Humanity

I've been staying up way too late recently. I don't know why. This happens every summer - I hit a stretch where I just can't get to bed before 1. This of course makes the next day a little odd but there it is. Anyway.

This means I've been watching late night TV. I've decided I just don't like most of it. Leno's jokes are all the same, every night, and are all mean and mostly about sex. He panders to the lowest common denominator, and part of what bugs me is he never used to. Dave is much better, smarter, funnier, but I usually (there are exceptions) don't like his interviews and still there's this retread aspect to it. Easy for me to say - these guys have to be funny every night and in Letterman's case that's for a good 25 years - but it's mostly about sex and making fun of people. They take the easy road. Can't stand Conan. That's unfunny slapstick, with again the sex and making fun of people. And his band leader drives me crazy; good musician, but annoying. The interviews are all about shilling for some movie or book, and people - both the interviewer and the interviewee - are obviously going through the motions. Leno, Dave, and Conan - they don't trust their audiences to be smart. But what do I do? Flip around and try to find the good parts best I can and then get mad when I can't. Why do I do this to myself? I'm an idiot.

Until Craig Ferguson comes on. I like Craig. He's a little manic, a little weird, and I don't always like the sketches, but he's smart and he trusts the audience to be smart. His monologues are different every night, not just the same old retread jokes from the previous night. He seems to be actually interested in the people he interviews. He appears to actually think. He's willing to be brave and try stuff. Sure, there's some making fun of people, there's some sex jokes, but he has more than one note to play on.

So I was dinging around a bit last night and looked him up online to try to find biography stuff. Was wondering if he was a musician, truthfully, as I noticed in the credits he performed the theme song on the show (he has no band). He does play drums. Anyway, Google being the marvelous thing that it is, one thing led to another and I found a wonderful video on YouTube.

Craig, you see, is a recovering alcoholic. He makes no bones about that on his show, occasionally making cracks about his previous life and the things that happened before he got sober in 1992. One of the things about him is that going along with the willingness to be brave, the trust in his audience, and all that, he's also willing to be serious. This little clip dates from February 2007, during the whole hoo-ha over Brittany Spears and the whole concept of battering and making fun of those who truly need help.

What the hell is wrong with our society that we insist on stomping on those already downtrodden?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7bbaRyDLMvA