I Was Sleeping When He Said It
By Johnny Roosh
David Letterman did the unthinkable.
Apologized for a really inappropriate joke.
“As they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it’s not a very good joke,” he said. “I take full blame for that.”
“I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed,” he said.
“So, I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke,” Letterman said. “I’m sorry about it and I’ll try to do better in the future.
Nearly unprecedented I reckon.
Then again, it’s sort of like your buddy apologizing for passing gas on a road trip in the winter. You hear the apology and all but your eyes are still burning and watering for miles.
While I watch little television, especially that late at night, I have watched enough Letterman over the years to classify it as the high-fructose corn syrup of the medium.
David Letterman really has no nutritional value either.
Letterman’s joke…
…that (Sarah) Palin’s “daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” at a recent Yankees game, still insisted he was referring to Palin’s 18-year-old, Bristol, who gave birth to a boy in December, and not her 14-year-old, Willow.
…wasn’t funny, but given the source it really wasn’t surprising.
Or relevant.
What is interesting is that David Letterman, in apologizing, forwent a potential Donald Trump v. Rosie O’Donnell-esque battle that would have most assuredly been a ratings boon for Letterman, who is reportedly already beating upstart Tonight Show host Conan O’Somethingorother in the ratings.
Then again, maybe it isn’t really all that interesting and I should go to sleep now.
Sorry I wasted your time.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:43 am
The only thing that’s interesting is that Letterman had no balls, and that Palin purposefully used her 14 year-old daughter for political theatre here. Letterman was clear he wasn’t talking about Bristol – yet Palin persisted, demanding an ‘apology to all young women’ and that it was ‘no wonder they had such low self-esteem’ in a victim/blame mentality hypocrisy of the first order. Of course, Ms. Palin, EVER the watchdog for the rights of females and NEVER using her family as a prop, has every right to complain.
Letterman should have skewered her like Candice Bergan skewered Dan Quayle. She’s a dolt and deserved to be shown as one – nothing more – and you’re right, it was a tempest in a teapot – a tempest that didn’t deserve your tepid attention – tepid I suspect because you were aware of the vast hypocrisy of Ms. Palin on this subject.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:49 am
By the way, I thought the joke itself was crude, but since when are there NOT crude jokes on television?
For that matter, since when did you righties lose your sense of humor, I mean, we’re supposed to yuck it up when Limbaugh says “Obama, Osama, Osama, Obama”, pretty funny stuff there.
It was crude, tough beans. I guess Ms. Palin isn’t quite as tough as she pretends, and has much less of a sense of humor than she needs to be a true political contendor.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Actually, Peev… that wasn’t Limbaugh, that was Senator Kennedy.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Letterman was clear he wasn’t talking about Bristol
Sure he was. Like: “After the fact”, you know?
But really, why is the governor of Alaska still considered topical for late night comedians? I don’t think Joe Lieberman or even Dan Quayle received a quarter of the attention after they lost their respective elections.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I’m guessing that Letterman was expecting Palin to come on his show – to their mutual benefit – after he created the offending controversy. That has happened before with other politicians and other celebs, to the point of being boringly predictable.
Except for this time.
When it didn’t happen, I’m further guessing Letterman was surprised, and decided he should do a little ‘CYA’ with his explanation, but didn’t expect he’d have to go the full apology route. I found the attempts by the some of the media to downplay the offensiveness of Letterman’s joke to fail miserably in making it acceptable.
Good for Palin for not getting sucked into the same old same old. So Letterman apologized? That’s nice. Wonder how long until he does something similar again – despite the apology?
Anyone got a stop watch? We are unlikely to need a year long calendar….
June 16th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
“…purposefully used her 14 year-old daughter for political theatre here…”
How? By telling a sick joke about a ballplayer raping her 14 year old daughter? Peev, where do you come up with that blather? Seriously. Seek. Help.
June 16th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
K,
I think you’ve proven beyond all doubt that you are needing LOTS and LOTS of help, so pardon me if I don’t worry about what your evaluation of ANYONE’s state of mind represents.
And K, exactly how do you know that Letterman meant that? He said he didn’t, clearly such a joke would be WAYYYY beyond the pale, and Letterman’s no idiot, unlike you, so why do you think he’d even consider such a joke?
The fact is, you all are making a tempest in a teapot about this BECAUSE YOU CAN – not because you care – you joke about a fair number of things a MILLION times more offensive than Rodriquez ‘knocking up Palin’s daughter’ – even your phraseology here – ‘raping her 14 year old daughter’ – yeah, see because statutory rape SHOULD simply be truncated to rape – what a bunch of hystrionic, drama-queen bloviating cry-baby crap, there K, omg.
June 16th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Bhuda –
To believe that Letterman was talking about the 14 year old is to believe Letterman and ALL of his writers are patent fools. As I said to K-dumb – that’s just faux indignation BS. You all want to spin up crap, fine, that’s your call.
However, K-dumb – she pulled her daughter, her baby, her pregnant daughter onto the stage time and time and time and time again.
She put her kids into the conversation – if she doesn’t like the outcome, the fact is she can’t control it, and she’s a fool to get into a debate with someone like Letterman – he could have made her look like an idiot, and should have.
June 16th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
That’s right, Peevish.
She deserves to have her daughters the focus of jokes suggesting they will get knocked up by adulterers.
Of course. It’s clear now.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Pen.- I can`t remember, did Imus have balls?
June 17th, 2009 at 5:43 am
She put her kids into the conversation – if she doesn’t like the outcome, the fact is she can’t control it, and she’s a fool to get into a debate with someone like Letterman – he could have made her look like an idiot, and should have.
Excellent point, Peev! I mean, we don’t even know if President Obama has any offspring — they’ve never been seen by anyone. And I’ve heard rumors that Vice President Biden might have adult children, but no one really knows because they’ve never been seen, either. And who can forget back in 2000, when then-Vice President Gore soft-pedaled the theoretical existence of offspring. Politicians never have their children around. It’s just not done.
Yeah, Palin had it coming, all right.
June 17th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Pernicous Peev uses the “She Was Asking For It” defense… somehow, I’m not shocked.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Only a sick SOB like Peev would cheer on a major league ballplayer raping a 14 year old child and claim she was askin for it. Peev, stop digging.
Now run along back to your Penisblog and post all you want about raping young children. At least it won’t actually be read by anyone.