In a new low for David Letterman – on both a professional and comedic level – each night this past week he devoted a “Stooge of the Night” segment to a Senator who dared to oppose the gun control bill, a law which would have done nothing to have prevented the Newtown tragedy.
Nonetheless, Letterman got very political in putting a picture of each Senator on the screen, yet the audience at his Manhattan theater remained befuddled, nearly silent after each announcement with, at best, scattered nervous laughter before Letterman followed up with a lame crack at their personal appearance. Those shots (Jeff Flake: “Reminds me a little of Gomer Pyle”; Ted Cruz: “How about a background check on his barber?") generated a little laughter.
The most painfully unfunny of the week was for Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Wednesday when Letterman impugned him as being bought by the gun lobby, as if a piddling $14,000 in campaign donations had anything to do with his pre-existing ideology:
“Senator Cruz voted no on gun control reform. He recently received $14,000 in contribution from the Gun Owners of America and the National Association for Gun Rights. Senator Ted Cruz, there he is.”
Absolute total audience silence.
Cross-posted on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.