Letterman or Leno

Lettermen...

Thanks and have a nice day!

 

Yeah, he's good, too, though I still miss Andy. They reran his last guest spot, and he got the best joke. It was during another Year 2000 bit. ("Ballpark franks will no longer plump when you cook them, but moan when you suck them!")

I think Jimmy Kimmel's gotten pretty good, though he's the second lowest rated show on late night.

 

That's something Leno's returned to quite a bit: every city he visits, he tries to make the people look like idiots.

What's more disturbing is that he's stolen the old Rupert G bit where he's outfitted with an earpiece and hidden camera, and Dave tells him what do from a specially equipped van down the street. Leno's not involved, though, it's just an actor they hire who's equipped with a hidden camera, but it's pretty much the same concept of planting someone in an ordinary, everyday scenario and having him act like a jerk or a wacko. The biggest difference is that the way they do it on Leno, it comes off as stupid. On Letterman, it was absolute hysterical and intense (they only stopped doing it because some guy pulled a knife out on Rupert G; I don't think it was ever aired).

 

Carson is still the greatest in my book, a total class act and no filler, when he had an author on he had read the book more than likely, and as was pointed out the guest were guest.

I was a Letterman fan from Late Night days (in fact I even remember him hosting Carson way before Joan Rivers or Jay) I think that some of his off the wall bizarre stuff has become too cliche it used to be hilarious now it is often just overdone. Paul's "musical" intos to some of the sketches are just a waste of time, I mean just give the band some serious time to jam they are great they don't need to be "funny" cos it isn't IMO. Some of the segments that the announcer dose are great but there are bad ones they just repeat over and over and over. Far too much time is given to the intros to the different segments like for instance the top 10 list, the first few times its over the top graphics cracked me up now they just annoy me, I feel like my time is being wasted, and it is.

Leno is too much of a suck up, getting his guest little gifts and sometimes in his interviews he will break in with his own stories about himself.

Since I have my trusty remote I can watch a both. I do have a respect for Letterman but the show needs something.

 

Carson... was king... I'll give you that!

 

One of the best bits to me was when Dave was taking orders at the Taco Bell drive through. One woman ordered a Burito Supreme (on Daves insistance) and a couple other items and Dave said that will be ~ $16.42 the lady angerly said "WHAT!!" and Dave said oh those Burito Supremes are a bit "Pricey"

 

Somebody must watch Leno, but I dont know who. Really, nobody I know watches him. Letterman is great. He's a bit goofy and sometimes they really run stuff into the ground such as "will it float?", but other than that it is pretty good. Leno is such a wuss. He does the weird little laugh and the high voice and tries to be overly nice to everyone. Letterman takes his shots at people and does a good job of interviewing most guests. Plus, Drew Barrymore is on all the time.

 

Ditto.

My favorite of the four (five now) of the late night hosts by far.

All of his guests always seem much more comfortable with him than any of the others. Even the awkward moments are hilarious.

 

I usually watch Leno's opening monologue ... then switch to "the inside of my eyelids" ... occasionally, I'll watch the 2nd segment ... has anybody caught that "grand motherly" lady who gives advice ... she's got one foul mouth.

 

What about Pat Sajak?

 

Dave all the way! Does anyone remember his morning show? I'd like to see reruns of those sometime.

Letterman was much fresher and more daring back in the early days, when he did some really wacky stuff, like hosting the show in a dentist chair or when the entire image rotated 360 degrees over the course of the night. I also love the Christmas shows that he used to do, with actors playing his family. Really hilarious stuff!

I have a hard time watching Leno, though i used to like his standup act prior to him getting the Tonight Show. He's just not funny anymore - almost square.

 

David Letterman is a comic genius -- pure and simple.

 

I watched his morning show daily. Great stuff.

Letterman's comedic style (ironic detachment from everything, refusal to take "show biz" or celebrities too seriously, extreme sarcasm) has been imitated so much it's become a cliche. People forget how truly different and fresh Dave's approach seemed when he first came out. Conan, Kilborn, Kimmel, Talk Soup, and myriad others owe much of their style to Dave. Even Leno borrows from it sometimes.

Even disregarding that, I prefer Dave because his writers are more intelligent. Leno seems much more willing to go for the low-brow, cheap laugh. Make note of how much more frequently Leno tells sex-based jokes in his monologue than Dave, for example.

 

Letterman, relatively speaking, has been mailing it in for the last 5 years--at least. However, Letterman mailing it in is still pretty good. This is clearly evidenced by the recent attempts by otherwise talented performers to sit in for him. Other than Vince Vaughn, who was outstanding, the others showed how skillfull Dave is at keeping his well-written machine humming along.

I watch Tough Crowd on Comedy Central now.

 

I have always preferred Letterman, he gets more laughs out of me. But I just had HD cable put in and the past few night I been watching Leno because it is broadcast in HD and the picture is amazing.

Although the great picture is not going to keep me watching for long unless I start taping Letterman to watch later.

 

I LOVED the Christmas shows! In one the youngest kid in Dave's "family" had to drag a Christmas tree through the very mean streets of New York to the studio. Randomly during the show we saw that poor kid running from angry gang members and dodging taxis while dragging that stupid tree through the city. It was hilarious!

Another weird show Dave sent the audience home because it was "too hot" and they did the entire show in the offices of the NBC building.

It's too bad he doesn't take it to the limit like in the old days, but his show is still often extremely clever and funny.

Dan C.

 

Letterman should have taken over the Tonight Show. NBC exec Bob Wright has admitted as such. I can only think that America wants to be lobotomised into sleep by preferring Leno. Jay is a brilliant stand up, but his persona does not work well in his current position. Dave, I think, is not as good as he used to be, but because he has mellowed somewhat with age(and he has not aged well, IMO). Still, Dave is the superior of the two because he is an all around BROADCASTER. Jay is only a smart-mouted comedian who hosts a talk show. I get the impression Dave understands more of what it takes to put on a late night talk show. BTW, Conan is underrated in my book. Started out ghastly, but has blossomed.

Evan

 

I loved when Letterman would visit a typical suburban neighborhood like Nutley NJ and drive all the residents nuts!

 

Remember the episode where they redubbed the audio for the entire show, replacing Dave and his guests' voices with silly cartoon-style voices? And wasn't there an episode once that was dubbed entirely into Spanish (or did I just imagine that one)?

 

Actually, I prefer "The Lettermen" on Capitol in Stereo!!

 

I seldom watch any of them, but I never did understand Letterman's appeal. Even the bits described above just sound dumb to me, not funny. That's always been my reaction watching him: he's like a class clown trying to be funny, but if you don't have the same sense of humor he just comes across as lame.

Talk shows, as a genre, aren't particularly interesting to me, so I'm probably not the best to judge what's good. I did love to watch "Talk Soup" when Greg Kinnear was host.

 

Nope, you're totally right! An entire episode (although a recent repeat) was dubbed into Spanish with English subtitles.

Which is echoed by a particularly inspired bit he did a few years back on his CBS show. Remember "Everything's Funnier In Spanish"? A scene would run in English and then again in Spanish, with a few bazaar changes in the process.

 

I watch 'em all

And I like Conan and Carson too. Carson Daly that is. I watch all those guys.
Peace
Norm
PS: I've never seen "King of the Hill" but I'd watch it if Angel wanted to...

 

I remember back in the mid 1990s when Dave did one of his first weeks out in L.A. One of the taped sketches had Dave and Paul Schaffer driving around Hollywood. Their car broke down. They're standing under the hood, when Johnny Carson drives by, slows down, looks at them for a second, and then keeps going.

I saw Jay Leno live at the Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg, Manitoba in the fall of 1985, long before his late night TV gig. Back then he was billed as the "Bruce Springsteen of Comedy". His set was IIRC, close to 2 hours long and very cutting edge. I had tears in my eyes. I was laughing so hard my face hurt. Leno was ON that night. He even handled a drunk heckler very well. Fast forward to his TV show. Nothing like the live concert I saw back in '85. And I have especially not been a fan since the "Dancing Ito" days. I thought the whole parody of the Simpson trial was ridiculous.

AND when has Jay Leno ever had a guest host as good as Elvis Costello? Has Leno every used a guest host?

 

Just Katie Couric about a month ago when she and Jay traded shows for one day(she almost did a better job then he does, IMO).

I think the problem with Jay is he is just as much of a wiseass as Dave but chooses to put across the "Mr. Nice Guy" image(although I'm sure he really is a decent guy).

Evan