 (seven years ago)

lmao

― Οὖτις, Friday, 4 January 2019 21:42 (seven years ago)

six months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfFG6YdayX4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1O34is5LORIGtHIExDJnkaCxFu-8ZDDWq1pyYfjT5ApOE5OCfDVWbQO18

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 23 July 2019 14:33 (six years ago)

Dammit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfFG6YdayX4

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 23 July 2019 14:34 (six years ago)

I've been waiting for these!

Also, Don Giller recently (well, eight months ago) posted what is probably my favorite talk show appearance by anyone, ever (now with backstory!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGt2mBHDEEo

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 23 July 2019 14:42 (six years ago)

six months pass...

I'm easy to please, but I loved this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Oqk78YpQY

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:41 (six years ago)

Amazing combination of hosts and guest.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 23:04 (six years ago)

eight months pass...

Good interview

https://www.vulture.com/article/david-letterman-2020-election-trump-interview.html

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 2 November 2020 17:06 (five years ago)

great read!
he was a guest on Busy Phillips’ podcast a month or so ago, and he talked about his gameshow past in more detail, ie working as a stand-in host for a show that was still casting the actual host, it was fun to think of that as his “whatif” career lol
I could read/listen to him talk about literally anything these days

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 2 November 2020 20:33 (five years ago)

Yeah its always really interesting to hear him talk about his days as a wandering showbiz jobber. Would love a doc or a real good bio that covered that era of his life up to the late show.

― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Monday, 2 November 2020 20:42 (five years ago)

He is such a great storyteller. When he was on WTF last year, he told a long story about getting stuck in a gig opening for a Lola Falana musical revue in Denver where he bombed 2 shows a night for 10 days straight. Worth checking out

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, 2 November 2020 21:43 (five years ago)

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54fd3T15JFg

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 01:27 (three years ago)

those "favorite moments" videos have been a real highlight of my 2022 viewing

― POLIZISTEN VERSINKEN IM SCHLAMM (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 15 February 2023 02:55 (three years ago)

eleven months pass...

Someone actually won Letterman's marquee for The Late Show in a charity raffle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQM3j_s3Obk

Love how Letterman points out that the raffle was open "worldwide...and our winner is from New Jersey."

― birdistheword, Wednesday, 17 January 2024 17:06 (two years ago)

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Dave Letterman - c/d?