Jun 15 2009
Letterman caves
You can skip CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman tonight. During the taping of the show earlier today, Mr. Letterman caved to the right wing extremists (and, I’m sure, his bosses at CBS) and apologized for the joke that he told last week that so “outraged” the Republicans. I don’t know why he (or they) bothered. The apology will not sooth their ruffled feathers. They are not yet through playing the victim card. They do not yet have their “pound of flesh.”
Here is the transcript from tonight’s show, courtesy of TV Week…
“All right, here – I’ve been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week – it was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don’t know about it. But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There’s no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can’t be defended. The next day, people are outraged. They’re angry at me because they said, ‘How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?’ And I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the Governor and I was told at the time she was there with Rudy Giuliani…And I really should have made the joke about Rudy…” (audience applauds) “But I didn’t, and now people are getting angry and they’re saying, ‘Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who’s completely innocent, minding her own business,’ and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there. So she’s now at the ball game and people think that I made the joke about her. And, but still, I’m wondering, ‘Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?’ I’ve never made jokes like this as long as we’ve been on the air, 30 long years, and you can’t really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself.
“And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer ‘Newshour’ – this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and I thought, ‘Oh, boy, now I’m beginning to understand what the problem is here. It’s the perception rather than the intent.’ It doesn’t make any difference what my intent was, it’s the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it’s not a very good joke. And I’m certainly – ” (audience applause) “- thank you. Well, my responsibility – I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It’s not your fault that it was misunderstood, it’s my fault. That it was misunderstood.” (audience applauds) “Thank you. So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I’m sorry about it and I’ll try to do better in the future. Thank you very much.” (audience applause)
At some point, Americans are going to have to stop apologizing to Republicans. They should be apologizing to us for the destruction of our country. I am not holding my breath.
P.S. We shall now see if Ms. Palin has enough class to apologize to Mr. Letterman for calling him a pervert and accusing him of pedophilia. Again – I’m not holding my breath.
David Letterman truly owes and huge debt of gratitude to Sarah Palin. This whole thing has really helped his ratings. This whole thing has also helped me tremendously. I now know that Embassy Suites will be getting no more of my business. (Either you understand that last statement or you don’t. If you don’t, perhaps the better.)
UPDATE: Also see “Palin gag? Comedy’s all in the mis-timing.”
Queen Sarah “I Can Exploit My Children for Political Gain but David Letterman Had Better Not Say a Word About Them” Palin has visited the mortal realm long enough to “accept” Mr. Letterman’s apology. Her statement is so blatantly ridiculous that I will neither quote nor link it here. I’m sure you can find it should you be so inclined. Let’s just say it involved the United States military. The United States military! She actually invoked the United States military in a statement in which she supposedly accepts an apology from a late night comedian who dared make a joke about her knocked up 18-year-old daughter (who, by the way, has been the brunt of many, many light night jokes – see article linked in previous paragraph). This is one weird and strange woman.
Gosh almighty, I do so hope the Republicans run her in 2012!
3 Responses to “Letterman caves”
My opinion, All I can say is Letterman didn’t need to apologize. It was a joke. It’s another of those things that people blow out of proportion, like this was the biggest thing we have to worry about in the world today.
Letterman got better ratings, Palin stayed in the headlines so she should be thankful to Letterman. One can only hope that she is forgotten by the next election because the country proved they will already allow idiots to be placed in the White House. I’m just happy the last eight years are behind us and hopeful the next four will be a whole lot better.
As I suggest here in my blog, something Governor Palin may want to read (and recall) would have to be the Falwell v. Flynt Supreme Court ruling, upholding satire as a legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights.
Sarah Palin is just ceasing this opportunity to get publicity because she plans to run for president in 2012 and it’s working. Republicans are so conniving , aren’t they?