The debate as to whether Jay Leno or Dave Letterman is the best late night host seems to be a pretty popular one. I usually wake up pretty early, so late night TV hasn't gotten much of my attention, although with the recent addition of a TV to the bedroom, I have been seeing more of it.
I watched Letterman a few weeks ago, and while the popular consensus seems to be that he is the better of the two comedians, I just didn't think he was funny. I did however see an interview he did with Paris Hilton some months ago, and it gets my vote for one of the best interviews of all time.
Now Jay Leno is not the worlds best interviewer, but his interviews are fun to watch. The piece I really like about his show is the opening monologue and then some of the little segments he has, like headlines and things like that. Letterman has the Top 10 list, but I'm not sure if he has anything else.
Another plus on the Leno show, is Kevin Eubanks. I don't even know the name of Dave's music guy, but I haven't thought he was that funny when I've seen him. Kevin Eubanks is hilarious, and not a bad musician either.
Last night on Leno's show, he had Bill Cosby as a guest. Bill started off with a brief comedy bit about Chubby Kids. The final solution he gave was that beatings were the key... Kids running from mom, mom chasing the kids, everyone's heart rate up nicely, blood going to the brain. No more chubby kids, no more ADD, no more lots of things. He prefaced it by saying it was a Com-e-dy bit, but there was definitely some truth to it.
All things aside, my vote goes to Bill Cosby. That man is a one of a kind.
This one is an oldie but a goodie!
Hmm. I'd go for Leno. I find much of Letterman's humour supercilious, annoying and just not funny. Besides, when it comes to comedic hosts, I want to know how good does someone have to be to actually host a sit-down show.
ReplyDeleteI mean, writers write their gags. Hair, makeup & wardrobe clothe and preen them. Somebody else feeds them. A broadcast crew films them. A director controls the pace of the show. A side-kick provides music. Guests provide interview content.
What does a comedic host actually DO?
This is why I find these shows difficult to watch. I just can't find enough justification to invest an hour of my time watching them drone on. I think they're mostly buffoons. I opted for Jay because he gives the impression of having a bit of substance about him...& that's what this kind of TV is all about. 'Impressions'. It's all smoke & mirrors to me.
oh hey. Just for something completely different, here's a video of the real Richie Benaud:
ReplyDeletehttp://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-au&brand=ninemsn&tab=m2397&from=39&vid=99606C7C-89F6-4F9C-8D63-31B2C42D376C&playlist=videoByTag:mk:en-AU:vs:0:tag:AUnews_AUtoday:ns:MSNVideo_Top_Cat:ps:10:sd:-1:ind:1:ff:8A
That video was good, thanks!! I don't think I've heard or seen Richie much in the past, but Billy does an excellent job imitating him!
ReplyDeleteComedic hosts - I'm not really sure what they do... For Jay it's the facial expressions and the way he tells the jokes. If I'm bored around 10:30, I'll watch Jay's monologue, and then I generally turn it off, unless he has a really good guest and then I'll watch that - The guest has to be really good though, like Mr. Cosby.
I actually thought the material Jay wrote himself during the writers strike was actually better than most of the stuff he has written for him now. And I really like the features that come after the monologue, like 'Headlines' and that kind of thing, but I think I already mentioned that!