Letterman Drops One Into Foul Territory

Har de har - David Letterman gets big laughs with a joke about 14 or 1 year old Willow Palin getting "knocked up" by Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees.

Jim Treacher notes that the NY Times printed what appears to be a transcript of the Letterman monologue, yet it is mysteriously missing this "joke".  Odd - from this account, the joke fit the flow quite nicely:

David Letterman: “It’s summer in New York, and tomorrow the subway goes clothing optional.” “‘The New York Post’ printed nude photos of Britney Spears. You don’t have to buy a newspaper. If you want to see her naked, just buy her a beer.” “The Tony Awards had an embarrassing moment when Angela Lansbury was mistaken for Elton John. Angela won an unprecedented fifth Tony, and she was also named acting president of General Motors. The Tony show was so long that at the end Godot finally arrived.” “Sarah Palin was in New York today, keying Tina Fey’s car, and she finally met one of those Jewish people Mel Gibson’s always talking about. She went to a Yankee game with Rudi Giuliani. Their seats were in far far right field. They were shown to their seats by Joe the Usher. During the seventh inning her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” “Sonia Sotomayor broke her ankle, and Rush Limbaugh said he hopes it doesn’t heal.” Dave ran a clip of Laura Bush showing their new home in Dallas. In the backyard was a huge statue of a naked Dick Cheney. Guest Howard Stern: “I never liked Jay. I was on Leno once, and I brought out two lesbians. He was shocked. He walked off his own show. Right then I knew he wouldn’t last.”

Possible explanations for the editing out of this howler:

(1) The Times recognized this joke as inappropriate and out of bounds but didn't want to make news by embarrassing either Letterman or the Palins.  Hmm, score that as unlikely - just for starters, based on the audience laughter I doubt that anyone at the Times would have recognized this joke as problematic.

(2)   The Times is not transcribing the monologue from their TiVo - Letterman's publicists routinely send them a copy of the scripted monologue, and someone with two flickering neurons edited the Willow joke out.  I think that is more likely, since their blast-fax audience probably includes tamer outlets such as USA Today.

(3)  Just a mad ad-lib from that crazy clown David Letterman.  No way.

As I understand it, Letterman's "slutty flight attendant" line, also controversial, was from the Top 10, not the monologue, so it would not appear here.

UPDATE:  Jim Treacher gets results!  After a reader revolt in the comments section the Times explains:

From the editors: The transcript we received omitted the joke referred to in the comments below, presumably for reasons of taste. Had it included the joke, we would not have run it. Monologue jokes are routinely edited for taste and sometimes brevity.

Comments

[bad]

Who knew anyone actually watched David Letterman.

What a pathetic poopface.

[fdcol63]

Everyone thinks it's fun and games, and being able to laugh at yourself is important, but I think we underestimate the serious impact that this kind of comedy and satire can have in shaping opinions and beliefs in the broader public.

Particular when it's so deeply unbalanced and tilted in the favor of one party over the other.

[Thomas Collins]

Whatever the reason the NY Times left out a part of Letterman the Pervert's ramblings (I will not dignify the Pervert by calling those ramblings a joke), I hope every sponsor of the Pervert's show gets a transcript and a video of the whole monologue.

[bio mom]

Letterman is not funny. He is an aging man who is angry and who, I predict, will be replaced in the not so distant future by someone younger. His bitterness is slipping through in his so-called humor.

[bad]

I saw a clip somewhere and the audience laughed for a long time. Or was it a laugh track?

Letterman has a shot at being part of the Ibama administration with that attitude toward young women.

I expect Ibama to publically denounce the remarks, invoking his young daughters as he did with Imus.

[Extraneus]

I think Todd Palin should call him out. Ask Dave for a private meeting, just the two of them. It's time some of this way-out-of-bounds, outrageous b.s. was handled.

[Neo]

Is this worse than "nappy headed hoes" ?

[fdcol63]

Todd and Dick Cheney should take Dave hunting. LOL

[narciso]

Yes, he said something much worse, than Imus would have even dared to, surprising that the Times would leave it out, or maybe it's the "Old Victorian" attitude that Tom Wolfe talked about in the "Right Stuff" I tend to doubt it.

[Captain Hate]

I saw a clip somewhere and the audience laughed for a long time. Or was it a laugh track?

The people attending the buck-toothed idiot's show are ordered to laugh on cue no matter how unfunny and mean-spirited the comments may be or they'll get run. Letterman jumped the shark sometime in the mid-80s. You'd think that with a bastard kid of his own he might dial back the insults on children; except like most donk garbage he hates children.

[peter]

Ace of Spades HQ does get the last laugh on this one. He published a picture of Letterman's long-time girlfriend, now wife. (S)he ain't exactly a looker. I think she came in fifth at the Belmont, however.

[Mark O]

"poopface"?

A split-toothed coprophagic grin.

[fdcol63]

Letterman's bad enough, but the smarmy smugness of Jon Stewart makes me want to puke.

Stewart is a truly disgusting pig.

[Jane]

I saw a clip somewhere and the audience laughed for a long time.

I saw the clip too and thought I heard some groans. Wishful thinking perhaps.

There is just so much to be angry about these days.

[Jack is Back!]

And New Yorkers wonder why the rest of America hates the Yankees. In the last 10 years I haven't stay up enough to watch Letterman but if this is anything to go by then the zombies that watch him and laugh at his humor are worthy of it and are probably the kind of people who read Andrew Sullivan first thing in the morning.

[drjohn]

One cannot imagine such a comment going from Rush Limbaugh going without a harsh response.

The hypocrisy is rank.

[narciso]

Dan Balz, of the Post, got a Sarah quote from the Hannity interview,completely wrong
and I along with a few others sent him an email, he of course blames Fox News for the error, what about those layers of editors there. This was his response.

"We screwed up. I took the quote from the
Fox News web site, but got a few emails this morning saying I was wrong. (the emails must have been stuffed)I went back and relistened to the audio of the interview
and it was clearer that she said, "Sean, it's the complete opposite...." So we are correcting it in the paper and online. Very stupid on my part."

BTW, a little palate cleanser of irony, here, in the LUN

[fdcol63]

Corrections don't matter, really.

The "first impression" caused by the error or omission has already been made, and it's virtually impossible to change that perception afterward.

The media knows this, and is counting on it to advance their agenda.

[Neo]

Times would leave it out

The NYT censors itself ? You've gotta be kidding

[Captain Hate]

The "first impression" caused by the error or omission has already been made, and it's virtually impossible to change that perception afterward.

Difficult but not impossible; Reagan was ridiculed by being presented as Archie Bunker's candidate in a network show with high ratings. People aren't as dumb as the MSM likes to play them as, particularly when the "smart" candidates look pretty damn stupid.

[cathyf]

Well, the way that corrections matter is that if there are enough of them that they create the impression of the MSM being doofuses. Volume really matters, which is why it is so important to go demanding corrections every single time. The idea is that you can drown out a significant amount of the propaganda by drowning it out in the sheer volume of corrections and demands for corrections and discussion of corrections and snide remarks about the necessity of corrections.

[Enlightened]

Huh. Letterman seems obssessed with 14 year-old Willow Palin. Since he joked about her again this time with Elliot Spitzer overtones.

Maybe the local authorities should question the old jerk and see if is equally obssessed with other young teens.

They say many a truth is told in jest - maybe Letterman has secret obssessions like Bernie Ward in San Fran did....you never know....

[peter]

New Yorkers wonder why the rest of America hates the Yankees

The Yankees are owned by a Republican, and large parts of their fan base are Republicans, too. Don't overgeneralize. New York is full of lefties, but there are a few decent people forced to live here in the land of taxes and welfare, too.

[fdcol63]

Captain Hate and cathyf, I hope you're right. However, I personally don't yet see the evidence or share your confidence. LOL

[narciso]

It probably has a fair amount to do with Steinbrenner, and his behavior. They're also too big, too powerful, people love an underdog. I have to believe that the system
can change, but some days seriously I tend to doubt it. And not just on the obvious things, that Washington Post article on the Myers, painting them as some heroic
dissidents, just past the revolting threshold

[Topsecretk9]

Don't know if anyone saw Treacher, but Letterman doubles down and calls Willow a prostitute...

[Topsecretk9]

Don't know if anyone saw Treacher, but Letterman doubles down and calls Willow a prostitute...

[Topsecretk9]

Don't know if anyone saw Treacher, but Letterman doubles down and calls Willow a prostitute...

You Tube

LUN

[Captain Hate]

I find the Mets a lot more loathsome than the Brinks Bombers.

fdcol63, you'd better hope we're right because we'll be as screwed in the future as we are now. Plus I'm not "confident" when I point out it will be difficult.

[Ignatz]

In economic news Art Laffer has an excellent piece on inflation at the WSJ today.

[fdcol63]

Captain Hate,

I hate to be pessimistic, but I already view the election of Obama as a "turning point" from which there is no recovery. It's all downhill from here, and the changes in demographics caused by relative birthrates and immigration will simply ensure the slide.

I know the provenance of this particular quote from Alexander Fraser Tytler is disputed and has been discredited from him, but I still think the content of the quote is dead on, especially as it reflects what we've seen from other historical examples and is in line with Plato's cyclical model of governments:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury."

"From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years."

"Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."

[fdcol63]

Close quote

[fdcol63]

Close

[clarice]

Use the link under Peter's name to complaint to CBS and suggest they own Palin's family an apology. Complaining to eachother is haedy going to change this behavior.

Then set up Letterman in a sex sting with cameras at hand.

[Rocco]

Somebody should come up with a top ten list of reasons why Letterman sucks.

[fdcol63]

"Then set up Letterman in a sex sting with cameras at hand."

It's hard to get that many goats into Manhattan. LOL

[jimmyk]

Letterman has devolved into being a real jerk (and I used to be a fan in 80s). I actually think the primary butt of the joke was intended to be A-Rod (note the followup remark was about A-Rod), but his subconscious (or not so subconscious) nastiness blinded him to the utter tastelessness of it. We'll see if an abject apology is forthcoming. Even if no one at CBS genuinely feels sorry, self-interest might drive them to take some action.

[clarice]

I hope the compensation czar starts with Katie Couric ,Keith Olbermann and Pinch Sulzburger.

[glasater]

Use the link under Peter's name to complaint to CBS and suggest they own Palin's family an apology

I tracked down an email address before your suggestion Clarice. You're training us well!

[Enlightened]

Statement from Gov. Palin - Boy does she just destroy that old creep. Love it!

"Concerning Letterman's comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he'd ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter): 'Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands - that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contribute to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.'"

- Governor Sarah Palin

[peter]

John Ziegler being played on Rush right now. He rocks.

[Enlightened]

And as usual, MSM crickets are furiously chirping.......

And why hasn't Katie Couric defended Palin's daughter? God forbid a conservatice comedian said the same about her precious daughters. Disgusting.

[bad]

Letterman is the sort of white male a wise Latina should kick the sh*t out of.

[Original MikeS]

Somebody should come up with a top ten list of reasons why Letterman sucks.

Yep. I think someone like Hit and Run could go on and on about what's wrong with Letterman, Stewart, Whoopi (the comedian not the other thing), Garofalafago, et. al.

[clarice]

Good for Sarah.

But WRITE CBS.

[Jane]

I sent an email to CBS and told them I would boycott both them and their sponsors until they took him off the air, and I would tell all my friends to do the same.

SO yes, write to CBS

[MayBee]

Willow Palin is only 4 years older than Malia Obama.

[Extraneus]

I asked them when the rape jokes about the Obama girls would be scheduled.

[Extraneus]

Will post their reply here if anyone is interested in TiVo'ing it.

[Frau Jedöns]

As if on cue, the local paper had Kathleen 'Voice for the Right' Parker's "A Closer Look at the Republican Party's 'Sarah' Problem."

On the brighter side, on his radio program, Dennis Miller addressing Katie Couric's continuing criticism of Palin ad naseum said, "What we want is more Palin and less you (Couric)."

[Appalled]

I know that politicians have to make formal replies to everything, but an unprompted "O that's so disgusting; what a little creep" probably would have worked better for Palin. She really does need to get her image back to "Pit bull with lipstick" and away from "I'm only on the news when I am complaining about some comic being mean to me or my family."

As for the aging David, I can't even remember the last time I flipped on to Letterman by accident.

[Enlightened]

I wrote CBS and said maybe local authorities should question Letterman about his apparent obssession with an underage girl.

And when is Kathleen Parker going to defend the Willow Palin? She won't. So she is just as complicit. Anyway Parker should just STFU -

[fdcol63]

Alinksy's Rules for Radicals:

RULE 12: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

[Original MikeS]

The part that takes my breath away, is that Letterman regards himself as a classy guy and Sarah Palin and her daughters as trailer trash.

[Extraneus]

Exactly, fd.

[fdcol63]

MikeS, almost as absurd as James Carville and his glib comment about "waving a $20 bill in a trailer park" aimed at Paula Jones, eh?

[Extraneus]

Good for Rove. This is what's called for, and more of it.

[Original MikeS]

"waving a $20 bill in a trailer park"

But, surely Carville doesn't regard himself as a classy guy!

[Pofarmer]

I think, the main problem that Palin is going to have in future runs, is fundraising. Can she raise the money to be competitive nationally?

[Captain Hate]

"[S]ome respite from the pressure [of the presidency] is clearly a healthy thing," Dowd wrote. "Not as much respite as W. took, bicycling and vacationing through all the disasters that President Obama is now stuck fixing — spending a total of 490 days in the tumbleweed isolation of Crawford and rarely deigning to sightsee as he traveled the world."

WTF; MoDo concerned because W didn't sightsee enough. I think it's time for one of her *cough* sabbaticals *cough* again.

[steve]

You are all a bunch of old republican buffoons if you think CBS gives a crap about what you think. For one, their target audience for Late Night is geared toward your children in college. It also appeals to those who were disgusted by the disgrace brought on this country during the past eight years under the Bush Administration (nice joke about Cheney the devil taking him hunting; he is scum and hopefully will have that fatal heart attack soon). But the really funny part is he makes and (CBS too) a lot more money than all of you combined so he will not be going anywhere soon unless he chooses.He is actually in the 1% of the population that the GOP represents but still stands up to them because he understands how wrong they have been. You know like illegal wars, elimination of the middle class, and the oversight of the near destruction of the financial system as it has existed for the past 80 to 100 years. I am sure after reading this you will all blame Clinton, Obama and Congress but remember the buck stops here. That was said by a US president and that is why the last one was voted into the bottom ten in history.

[Extraneus]

When 2010 rolls around, having Sarah Palin come and draw 20,000 people to your Congressional campaign rally is going to be worth money, Po. And favors, muscle, etc.

No other Republican can compete on that level.

[MaryD]

It appears that someone at the asylum left the door to the padded cell unlocked.

[Pofarmer]

Following the presidential election, 69% of Republicans felt Palin had helped John McCain's bid, while 20% felt Palin hurt. In the same poll, 71% of Republicans stated Palin had been the right choice.[209]

Found this tidbit towards the end of the wiki article on Sarah Palin, which I found surprisingly even handed. SOMEBODY is out of step, and it would appear to not be Palin. What percentage of Republicans thought McCain was a good candidate?

[Parking Lot]

((It appears that someone at the asylum left the door to the padded cell unlocked. ))

laughing my butt off

[fdcol63]

No wonder the Dems want universal mental health coverage. LOL

[Cecil Turner]

You are all a bunch of old republican buffoons if you think CBS gives a crap about what you think.

Yep, that's probably right. And it's doing CBS so much good:

CBS had no immediate explanation for why last week turned out so poorly for the "CBS Evening News." The 5.2 million viewers (3.6 rating, 8 share), represented the smallest weekly audience since at least 1987, and probably for many years before that. [emphasis added]

[Extraneus]

Todd responds, although in a less Trumanesque manner than I had hoped.

"Any 'jokes' about raping my 14-year-old are despicable. Alaskans know it and I believe the rest of the world knows it, too."

- Todd Palin

[jean]

The college crowd watches Colbert and the Daily Show.CBS is just an also ran with that crowd

[clarice]

Time to start letting the wives of CBS officers know with whom their husbands are sleeping and the stockholders which apartments they are paying for.

[Extraneus]

Is there a PAC or some organization we can contribute to that hires private investigators to help with such a worthy project?

[matt]

on a positive note, Colbert was hilarious last night with the troops.We taped it and watched it after the Laker game and he was genuinely funny. No mean spiritedness, and even handed. Watching LTG Odierno shave his head was a hoot.

It seems that with too many comedians, especially those rooted in satire, there comes a time when their anger turns bitter and they lose their "funny". Letterman lost his long ago, and Stewart has joined him. It's the Bob Hopes who tend to last.

[Original MikeS]

Time to start letting the wives of CBS officers know with whom their husbands are sleeping

[matt]

clarice, you're a woman after mine own heart....and throw in Immelt's and Zucker's pecadillos as well.

It is amazing that the MSM still don't realize that by insulting 50% of ones audience, that 50% goes elsewhere for their news and entertainment.

[Fresh Air]

Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.

Fdcol--

Actually, it only works to a point. At some point, you have to stop ridiculing and start governing. That's where we are today. Ad hominem is one of the worst forms of logical fallacies and it should be done away with. It's one of the reasons I despise Alinsky, Gramsci and all the other dirtball communists who made the left what it is today: intellectually bankrupt and despicable.

[Fresh Air]

Original Mike--

Hubba, hubba! Dave, you big hunk of whatever...

[Fresh Air]

I guess Gramsci was actually a fascist, but whatever. Same animal, different stripes.

[fdcol63]

" ... it only works to a point ..."

Fresh Air, I agree .... everything has a "point of dimishing returns", past which the more effort and resources you put into something, you get less and less yield or benefit.

But really .... as long as that "point" is somewhere at more than 50% of the electorate on any given election day, it works ... for their purposes.

They don't care if they govern .... they only care about staying in power. And that depends on winning elections.

[Captain Hate]

It is amazing that the MSM still don't realize that by insulting 50% of ones audience, that 50% goes elsewhere for their news and entertainment.

They didn't get to their current predicament by being the sharp knives in the drawer.

[clarice]

Myerses denied bail when Court informed they'd planned a no return date trip to the Carribbean.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5498569/Accused-Cuba-spy-sought-to-be-US-envoy-to-Northern-Ireland.html>Nice jail cell, Just like living in Fidel Land

[fdcol63]

OT:

NEWSFLASH: Earth and Venus may collide in 3.5 billion years!

Whew! Thank goodness I won't be here.

[narciso]

No, he was a Communist, but he actually ended up paying for his beliefs, at the hands of the OVRA. His technique of infiltrating the institutions, is one Bill Ayers seems to have mastered. After having figured out that Marighela, was a dead end.

[Fresh Air]

Captain Hate--

Where the schadenfreude never stops, Angryjournalist.com:

Actual sample:

Angry Journalist #8812:

The douchebag CEO of my company left to head Playboy. Thanks a lot. Wish you had done that before you made me take a furlough, stripped me of half my vacation, raised my benefits, and canceled my pay promised pay raise.

Hundreds more like it. Hours of good family entertainment.

[clarice]

Enlist them in our Out A Journalist Today program.

[Dave]

Top Ten things that Letterman Should Be Hit in the Face With:

• 10. A-Rod's bat
  
• 9. Todd Palin's fist
  
• 8. Sarah Palin's foot
  
• 7. A round from SP's shotgun
  
• 6. His wife's Regina Lasko's (that's a man, baby) Ugly Stick.
  
• 5. Paul Shaffer
  
• 4. The latest ratings book
  
• 3. Bones from Margaret Mary Ray's disinterred skeleton
  
• 2. Some props from whatever unfunny Bonnie Hunt crap (but I repeat myself) he's trying to push these days
  
• 1. A-Rod's package
  

[centralcal]

Enlist them in our Out A Journalist Today program.

Please, please start with Shep Smith at FNC. Went home for lunch, Shep was full drama on the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. Very emphatically telling the camera how DHS was so very right to issue that memo about "ex-military" and "right-wingers" because this Von Brunn guy is ex-military donchaknow.

He went on and on, with some ex-CIA dude (Baker?). Then on comes Catherine Herridge saying the same thing about the accuracy of the DHS memo.

Good God is it too early for cocktails?

[Captain Hate]

Fresh Air,

OMG; my ship came in!!

[jean]

What was the name of the slave in Gone With The Wind that says "I don't know nothing about birthin no baby"Thats who Shep Smith reminds me of

[Fresh Air]

Captain--

One more, chosen at random:

Angry Journalist #8809:

I guess I’m ‘angry’ today because of the same reasons that made me ‘angry’ yesterday.

The national media company for which I work is so hopelessly lost that there’s no way that the daily paper will survive for any reasonable length of time.

I kept hoping that SOMETHING would happen to ensure some type of stability for the company, but it’s just not going to happen.

The people at the top of the heap were barely able to maintain the status quo for a ridiculously profitable company that had no direct competition for decades.

So, why should they be able to develop a plan to save a financially strapped company that now faces competition on every level?

It’s over. It’s just plain over.

The execs at the top will find some way to keep their salaries even as the print side of the company gradually grinds to a halt. Sooner or later, I’ll get “laid off” (which means fired) just like everyone else in the newsroom.

And when the paper finally shuts down completely or becomes a PennySaver, the glass office monkeys won’t even care. They’ll act really upset when they make the announcement. But so what.

The only career I’ve ever been interested in is disappearing. Over the course of 20 years, I’ve routinely sacrificed time, money and, to a certain extent, some personal relationships all because daily newspapers are so demanding.

And what did it get me?

Nothing.

At 40 years old, I’m literally going to be starting over.

Bottom line, I feel cheated and I feel robbed.

Me too, bub.

[centralcal]

lol, jean!

[narciso]

No, they're all excons, von Brunn, Mohammed
,and that moron Roeder, although the first one takes the cake, really. To open fire in a holocaust museum, WTH is wrong with people
today.

[clarice]

Prissy--From now on Shep is Prissy--and, jean, I can't think of a better comparison.

[BobS]

Has anybodt besides me remembered the hysterics that went up when David Shuster asked if Chelsea Clinton "was being pimped out" ?

[narciso]

Speaking of things that make me, and I think most of you seeth, just a but

[Captain Hate]

Has anybodt besides me remembered the hysterics that went up when David Shuster asked if Chelsea Clinton "was being pimped out" ?

Of course we remember; we're not the ADD left.

[jean]

I'm the ADD right.That is why I need to read JOM all the time.Thanks for the name Clarice Prissy is so fitting

[BobS]

Prissy works....

[clarice]

jean, I am old and my memory for names is---well--There's google though and now and then it makes me look good. (I am lazy and clever enough to know how to key in the query. But that's all I can do.)
"Gone with the Wind 'birthin''"

[centralcal]

Love it.
Miss Prissy, indeed.

[jean]

I googled the whole line and got some strange web sites about how men don't understand giving birth.So I gave up and let better minds and googlers find the person.