NYDN:
Late-night funnyman David Letterman was hardly a barrel of laughs off the air.
A new biography of the now-retired talk show host portrays Letterman as more self-loathing than self-critical — and an often miserable man who inflicted his pain on his staff.
“He was never truly comfortable unless he was seething with unhappiness at something,” one longtime writer told author Jason Zinoman in “Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night.”
In fact, few of the acerbic Letterman’s close colleagues sang his praises to Zinoman.
Letterman’s demeanor soured after July 1995, when his CBS front-running program dipped to second place behind “The Tonight Show” with former friend-turned-enemy Jay Leno.
Viewers flipped to NBC when Leno landed an interview with actor Hugh Grant, fresh off his arrest for soliciting a hooker improbably named Divine Brown.
Many never returned, curdling Letterman’s on-air persona.
He became more openly caustic as his comedy took a sadistic turn. One night, after his “Late Show” was whipped in the ratings by both “The Tonight Show” and “Nightline,” his rage visibly surfaced.
ugly personality and a face to match
I used to watch him in the 80’s late into summer nights as a kid when he was funny and he had some great early and unknown guests. He turned into the self-hating Lefty that consumes every Liberal. No matter how this country blesses them with riches, prosperity and fame, they seem to loathe life itself. I just don’t get it anymore.
Like every other rich entertainer liberal, they know they are highly overpaid and the guilt gets them.
But they still grab as much as they can and they hang onto like grim death, which exacerbates the guilt… so then the anger and self-loathing kicks in.
Then they think they can wash it all away by being outspoken assholes who condemn capitalism, greed, the powerful, the entitled, the privileged… you know, themselves.
The funny thing is he was the very same asshole hosting his show as he is now.
Many of us could recognize that then as now.
Others needed to lose the laugh track to recognize he is a full blown jerk.
Satan Clause
He’s a dirtbag. Know from personal experience.
He now looks like a chronic masturbator. 🤣
Gosh, an insufferable asshole AND an extreme left-wing lunatic. What are the odds of that combination?
Long ago I was exposed to about 20 minutes of him. That was enough. I had such a strong negative reaction I never watched him again.
There are a lot of slebs I had similar experiences with.
You here this stuff about almost any celebrity from Johnny Carson to Babra Streisand to Walt Disney or Shirley Temple or Alfred Hitchcock. Half the Authors writing this stuff have never met them! I half to wonder if its written just to sell to make a buck?
Seriously, who watches those shit shows
outside of the confines of some super city
liberal shithouse?
Confirms what I always thought of him.
Never liked him. The late-night show format and concept as something worth watching died when Johnny Carson retired, IMO.
Letterman has not been ‘funny’ for decades, from what my dad has told me, as soon as the 90s hit, he became liberal and mean as hell. Not a surprise.
“more self-loathing than self-critical — and an often miserable man who inflicted his pain on his staff” sounds like a liberal to me
Letterman is a cocksucker
#Times up Letterman – In this so called post-weinstein era I cannot believe a hack like Letterman is back again. He is a know womanizer, made fun of teenage pregnancy, physically and emotionally abused some of his guests( Richard Simmons and Justin Bieber to name a couple.) a homophobic bully and cheated on his wife. And no matter what your political opinion is you don’t make sexual jokes about politician’s children. He used the Palin girls for sexual jokes. He’s a smuck.