Bad timing: Letterman repeat jokes about Ken Lay

Bob, please let me know if you're still alive. I'm tempted to make some jokes about your idiotic post, but I don't want to come off as insensitive.

I have to disagree. I like to think they had that episode in the can waiting until the day he died. The fact that he didn't spend a day in jail annoys the fuck out of me.

Where in my post did I "defend" Ken Lay?

This wasn't a post where I was "outraged" at the Letterman rerun. I don't care if Letterman insults Lay, even if it's *after* he died. I mean, I don't give a shit. I'm talking about the decision to air the show on the day that Lay died. I'm talking about whether or not late night shows should watch their reruns to make sure they don't have anything in the episode that might be very recent and touchy to some people (and I believe that if the people at Letterman's show had watched the ep that day or remembered the Lay jokes, they would have pulled the episode and replaced it with something else).

The post was about the industry, abot exec decisions, not my personal feelings about Lay or anyone else.

Agree with rest - you must be ultra sensitive or something. Ken Lay kept claiming a) he knew nothing and b) after being convicted of like 13 counts, claiming he was entirely 100% innocent. BTW, this was a company that manipulated CA energy prices by shutting down plants. Not sure if anyone died of heat stroke from not being able to afford electricity ...

Not sure why you'd defend this guy.

Even a sleazy politican at least has usually done something for his constituents at one point in his life - Ken Lay basically built a company of lies, cheated hundred/thousands of his own employees out of their retirement and claimed he knew nothing. He really doesn't deserve much sympathy so if dave re-runs a few old jokes, big whoop.

What reputation is there to protect?

I agree with you if it's someone like aaron Spelling, maybe easy to joke when alive but dead - he seemed like an honorable man and he cleared loved TV - most of his stars enjoyed working for him - so there, you're right - a dead person deserves some respect there but Ken Lay?

The only good thing is that Houston taxpapyers are spared the expemse of an appeal.

If they really cared as much as you say he should, he wouldn't have made the jokes in the first place.

Bob, your call to air older letterman shows makes no sense based on what you said. The older the show, the higher chance Letterman is making jokes about someone who has died. Obviously you want classic episodes but this is pretty thin. I don't see a problem here. It would be different if Letterman was making fun of the man right after he died, but he's not. I think most people are smart enough to distinguish between reruns and new shows.

One of the casualties of going HD is the ability to run older shows -- now that Letterman is in high def, I'm sure the suits at CBS have issued an edict to never re-run a non-HD show. This severely limits the shows available for reruns...

Dead people have no rights. Maybe that sounds insensitive, but check your court records. You can't libel the dead. So if the first amendment protects making jokes while people are alive, and affords even less protection to people who are dead, who gives a damn when an episode gets aired, be it Mother Theresa or Ken Lay.

And, as others have pointed out, to whom are we to pay respects? Crack dealers and street pimps deserve more respect.

Oh please, get real. It was a repeat and after what Ken Lay did do, I find it impossible to blame Letterman or the network for airing that show as it was planned long ago. The jokes didn't offend me and I think Ken Lay got off easy not paying jail time but left all that he stole to his family to live in confort. I agree...Lay is a weasel.

Oh please. So they aired jokes about a recently dead man. So what?! Jokes are supposed to offend people. That's what makes them funny.Sheesh. Get your panties out of those wads.