On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 11:52 PM, pedegars <[email protected]> wrote:
> > But what do you do when you return to your normal life and they're > still coming after you? Even Monica Lewinsky is pretty much left > alone today, unless you count the occasional item in the Gawker Media > sites. > Since pedegars has acknowledged not actually watching Dave, I will just point out that Dave does continue to make jokes about Lewinsky (or, as he calls her, "that heavy set girl"). I still wish Dave had left things where they were last week - he acknowledged it was a tasteless, bad joke, but no more so than lots of other tasteless bad jokes that he tells. If the Gov wants to keep flogging what she thinks is a joke hurtful to her young daughter to raise money and sympathy, let her do it. That is what I would have preferred. But I am not as harsh as Kevin in my criticism of his decision to apologize. He still did not apologize for telling the joke about the 18 year old girl; or for telling the joke about a 14 year old girl; he apologized for telling a joke that could so easily be understood as being about the 14 year old girl. I thought it was interesting that he referenced Mark Shield's reaction, which I took as a sign to Dave that it really wasn't just Palin groupies who were making a big deal about the joke, but also people who did not see the show themselves, and just heard about it through the echo chamber. Dave seemed to conclude that, no matter what he did or said, a large portion of the public was going to think that he told a sex joke about a 14 year old girl, and clearing that up was more important to him than any abstract principle that Kevin (or I) might care about it. I can understand that Despite his reputation Dave has always been a decent guy with his own code, and I can see why he would be unhappy with a perception to the contrary. In his comments on this AB says one of Dave's problem's here was that he did not do adequate fact-checking. I have been thinking something similar, but a little different. Dave (maybe Leno too, I don't know) fairly often gets the specific facts of a public story wrong while setting up a joke in his monologue - I notice this at least once or twice a month, maybe more often. AB seems to assume that this is the result of sloppy research; I assume that Dave and his writers just don't care about the facts - after all, most of the time they are just trying to set up a punch-line. They set up these kinds of jokes in ways that are as simple as possible, and maximize the punchline. Dave said that he checked to make sure that Bristol was 18 (which she is), which was the main fact that he cared about. He did not confuse the two daughters, he didn't even know (and I am sure did not even care) that one of the daughters was actually at the game with Palin. As I noted previously, I saw the show as it aired, without any media warning or bias about it, just falling asleep with Dave as I ussually do. I may or may not have been vaguely aware that Palin was in New York, but when I heard the joke I knew it was about Bristol (the 18 year old). I also groaned and rolled my eyes, becuase the joke was not funny. I can't even imagine that anyone who saw the show without any spin honestly even considered the possibility it was about the 14 year old daughter. It would be as if someone listeing to Dave joke about "that heavy set girl" took offense because there was some other intern giving oral sex to Clinton that nobody else knew about. Finding out later that the 14 year old had been at the game explains why maybe some might misundertand the joke, if they heard about it like this: "Governor Palin and her 14 year old daughter went to a Yankee game yesterday. David Letterman told the following joke on his show last night:". I think Dave finally realized that was basically how most people in the country who do not watch his show, were first hearing about the joke, and it made him cringe. I would love to hear sometime the inside story on Dave;s decision to make the actual apology last night. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that it was not a case of some CBS suit or PR flack ordering or begging Dave to do it, but Dave himself not wanting to have regular people think he would make the kind of joke he was being (I think maliciously) accused of making. It is not that Dave is weaker than Kevin (or I) want him to be, it is that he is more decent than Kevin (or I). That can be a problem sometimes... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... Smart (TV) People on Ice! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
