The lame show: why did David Letterman get so bad during interviews? | Television and radio

WWhen discussing David Letterman, an incident always tends to happen. That took place in April 1996, nine months after Letterman's rival Jay Leno overtook him in the hearings, and that says a lot about how he handled the pressure.

During this episode, Letterman presented a small sketch on a "David Letterman doll", a model in a double-baded suit. The sketch came to an end and Letterman sat the doll on a chair. But, as he walked away, he turned around and hit him in the head. And then he did it again. And even. And even. And even. A minute later, he came back and knocked another 10 times. Letterman's first guest that evening was David Schwimmer; introducing him, he threw another punch on the model's head and invited Schwimmer to join him, screaming, "Go on, teach him some manners!", as critic Jason Zinoman criticizes in his book Letterman : The last giant of Late Night "The laughter has calmed down. What was wrong with Dave?

You can not help but think about this dummy incident while you are watching the second series of Letterman's show on Netflix, My next guest does not need to be introduced because it does not contains no trace of this Letterman. Is absent. Sure, a Letterman is here, but he's not the one you know. This Letterman is like the shadow left on the wall after the firing of a nuclear bomb.

Especially if you were a Letterman fan, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction is a strange series to follow. There are no jokes. There is no grouchiness. There is no more havoc instinct. Instead, he is an old man respectful of a succession of people who deserve only part of it.

Take his interview with Kanye West, during which he sincerely congratulates West's clothing line ("I love the color, I love the haircut, I love the shoes", shouted-it- he to Kim Kardashian in a filmed segment), or his interview with Tiffany Haddish. , where he shakes his fists with sincerity and says, "Your talent is so powerful." The Letterman of yore would have looked at this gaping spectacle. He made his guests work for praise. Now he has just rolled it on a platter.

The joy of Letterman's old interviews was to watch his guests fight him, whether they succeeded (when Cher called him a "jerk") or failed (when Letterman came out in the middle of an unbearable segment of Crispin Glover ). But there is nothing against which to fight now. During his late nights, Letterman was a subversive that looked like a straight line. Now, with his beard resembling a cloud threatening to consume his body, he has become the opposite. He looks weird, but his interviews have become tedious, of conventional purity.

My next clients need no introduction is so strangely absent, so unwavering that I am trying to understand what has happened. Zinoman recently stated in a New York Times article that Letterman had simply taken a step back. He is off the treadmill. He understood that life is not just his show. "Letterman does not seem interested in looking back, but discovering new things," writes Zinoman. "He approaches these interviews with modesty, putting the spotlight on the guest, trusting them, rarely challenging them or looking too far."

I wonder if there is anything else at stake, though. It's a part time job for Letterman. He has a whole year to choose a handful of interviewees, so they are people he loves. However, during his late-night concerts, he did not see himself offering such luxury. At the time, whether he liked it or not, he had 10 people to talk to each week for 30 years, and the publicists and bookers slipped it under his nose, depending on the project to be promoted. This treadmill of faces had to be grueling, but that was also what gave him the bite. Letterman was never good at hiding his feelings. When he was bored, we all knew it. When he was angry – as with the doll – we knew it too.

Throughout his career, the secret of Letterman's success was that he was always much more interesting than his guests. It's still the case, but Letterman does not believe it anymore.

At the end of her new interview with Melinda Gates – a trial that lasts about four hours – Letterman claims to be jealous of her because she made a difference in the world, and he did not do it. It's so myopic that it hurts. Letterman spent three years forging the comic sensibilities of a generation. It's his humor that informed the series, including Seinfeld and The Simpsons, who was bleeding in their imitators, who was bleeding in their imitators, and now it's just an immutable part of our culture. Whether directly or not, Letterman has changed the way the world speaks. It's a sacred legacy, and as you watch it on Netflix, you want God to kiss it.