I must admit the past two weeks of late night talk show wars have been endlessly entertaining and hilarious to me. Conan's never been funnier (or more bitter -- you can almost see him turning into Letterman right before your eyes) and Letterman's never been so gleeful. Jay (who's nice-guy image has taken a hit) has placed a toe or two into the fray, Jimmy Kimmel has been openly confrontational to Jay's face, and Craig Ferguson has been largely silent (though, like his boss, he can't seem to resist getting a few digs in).
Part of my enjoyment stems from the fact that it's been nice to focus on something frivolous given everything else that's going on in the world.
To add to my all-late-night, all-the-time saturation, I've been reading Craig Ferguson's memoir "American On Purpose," and I think it's possible that he's funnier than all the aforementioned hosts combined. Or maybe it's that his show comes on at 12:35 a.m., at which point I've lost whatever tenuous grasp I had on my sanity.
I absolutely agree about Craig Ferguson. It's not just that he's hilarious in a very specific way that seems attuned to my own sense of humor, but he's SO SMART. (I think Conan and Letterman are very intelligent as well, but it's nothing like how I compare them to Ferguson.)
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