Posted by
AusTex on Friday, June 12, 2009 3:15:00 PM
That the "joke" using Gov. Palin's daughter as its grist by David Letterman was over the line is not reasonably debateable, despite the delayed apologetics and sometimes weird rationalizations. For example, relying on not knowing the 14 year old instead of the 18 year old daughter was at the game is careless, at best, and more likely unreliably dishonest. Besides, are they saying it's ok to smear an 18 year old young woman by fantacising her having sex with a 34 year old player in the dugout during a baseball game and becoming pregnant as a result? I hope not. What I am saying is: this Letterman attempt to make a joke of Willow Palin, or of Bristol, is the time David Letterman jumped the shark.
Of course, Letterman's stunt was far more reckless than Fonzie jumping over a confined shark in that infamous Happy Days episode. Gone bad, Fonzie would have hurt only himself, maybe the shark. Letterman's stunt was certain, even calculated, to hurt Gov. Palin's daughter and it's main target, Gov. Palin, no matter what. And the collateral damage is substantial, because it depicts women and men in base and demeaning ways.
But then again, Letterman is past his prime. He appears more and more to be a bitter old man, wry at best, but always was caustic, rough and, now, vicious - as this Palin incident shows. That so many laugh at predominately bitter or vicious humor symptomizes social dysfunction that would be better addressed with something other than dismissive, if not condoning, attempts to laugh it off. For all the good Mr. Letterman has done with his charitable donations, I seldom sensed he was a happy man, which saddens me. In contrast, I always sensed Johnny Carson was a happy man and his humor was of the bright sort, not of darkness.
So we have it with David Letterman jumping the shark. At least The Fonze was cool.