September 11, 2015

"Notice how Letterman started out: 'If we are going to continue to do shows . . .' That seems like a silly thing to say now."

"But back then, he was invoking a serious concern: it didn't seem to make sense for anyone to do a comedy show anymore."
Everything seemed to have turned completely serious all of a sudden, and it was hard to imagine ever getting out of it. That's probably how people often feel in response to the death of a loved one — but that happens privately, not to the whole country at once.

It's interesting to compare how Letterman and Stewart dealt with the situation. In many ways, they were similar: they both highlighted inspiring Americans and lambasted the terrorists' way of life. But their emotional quality was different. Letterman was clearly rattled, but he also had a steadily controlled determination. Jon Stewart seemed absolutely raw and barely able to get through a sentence....

20 comments:

rehajm said...

"New York's finest" and "New York's bravest" — you know, did it mean anything to us personally, first-hand? Well, maybe, hopefully, but probably not. But boy, it means something now, doesn't it? They put themselves in harm's way to protect people like us. . . . And my hope for myself and everybody else . . . is that we never, ever take these people for granted. . . .

Scott said...

And now we're back to a De Blasio mentality. How soon we forget.

dbp said...

The attacks transformed Letterman and Stewart temporarily into people who were in-touch with reality. It didn't last. It never does.

tim in vermont said...

My favorite comment was Roger Moores "Why did they attack NYC? Don't they know that NYC is Democrats?"

Of course it made perfect sense, since NYC helped elect Clinton, who launched a coordinated missile attack on Afghanistan unprovoked by the Afghans, and no doubt caused Mullah Omar to give bin Laden the OK to carry out his plan for "coordinated missile attacks" on the US.

But let's keep on pretending that it had nothing to do with Clinton!

Let's pretend that Hillary and Obama didn't follow the same strategy with Bashir and Moamar that Bush followed with Saddam, but instead of committing to a strategy, they acted like Clinton who, with his missile attacks, just rang the doorbell and left a flaming bag of shit on the porch and ran off to hide.

tim in vermont said...

Michael Moore's! I guess I mixed up Moore, the Bond actor and "Roger and Me." Oh well, we all get old.

MadisonMan said...

The Onion's post-9/11 issue was, I thought, pretty much pitch-perfect for post-9/11 comedy.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, both sounded pretty good at the time. But I don't think that either learned anything from the experience. As soon as the coast was clear, they went back to auto-supporting democrats who resumed undermining George W Bush (and his then new war on terror), just as soon as they could. And of course, the dems are supporting the BLM movement, who are currently trying to kill New York's "finest" and "bravest".

Although Dennis Miller seemed to get it. Epiphanies do happen.

hombre said...

Letterman's comments about Rudy Guliani were amazing and enlightening. Too bad jaltcoh chose to leave them out of the written portion of his blog. He would make a fine msm journalist.

Unknown said...

This morning I watched some of the replay of the original NBC 9/11 coverage. It brought me back to the feeling of the time, the shock and the discussions with various folks from all different political backgrounds about what was going on in the world, how likely some new attack might be, how much we were going to be able to go back to our normal lives, and when.
Agreed with Madison Man that the Onion's issue, when it came (seems like it was at least a week after 9/11) was excellent. This piece, especially, I read over and over. http://www.theonion.com/article/god-angrily-clarifies-dont-kill-rule-222

John Althouse Cohen said...

Letterman's comments about Rudy Guliani were amazing and enlightening. Too bad jaltcoh chose to leave them out of the written portion of his blog.

I chose to include the parts that were most striking to me, and I was more interested in Letterman's comments about police and firefighters than about one politician who hasn't been very relevant to the public in a long time.

averagejoe said...

A terrorist attack happened in their backyard, people were killed and iconic NYC/American landmarks destroyed, and a couple of prominent democrat party cheerleaders sobered up for a moment... Then they hit they hit the hard stuff, and really started making political hay. BOOOOOSH!!!!!

Nichevo said...

Your judgement of striking is questionable, there.

John Althouse Cohen said...

Then you're free to make your own blog post using the same videos I embedded, and highlight whatever you consider striking.

mikee said...

Letterman's schtick was to portray a bumbling idiot who hated his job of hosting the show he did. It got old after his actual bumbling stopped, his idiocy became ongoing without improvement, and his hatred of his job became inherent instead of a running joke.

I admired his immediate response to 9/11. But since then, he has remained a leftist apologist, a propagandist for every lie told about the right, and an advocate for and producer of reprehensible slanders against those with differing politics from him.

He should have retired a decade before he did.

Nichevo said...

Thanks, John, I did not know that, until you told me.

None of you Althouses have much use for criticism, do you? That's a character flaw.

John Althouse Cohen said...

None of you Althouses have much use for criticism, do you?

Me disagreeing with one specific criticism (about a blog post I did for free in my spare time) does not mean I have no use for criticism — let alone that no one in my family has any use for criticism!

John Althouse Cohen said...

I can tell you don't know me, because if you did, you could easily find much more significant "character flaws" than whatever "character flaw" you think was manifested by my decision to excerpt a few paragraphs from David Letterman's return after September 11 to accompany the full embedded video.

Nichevo said...

I have to find a copy of this on the internet to save typing...

Paddy O'Malley comes home to his wife Mary. In his hand he proudly displays a handful of dog s***. He says to his wife look what I picked up on the sidewalk! She says Begorrah, and why do you have that in your hand? He says, Well, I was walking along the sidewalk and I look down and there this was and I almost stepped in it! I drew back and I looked and faith, that looks like s*** and so then I got down on my knees and I smell to it, and it smells like s***. Then just to be sure, I touched it with my tongue and sure as grass is green, it tastes like s***!
For the love of God man, why would you do this, what are you trying to tell me?

Well Mary I wanted to show you that I didn't step in it!

Anybody can see you are rotten from a mile away. If I put my hand into refuse I don't feel all the way through the bucket to make sure that its clean through, I take my hand out and wash it. You couldn't pay me to get to the bottom of you Althouses' problems. I just make the observance that you have the same weakness as your mother.

Nichevo said...

Do you even exist or are you a figment? Glancing real quick at your profile I see a lot of the same likes as your mother such as My Dinner with Andre. Unless you're doing it to shine up to her for the inheritance, ...really?

Nichevo said...

Oh and if the stakes are low, and you don't want to eat shit over some video you did with half your brain tied behind your back, DON'T PUBLICIZE THE VIDEO! Publishing let alone flogging the thing on mommyblog is an invite to be told how it is. Fragile? Keep it to yourself.