What Chet said. I’ve never found these shows to be anything but cringe-inducing even on their best nights, when I was shamefacedly enjoying their mockery of people I dislike. Old joke is old, for the most part. Once it hits Conan and like a mall somewhere, it’s pretty much over.
Plus, you know, so long as we’re on unfunny late-night, regarding Letterman and Palin. I’m not particularly crazy about her dragging her kids around to every political event on the planet and shoving them in front of the cameras. But they are HER kids, and why they don’t feel free to tell her to shove it once they come of age is on them and on her.
Letterman, on the other hand. I’m not particularly crazy about what he said, either. Mostly because I feel we should leave politicians’ kids, no matter their ages, the hell alone. And yes, I said this about the Bush twins, too, in that if every stupid thing I did in my twenties was on CNN I’d be in jail or grounded until I was 53. Sarah Palin is a target-rich environment all on her own, there’s no need to extend it to the children.
My larger problem with this is twofold. 1. Whether the joke was about Bristol or Willow it still wasn’t funny. If you’re going to be offensive, make it count. Don’t make some cheap joke about how Sarah Palin’s daughter’s a skank, because first of all, we’ve been hearing that all over the Internets for nearly a solid year now. And wow, Alex Rodriguez is a manwhore? I never would have thought. For God’s sake, you have a staff of writers, Dave, try to come up with something that hasn’t been on Wonkette for eight months.
2. The amount of attention given two celebrities having a bitchy little slapfight that will harm or impoverish no one far eclipses that given the Iranian elections, health care reform, any number of pressing political concerns, etc. The outrage I feel at that is much greater than whatever I might feel about Letterman, Palin or anyone else who won’t be missing a meal anytime soon.
A.