Late Night Talk Show Discussion

[Brocklock]

Lol I was originally going to post that I am finding Later era grumpy Dave to be much funnier than I remember. There was a segment, which was after I believe the network told him to start including more social media into the program, where he was on Twitter trying to "twitter" at the other late night hosts that was hilarious. He gave no fucks in those final years. Knew soon as I started going through my wormhole that he was gonna be in some sort of controversy.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

The laughter of the crowd shows that America was probably laughing along with him. That’s fucked up.

 

[Gary]

It's fucked up, but not surprising. Dave's always had a reputation of being an asshole, and he's done this kind of shit before to Paris Hilton after she got out of jail. This in no way excuses him.

Lol I was originally going to post that I am finding Later era grumpy Dave to be much funnier than I remember. There was a segment, which was after I believe the network told him to start including more social media into the program, where he was on Twitter trying to "twitter" at the other late night hosts that was hilarious. He gave no fucks in those final years. Knew soon as I started going through my wormhole that he was gonna be in some sort of controversy.

I believe it was somewhere in the early 2000's, but there was a bit where he got Biff to hang out in the CBS store (spoiler: nobody went in and bought anything) that was funny. Also, "Dr. Phil's Words of Wisdom" and "Lance Armstrong" (a fat guy riding a bike) were great.

 

[Brocklock]

Maybe it's because there are videos out there of her saying the N-Word or her constant support of Donald Trump, but I don't feel any ounce of sympathy for Paris Hilton and can still laugh at Dave during his interview of her. I think her situation is much different than Britney or Lohan in that I think the latter have some form of mental illness/have horrible manipulative people as parents and Paris is a rich spoiled sociopath.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I love dave as a comedian but he's also got a lot of fucked up stuff over his career.

 

[Brocklock]

Yeah big time. It does seem like he's mellowed a ton in recent years due to finally going to therapy, but that doesn't excuse any of his past behavior.

 

[strummer]

huge Letterman fan but yeah he's always had issues. He does seem in a better place now.

Now thinking about all those Conan interviews with him flirting with female celebs and going completely gaga over them... yeesh

 

[geniusMoment]

You think those are bad. Try watching some of the old clutch cargo's from Conan. Everyone of Asian descent is made to sound like Michael Scott's Ping. It's amazing how much has changed in 25 years.

 

[Brocklock]

Yeah, that's always been problematic. There was a really uncomfortable edition of Clueless Gamer Conan did with Kate Upton where they played Cuphead a few years ago. The joke was Conan keeps trying to turn it into a date while Kate just wants to play the game and it seemed so tone deaf and creepy while also being just not funny at all.

There's no actual evidence that I see of Conan being this massive creep irl or anything and I think it's something he plays up on camera because he finds it funny. But, the whole creepy nerdy virgin interviewer shtick while kind of amusing when he was in his 30's, started getting old when he hit his 40's and now it's just uncomfortable as he's pushing 60.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

the "nerdy guy getting hornt up and awkward around a hot lady" comic trope is low on totem pole for bad sexual behavior but agreed that it still should be retired.

 

[BruiserBrody]

huge Letterman fan but yeah he's always had issues. He does seem in a better place now.

Now thinking about all those Conan interviews with him flirting with female celebs and going completely gaga over them... yeesh

I distinctly remember a guest who came on with her cleavage overflowing and Conan made several jokes about how he was unable to focus on anything but her breasts. My mother came down from bed, saw this filth and chased me to bed.

 

[Brocklock]

I distinctly remember a guest who came on with her cleavage overflowing and Conan made several jokes about how he was unable to focus on anything but her breasts. My mother came down from bed, saw this filth and chased me to bed.

Ah damn I forgot about that

 

[BruiserBrody]

Ah damn I forgot about that

Lulz. But the clip I recall was probably more from the 93-86 range.

 

[Valeyard]

Man, someday someone is going to hear the Stern show that made Dana Plato kill herself and realize that fucked up Lohan interview is nothing.

I find the late night hosts being creeps bits too stupid to take seriously. But there's a difference between in my mind between Conan being a goof and more or less Ferguson's shtick than Letterman's creepy. Him interviewing Gwen Stefani way back was a real turning point for me.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Someone on YouTube has been uploading all of the Howard Stern E! shows from the 2000s as well as his show after moving to Sirius from the early 2010s. We all know Stern was (is?) a giant creep to women but a ton of this stuff wouldn't fly today:

 

[geniusMoment]

Just wait till PETA gets ahold of him:

 

[Valeyard]

I've been going through them, actually. It's really weird. Teenage Me dug it and was inspired to do radio because of literally everything but the infamous stuff (it's just not funny), Older Me is taken aback. Erica Durance's "interview" is one of the worst things you could see. Also fuck Artie.

Will defend Eric The Midget/Actor to the end though. I'm not made of stone.

 

[geniusMoment]

I always viewed Stern as similar to a roast. If you agreed to do a roast you knew there are going to be all kinds of horrible things said about you (be it sex, drug issues etc...). If you went on Stern back in the 80s-00s you had to know there were going to be tons of sex questions etc...

So, I consider that different than an actress going on Letterman or Leno to promote their latest shitty movie.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Yeah and the women who went on his show knew that (for the most part). All the girls gleefully answer Howard's awkward questions about their sex life and accept any criticism he makes about their looks. Different time.

 

[Valeyard]

It depended on the person. The old days, it was more conversational after the "oh my god look at you!" fawning bit, which no one else did and I much prefer. But the more mainstream you were, the less he'd fawn. When a woman would give it right back, he'd get pissed. I've become really interested in how he interacts with people who are bigger than he is or people who don't even think about him. Dude hates it. The appeal to me was always just the interplay between all the personalities in studio and getting into fights and shit, where it felt like just being around human beings more than a show. But I can wax about how fascinating I find all of this somewhere else.

Gone are the days when he'd try to force Billy West and John K or Artie and Dice into fights. Somehow he gets Hillary and Maddow on now.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

The thing is how many of those women were pressured to do Stern to help their careers and how many actually wanted to do it. You can't just assume they wanted to do it and went in knowing what they'd get. Most actresses (and actors) don't really have control over their careers that way.

 

[strummer]

I remember Julia Roberts going on Stern in 1999 and it kinda being a turning point for me. It was downright painful it was so cringe. I agree the bigger the female star the more intimidated he seemed.

As for Letterman the fan in me wants to believe he's just doing schtick but I don't want to be blinded by my fandom. I can remember once in the late 80s or so he made a cruel sexual joke to Terri Garr (a Letterman regular, she was a guest every few months). He felt bad about it and made a public apology and gave her flowers. I don't know. All the backstage stuff with his assistant was clearly consensual but was creepy because she was like 26 and he was like around 60.

He did have a female head writer in Merrill Marko in the 80s when that wasn't common. But then he was was dating her at the same time. There are a bunch of cringe interviews with female celebs. Most seem to be during the cbs era. Again I don't want to be blinded by fandom

 

[strummer]

I remember listening to that Dana Plato Stern interview live. She killed herself the very next day

 

[Valeyard]

That interview is one of the most disgusting things there is. My first thought when the Lohan interview showed up. It showing up again makes me worry it sent her rocketing back to where she was. I don't care who you are but mental health is a fragile thing whether people want to admit it or not.

I just looked Carson Daly up, just because. His show ran until 2019. What the fuck.

 

[Brocklock]

I know at some point he switched to a format where he was interviewing celebs in bars and stuff.

To bring it back to Dave, anytime I think about Carson Daly I think about Dave's endless jokes about him during the whole Jay/Conan saga. Yes it was mean, but fuck it I still laughed when I was watching it the other day.

 

[Brooklyn Zoo]

I know at some point he switched to a format where he was interviewing celebs in bars and stuff.

To bring it back to Dave, anytime I think about Carson Daly I think about Dave's endless jokes about him during the whole Jay/Conan saga. Yes it was mean, but fuck it I still laughed when I was watching it the other day.

Poor Carson was showing respect for women the entire time, too prob

 

[Brocklock]

Yeah he was seen as soft in the chauvinist pig boys club world of Late Night. Someone needs to take the Last Call challenge and watch all 14 trillion hours of Last Call With Carson Daly and catalogue all of the wokest moments that the cruel other hosts wouldn't be able to comprehend.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Carson wasn’t even interviewing people in the last few years of the show. He was just introducing the profile pieces/interviews that were done by some offscreen producer.

 

[Valeyard]

Circled back to TRL, just with puff pieces. I admire the drive.

 

[Brocklock]

Hopefully Tom Green's The Bum Bum Song 2018 Remix got number one.