One of the easiest ways to understand what the smart set is thinking is to turn on the late night talk shows. Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jon Stewart are the current kings and I think they have much more influence on public opinion than whoever is using the TelePrompTer on the national newscasts.
Letterman has long been my comedian of choice. He came to television over 20 years ago providing a pretty strong dose of Midwestern skepticism and his sensibility, especially on his NBC show, was congenial to my own views. As he approaches his dotage, Letterman’s political stance has evolved into that of a quintessential East Coast liberal, although he’s still more amusing than Charles Schumer. It’s a shame, because there’s hardly a lack of East Coast liberal views on television. But as a member of that tribe, how Letterman speaks of a topic is a pretty good indicator of current wisdom. No one bashes Bush harder. That’s fair game, of course. I’ve always had major problems with his near-weekly references to Cheney’s “lesbian daughter,” which is quite unfair as she has never been a public figure. But I chalk that up to a desire to emulate Howard Stern, who has earned millions of dollars talking about lesbians.
Letterman’s monologue deals with current events, so he’s essentially required to talk about the implications of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weaponry. And it’s pretty obvious that he has no idea what to say about it. His only foray into humor was a fake commercial discussing the benefits of being in the “Nuclear Club,” which was portrayed like Club Med. As humor, it was the sort of joke that makes you smile, but not laugh out loud. Of course, there’s nothing funny about Iran potentially having nuclear weaponry, especially given the lunacy of its leadership. Humor is humankind’s best and most enduring coping mechanism for dealing with the unthinkable. I will be curious to see how the jesters deal with this.
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