The election may be over but some punchlines still get a laugh.
David Letterman, who got great mileage out of his feud with longtime guest Republican Sen. John McCain during McCain’s unsuccessful campaign for president, is still getting big yucks out of his punchlines about defeated GOP Veep candidate Gov. Sarah Palin.
The latest came when Letterman had on CBS News’ anchor Katie Couric who discussed — or tried to — her interview with Palin. Read L. A. Times’ blogger Andrew Malcolm’s take on it HERE, complete with Letterman show video.
Actually, it isn’t surprising that Letterman should still be milking the Palin punchline. Letterman is a master of the comedy “callback” line — where he will repeat a line over and over during a show. No one does it better. So if he finds a subject or figure he can poke fun at, he will use it night after night until it stops getting laughs. Although Palin is respected by many social conservatives, to many other Americans she remains in the Dan Quayle stage where shared negative audience assumptions (accurate or not) offer fertile ground for assumption-shattering punch lines.
Palin has been a treasure chest for Letterman. Just check out these:
—Top Ten Surprising Facts About Sarah Palin presented by residents of Wasilla, Alaska
—Top Ten “Things Overheard At Palin Debate Camp.”
— Top 10 Questions You Would Ask John McCain about Sarah Palin.
—Letterman top 10 messages on Sarah Palin’s Answering Machine
—The Top 10 New Revelations about Sarah Palin
—TEN SARAH PALIN EXCUSES FOR SPENDING $150,000 ON CLOTHES
After McCain stood Letterman up on his show in October, the L.A. Times also compiled its own list of Letterman’s top 10 swipes at the McCain-Palin ticket.
NOTE: Topical humor is NOT as easy as it may look. Unlike comedy club comedians and particularly unlike the old nightclub and vaudeville comedians, the late night comedians have absolutely no “tryout” for jokes or topical ad libs. It’s a one shot deal and if it flops, it flops. The late Johnny Carson would often do a topical joke that bombed and got laughs from his “saver” line. Letterman and Jay Leno actually score better with audiences with most of their topical jokes and ad libs.
But when they find a subject or “high concept” stereotype about a politico that gets laughs, they take it and run with it – and Letterman clearly sees more mileage left with Palin….who will be around for a while…providing him with a sure-fire laugh getter for a segment of the American public for some time to come.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.