Posted on 01/05/2006 6:17:53 AM PST by .cnI redruM
David Letterman has ruled late night television in nearly every dorm hall in America. He has his shtick down cold and does what he does exceedingly well. Beneath the goofy exterior lies a mind like a steel trap. Thus, it was far from accidental that Mr. Letterman chose Bill O’ Reilly to ambush over The War in Iraq.
Letterman made no pretense in understanding all the complex issues. He decided he was against continuing the fight and decided further that he would use his show as a bully pulpit to further the cause. In undertaking this task, he showed great skill in selecting an adversary.
Letterman knew that there was far from unanimous agreement that The War in Iraq was a mistake. He also knew that comedy wouldn’t work if half the audience was booing and calling him Benedict Letterman. Dave had to get us all on his side, and that’s where Bill O’ Reilly provided him the perfect straight man.
Bill O’ Reilly has the unique ability to royally infuriate me, even when I agree with him. He has the sensitivity of a pit bull in a vat of raw meat and the manners of a sex-starved cobra. He routinely bullies and harasses his guests. He cuts them off, if they try and get too many words in edgewise.
In brief, Letterman needed to gin up sympathy for himself, even if he was representing a cause that wasn’t universally accepted. Bill O’ Reilly gave David Letterman the perfect anthropomorphic symbol of bellicosity to play Joan Baez against. After five minutes of Bill O’Reilly, America really would want to give peace a chance. That or perhaps blessed silence.
Letterman treated O’Reilly the way O’Reilly treats guests on The O’Reilly Factor. If you ignored the fact that Letterman was telling us to sell out the efforts of our soldiers, it was kind of fun to munch a Dorito or two and watch Big-Headed Bill get roasted via his own medium of bellicosity. Who wouldn’t laugh at Bill O’Reilly drinking coffee from a cup Charming Little Dave stirred with his pencil.
The whole thing was a laugh riot; except for the fact that it wasn’t funny at all. Like Baghdad Bob, we could watch David Letterman’s performance and chuckle at how bad it really was. However, the similarities to Baghdad Bob and the laughter stop right there.
Baghdad Bob was an incompetent buffoon sent on a fool’s errand. He had no clue how to work the media and his comedic timing was an accident of his sheer awfulness at it.
David Letterman never misses a beat. He knew exactly what he was doing and behind the laughs and goofiness laid a very serious hard edge. He selected Bill O’Reilly in hopes of transferring our emotional distaste for O’Reilly onto the position O’Reilly was to serve as a straw man to defend.
David Letterman attempted to use the medium of his comedy show to play a very nasty joke on our soldiers in the field. Because he thinks that’s comedy, he’s permanently off my Top 10 List of Stand-Up Guys.
I knew Johnny Carson
Davis Letterman is no Johnny Carson
Yes, this is up there with blinking "SOS" or "torture" in morse code.
What program were you watching
Letterman is atrocious. CBS should have taken him off the air long ago, but what do you expect from the network of Dan Rather. The good thing is that most people realize that Letterman joined the ranks of the loony left long ago. I wish there was something we could to -- boycott his sponsors, perhaps -- to force CBS to take him off the air, or at least provide an alternative point of view on the show.
This tends to remind me when Tom Selleck was ambushed Rosie O'Donut, when she was rude, abrasive, and shouted at him because of he being a NRA spokesman. That is when she jumped the shark and dropped like a rock. I do not expect CBS to can Letterman but his ratings will plument more so now.
I disagree with you a little on your last statement. I think some minds were changed as people saw a extremely unfunny, rude, uninformed, and unprepared David Letterman. I wish BOR would have made the condition he appears on Late Night and Letterman appears on The Factor.
The funny thing about that show was that Bill was actually trying answer Dave's questions!!! What a waste of time! Dave is a typical Dem, they will not listen to anything obvious. If you must answer them, make something up that would make Michael Moron proud.
Why are we in Iraq Dave?!? Answer it your own damn self!
You promise? Good. It's hard to tell where you come down on this issue from this vanity. And fyi, Letterman DOESN'T do his job "exceedingly well" and DOESN'T have a mind like a steel trap. I would guess you were being sarcastic when you wrote "who wouldn't laugh" at Bill having his drink stirred by Dave's filthy pencil. That is just low brow, imo.
I admit it, O'reilly has been boring me as of late. However, I think he slammed dunked that wimp Letterman and I'm glad he did. O'reilly definately earned my respect for spanking Daivid the American hater.
Hennican has GOT to be the whiniest guy in broadcast anywhere. He makes me want to poke him in the eye.
Yep, and Rosie wasn't long for tv after that.
I sure hope so! There could have been some rational Democrats left . . .
The way O'Reilly grabbed the coffee mugged stirred by Letterman's pencil, asking, "Is this mine?" You know he had seen what Letterman had done with the pencil and was poking it back at Letterman. Proving O'Reilly could take anything Letterman threw at him. Verbally or infantile pranks.
O'Reilly was the only adult in that segment. Letterman proved how tired and disinterested he has been the last few years in producing a quality piece of entertainment.
That was a sad, sad performance by a man who used to be one of the funniest 10 or 15 or 20 or so years ago.
Letterman showed himself to be the small bitter man that he really is.
It sounded to me as if he had a cold, and to take a pencil in his germy hand and stir BOR's mug was just a disgusting thing to do.
Bill was fine, I just watched the clip myself -- from previous commments I was expecting that he didn't handle himself well, but he did just fine managing DL's unpleasantness which apparently is what passes for comedy these days.
Correct, cBS loves Letterman he carries the DIM/LIB water just fine and makes a few bucks along the way.
His ratings will suffer, no doubt about that, but look how far Rather slipped before he "retired".
Leatherman's health will take him out, not his cBS masters. He "damaged" himself pretty good at Ball State according to rumors.
Last night, I heard the show for the first-time ever. I was sure it was DAVID Letterman; and count me shocked when it was made clear that it was. He struck me as very frightened and bearing a false "in-your-face" attitude about the WOT; like.. someone threatened him if he didn't take that position?
Private Media Group, one of the largest Porn Companies in the world, will soon release a movie called “God’s Will.” Apparently the movie is a shameless parody of Bill O’Reilly, America’s favourite ultra-conservative, and his incredibly popular program, The O’Reilly Factor. I have not seen the movie as yet, but it appears that the movie is making fun of O’Reilly’s constant “holier than thou” attitude. In the film our anchor man is endowed with the powers of God after claiming that he would make a pretty good job of it, but instead of solving the problems of the world as you would think a good ultra conservative right wing radical would do, he uses his powers to engage in several acts of sexual debauchery
Letterman SUCKS !!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.