Darkfriend

Am I the only one to think that David Letterman has lost his hold on the funny?

I'm not an expert on how it works but I get the feeling Dave just shows up for the taping and doesn't give a crap about rehearsals...

He used to do funny sketches featuring himself; now all he does is (as of late) that stupid "Know your current events, know your cuts of meat (har har verry funny )

Last week he had a dentist in the green room doing a root canal on a guy... It may be "eccentric" but it just wasn't funny. Dave also spent 10 minutes doing a silly Slurpee taste contest at Rupert Jee's... It all just feels uninspired.

I guess now that he has a kid and had his heart troubles it puts things in perspective but his show shouldn't suffer for it.

I just don't believe Dave when he says to a movie star "I've seen your movie today and it was GREAT!"

I miss the Dave of old, doing stupid human/pet tricks, running around in a car full of tacos or working the drive through asking for potatoes

Oh well, there's always Conan

Groucho

Don't be a hater.

But seriously, his show has been like this for 20 years. You're just now noticing?

Darkfriend

The last 2 or 3 years have just been a letdown to me. He used to be the King of absurd humor, now it seems he just accepts what the writers give him and he just retires to his castle made of gold and doesn't give a crap.

Comfort Eagle

Dave > that Jesus asshole.

calhoun07

I don't think the last 20 years of his show has sucked. I have seen a few episodes on Trio of the classic episodes when I can catch it (not often, as I don't have the channel myself) and it was damn funny back in the day. I had no idea he had given up on the stupid human/pet tricks though. How long has he not done those?

The segments where he goes into the audience and asks those stupid questions are the worst. Positively staged, not spontaneous comedy bits he was known for in the past. Worst TV ever.

It's also a crap shoot on the Top Ten list. It has gotten to a point where the Top Ten lists just tries to be too topical to the latest news and it has lost something in the process.

Rogue588

I admit I miss when he used to send Rupert out with an earpiece and tell him what to say...

I guess the threat of bodily harm has a way of stopping teh funny.

kvrdave

Who is that refering to? I'm seriously lost.

dolphinboy

Maybe "Hannity?"

Charlie Goose

Yeah, I feel the same way. I don't watch regularly anymore but when I do, the bits are not nearly as good as back when. Does he still run George W. Bush footage of him clearing his throat or pausing at a word and think it's hilarious? He was doing that almost every night for a long while. The Know Your Cuts of Meat bits and the Will it Float bits are completely unfunny. He still buries Leno though, of course.

dolphinboy

I don't get why people think a man nearing his 60's should still act the way he did when he was 35-40.

Look who he's competing against, Leno is trying to appeal to the largest audience and he sucks the most.

Kimmel isn't very good yet and I'm still not sure whether the Daily Show can be compared to the one hour talk shows. I still think it's more of a sitcom without the crappy scripts and canned audience. The guest is almost irrelevant.

Dave is still the best at what he does. He's the best interviewer and he has the best comebacks and sharpest mind.

But the kind of funny that people seem to be missing is the kind of funny that Conan and Kimmel provide. Everyone, including Letterman, know that.

What will be actually funny, is when all of the Conan fans finally see Leno "retire" and notice that Conan too changes his style a bit to fit the earlier time-slot and has not offend the dullards who watch the Tonight Show in droves because Leno seems like a nice guy.

That said, I really do think that it's fair to say that the Late Show doesn't seem to come with original stuff, inside the studio or out, as it could.

UAIOE

I died both with the humping Armidillos as well as the IRS girl spitting her Slurpee .

I admit, i miss the "working at Taco Bell" days...and the stuff hasn't been so hot lately.

I admit Leno has had some cracks that have made me chuckle...but some of Leno's skits make me sit back and go "Hey wait, Dave used to do these."

djbrown

He hasn't. They've been on in the not-too-distant past.

Giantrobo

Letterman still rocks. I disagree with the OP's comments.

maingon

i dont thin letterman is funny anymore either, his top ten list is never funny and he does dumb stuff like "will it float" or dropping stuff off the roof. Is this suppose to be funny if something sinks?

mrpayroll

Well, I'm seriously offended, I think!

Chris

lotsofdvds

Once his CBS show started my love of Dave went downhill fast. At least I still have Trio and all my tapes.

big whoppa

I only watch Letterman now for the occasional guest or musical act. That is a rare thing. Letterman has never been as good as he was back in the days when he was on NBC. Maybe age does that to you.

Drop

I think it is actually CBS that has something to do with that. I remember comedian Jim Norton talking about how he refused to go on Letterman because they would make him tone down his material. Leno surprisingly did not, and he has been on there multiple times. Norton made it sound like the standards and practices people were being a bunch of wimps.

calhoun07

Even if that is so, I think that first off CBS is working in changing their image in that regard, and also, you can still do funny stuff within those guidelines. Will it Float and the stupid cuts of meat and the fake audience participation questions he does can all go and be replaced with funnier stuff and still fall under those guidelines. The stuff he did on NBC wasn't that racy.

kvrdave

Phil L.

Paul Schaffer still makes the Letterman show unwatchable for me. That's how much that little rodent annoys me.

vegasbaby

I've met Paul in person. He's the biggest A-Hole 'Celebrity' I've ever met.

Dave really hasnt been VERY funny since the glory NBC days.

Ever since he turned down ABC, he readily admitted that he didnt have the energy (desire) to start from scratch again, which means his hunger is gone.

atlantamoi

Hmmm. I still find him funny. The bits with Alan Coulter (sp?) have me laughing like a loon. Maybe he's lost a bit of his edge, but I'd also guess that after 20 years a lot of shows have caught up with him. Like I found the Simpons great when it started, but after seeing a zillion Southparks, I don't find the humor quite as zany.

I know that if I watch Letterman on any given night I will enjoy it.

shadowself

ITV2 just stopped showing letterman a few wweeks ago, they're working on a new rights deal, apparantly. so hopefully it will return

but i used to make sure i watched him every night/early morning, obviously a day behind you guys. strangely the Alan Coulter 'stuff', big red, etc, has had me howling at the tv.

dave has a few years left in him, hopefully when he does give it up, jon stewart will get the gig and bring his crew with him.....actually, maybe that's a bad idea. jon stewart may be a bit too much for the networks to handle. his daily show is without doubt the funniest show on tv at the moment, well if you're a liberal at least.

DJLinus

I don't really watch the show much (or any late night talk show) regularly. I only tune in if there's a guest or musical act I want to see. I did catch the guest hosts when Dave was out for surgery, just out of curiosity. I'm still waiting for Elvis Costello to get a regular hosting gig. He really surprised me.

I do DVR "Late Night" on Trio! nightly, though. Man, that show was hilarious. My favorites were when Dave would do videotaped remote bits. Those were always classic (I'm not sure if even still does those). And then there's the off the wall stuff. A recent rebroadcast had Dave wearing the sponge suit, being submerged in water, and then weighed (going from 185 lbs. to 500+ lbs.). Good times.