Comedy doesn’t have to be brainy to be smart. And interviewers don’t have to be overly intellectual to be incisive. And that’s why David Letterman will leave a massive hole when he exits late night.
That was never more clear than last night, when CBS aired a 90 minute special looking back at Letterman’s 33 years on television then followed it with an episode of the Late Show featuring President Obama as the guest.
The special highlighted Letterman’s mastery of high/low comedy. The dumber the stunt, the more loaded the message. Why drop a pallet of paint cans off a roof? Why bait Oprah into inviting you on her show? Why? Because you can. Because you’re winking at the audience and saying, “Do you believe someone is letting me do this?”
And then came the Obama interview, a full hour of genuine conversation between a talk show host and the leader of the free world. No pandering, nothing pre-scripted- just a free flowing exchange that jumped from serious topics to comfortable chatting and back. Letterman is self deprecating but confident and secure in the knowledge that he can get the most out of his guests.
In this image released by CBS, President Barack Obama, left, appears with host David Letterman during a taping of “Late Show with David Letterman,” on Monday, May 4, 2015, in New York. (John Filo/CBS via AP)
It was during a commercial break of the Obama episode that I flipped over to NBC to see what Jimmy Fallon was up to. And I got there just in time to watch Jack Black and he do a shot for shot remake of the music video for Extreme’s power ballad, “More than Words”
The sketch was creative. It was earnest, it had exquisite attention to detail. It showed just how multitalented both Fallon and Jack Black are. It was almost pitch perfect, except for one thing. It wasn’t funny. It had no point of view. It wasn’t sending up a genre or turning a mirror on society. It was a spot on imitation but not an impression.
Nostalgia does not equal comedy. And it’s ironic that that point was hammered home by a 90 minute retrospective on David Letterman’s career.
