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Letterman needs to stop talking about blackmail scandal... immediately
by Joel Keller, posted Oct 6th 2009 10:07AM
You knew that after a weekend of blackmail scandal news and tabloid stories, David Letterman wasn't going to open his show on Monday just telling jokes about Chicago losing the Olympics. In fact, he started off the proceedings with a bang, asking the audience, "Did your weekend just fly by?"
Then he proceeded telling some pretty funny jokes about the scandal; he spent the weekend "raking my hate mail," that it was "chilly outside the house and chilly inside the house," and that the next phase is to go on Oprah and sob. He even acknowledged his odd comedic predicament by trailing off on jokes about Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford and Eliot Spitzer, realizing that he's not in the position to poke fun at those folks.
But then, after the break, he sincerely apologized to his staff for putting them through this mess, and said he had a lot of work to do to repair things with his wife, Regina Lasko. It was at that moment (video below) that I realized that Dave needs to stop talking about this mess... immediately:
The self-deprecating jokes Dave told in the monologue were a good deflection of the seriousness of what's going on in his life, but the more jokes he made, the more I felt that he was digging a hole he couldn't get out of. And then when he made that apology, sincere as it was, it felt like the hole just got much, much deeper. Luckily, he didn't do a Top Ten list about the incident, or I'd have started to think he was wallowing in his own misery in front of millions.
That's why it's time for Dave to stop talking about this incident and move on. It's going to be tough for him to do, as more information comes out about his various affairs, especially when this case goes to trial. He's never been shy about inserting jokes about the various weird things that he goes through; he alluded to "Mrs. David Letterman" many times during his Late Night days, for instance.
But those scandals didn't directly involve his personal behavior. The more jokes he drops about this particular scandal, the more guilty he's going to look. And, to be honest, that's not going to be good for either the quality of his show or the soundness of his marriage. So, hopefully, Dave is done with this, and we can just settle in to see more Top Ten lists about what to ask before adopting a monkey.
Then he proceeded telling some pretty funny jokes about the scandal; he spent the weekend "raking my hate mail," that it was "chilly outside the house and chilly inside the house," and that the next phase is to go on Oprah and sob. He even acknowledged his odd comedic predicament by trailing off on jokes about Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford and Eliot Spitzer, realizing that he's not in the position to poke fun at those folks.
But then, after the break, he sincerely apologized to his staff for putting them through this mess, and said he had a lot of work to do to repair things with his wife, Regina Lasko. It was at that moment (video below) that I realized that Dave needs to stop talking about this mess... immediately:
The self-deprecating jokes Dave told in the monologue were a good deflection of the seriousness of what's going on in his life, but the more jokes he made, the more I felt that he was digging a hole he couldn't get out of. And then when he made that apology, sincere as it was, it felt like the hole just got much, much deeper. Luckily, he didn't do a Top Ten list about the incident, or I'd have started to think he was wallowing in his own misery in front of millions.
That's why it's time for Dave to stop talking about this incident and move on. It's going to be tough for him to do, as more information comes out about his various affairs, especially when this case goes to trial. He's never been shy about inserting jokes about the various weird things that he goes through; he alluded to "Mrs. David Letterman" many times during his Late Night days, for instance.
But those scandals didn't directly involve his personal behavior. The more jokes he drops about this particular scandal, the more guilty he's going to look. And, to be honest, that's not going to be good for either the quality of his show or the soundness of his marriage. So, hopefully, Dave is done with this, and we can just settle in to see more Top Ten lists about what to ask before adopting a monkey.
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