Keller @ Large: A Tsunami Of Excessive Praise
BOSTON (CBS) - I like a good laugh as well as the next guy, and back in the early '80's when my wife and I both worked nights and were up late enough to watch David Letterman, I enjoyed his work.
But have you noticed how the retirement or passing of every Baby Boom generation celebrity – excuse me, I should say icon – touches off a tsunami of excessive praise?
Letterman "changed not just late-night TV but the very nature of comedy itself," gushed Rolling Stone, with their trademark thoughtfulness and restraint. "He taught multiple generations what it means to be funny."
Hope you caught that, everyone under 45.
Even the brilliant comedienne Tina Fey, who I find significantly funnier than Letterman, went a bit overboard. "Everything about his show informed not only our writing but our actual human interactions," she says.
Really?
For me, not so much. Letterman's relentless sarcasm was funny, I enjoy sarcasm – up to a point.
It makes money for talk-show hosts, but has little social value.
Letterman handled himself with class that first show after 9/11, and I thought you could see his amusement with his smugness start to slip as health and marital issues aged him. I credit him with being all too human on that, but it's harder to write off his betrayal of his wife with women on his staff.
David Letterman was a good comedian who earned every bit of his long, lucrative run. Another one, Stephen Colbert, will now take his place.
I will tune in whenever I'm up late and want a laugh.
But I won't be expecting anything profound or iconic.
TV comedy shows are no place to look for that.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
