I don’t watch David Letterman, never really have. The first time I watched his show, he did a disgusting prank phone call that had me cringing and I’ve never liked him since. However, I did watch a couple of these clips and had a really good laugh. The Joaquin Phoenix interview, apparently from a couple of days ago, is just bizarre. Enjoy.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1879231_1879160,00.html?cnn=yes
Susan
I’ve always enjoyed Letterman, or usually do, and have watched his show on and off since it’s been on. Always an unusual guy, he’s getting quirkier as he ages. Although not “disastrous,” easily the strangest thing I’ve ever seen on the show occurred about 2 weeks ago. Part I is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUbB_D-dYp8 and the other parts are easy to find from there.
In brief, it turns out that many years ago, the comedian Bill Hicks came on the show, but Letterman apparently found his routine objectionable and it was not used on the program. It later turned out that Hicks was only a year away from dying young of cancer and had already been diagnosed at the time of the taping. So, 2 weeks ago or so, after all these years, he brings Bill Hicks’ mother on and apologizes to her and shows the lost clip.
A very odd TV event.
Odd indeed. Why is it we so frequently only feel bad about being mean/rude to people when we find out they’ve died? Why can’t we make up for things while they’re still alive? Much more effective than having to dig up a mother to apologize to years later.
Susan
The Farrah Fawcett one was…uh…interesting.
Some backstory on the Joaquin Phoenix interview…
What I’ve read is that he is doing a “documentary” being filmed by Casey Affleck, showing an actor going off the deep end. That interview, combined with his announcement of retiring from acting to be a rapper, is all part of it. Supposedly.
Performance art?
Yeah but my question is, Was Letterman in on it? It didn’t seem so, and he’s is rarely convincing when he’s ‘playing along.’
I loved Letterman when he started on NBC after Carson, when he was snide and sarcastic and not worried about being an 11:30 host. I think the tamed down version is less brilliant, and hence less consistently funny. But it’s hard to be funny for 30 years. Still I’d take Letterman over Leno every time. And the Phoenix interview let him regress to his old self a little but. The comment at the end was priceless. “Joaquin, I’m sorry you couldn’t be here tonight.” Classic Letterman.
I think Letterman has also been affected by his heart attack.
I’d rate this among his best 10 interviews. Not that Letterman really added anything, but it’s still hilarious: