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

[clarice]

You have to think shallow on those searches, jean

[glasater]

Just in case anyone needs an email address to complain to CBS-here it is:
http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.php

And for those of us who cannot stand Shep Smith--here is an email address to voice an opinion to Fox:
studiob@foxnews.com

[Soylent Red]

While the character's name was Prissy, the actress's name was Butterfly McQueen. Either part of that name would make a good alternative to Prissy, IMO.

[sbw]

And Butterfly McQueen was awesome. Don't demean her with bad associations.

[clarice]

I've already written at least twice about Prissy. I'm passing the torch on that one.Maybe you could just say we are debating whether to call him Miss Prissy or Butterfly McQueen for his hyperbolic, not too intelligent, reporting.

[Dave]

Letterman:

Palin “bought makeup at Bloomingdale’s to update her 'slutty flight attendant look.'”

He bought back issues of MAD Magazine to use as mirrors.