Letterman Only Late Night Comic to Pounce on Obama's Taliban Swap

Letterman Only Late Night Comic to Pounce on Obama's Taliban Swap

The only things lamer than the duck in the White House right now are the late night writers abandoning political satire like their MySpace pages.

If it was any other president in the White House right now, last week would have been a prime rib buffet of political humor. Not only did the President Barack Obama make the worst trade since Cash for Clunkers, the simmering VA scandal is still ripe, and we saw a workout routine that made Richard Simmons look like a Rocky montage. 

When there is a story as big as Bowe Bergdahl, it usually finds its way into most every comic’s monologue. But last week, most of the hosts never acknowledged it. Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Fallon allavoided talking about the hostage swap.

In a surprising twist, reliably liberal David Letterman threw all caution to the wind last week, and uncharacteristically hit the swap every night.

“This was the most controversial trade since I was traded here to CBS.”

“Five for One. He apparently got the idea from Jos. A Banks.”

Letterman even managed to squeak out this twofer, nailing both scandals Thursday:

“Bowe Bergdahl was over there for five years, he’s now recovering in a German hospital, because he couldn’t get into a VA facility.” 

The only other mention of thetrade was by Seth Meyers. The new Late Night host found an unlikely target to aim this single line at:

“Bill O’Reilly asked his viewers if they think if Bowe Bergdahl’sfather, Robert, was a Islamic sympathizer because he looks like aMuslim. That’s like assuming Bill O’Reilly is a Gluten Sympathizer,because he looks like Dough.”

What was equally strange: almost every single host made jokes about Rob Ford. A Canadian Mayor is getting more attention than the American president! (Maybe that’s what happens when you let 33 percent the late night shows get produced by a Canadian.)

In their defense, the late night writers found plenty of humor in the Warsaw Marriot gym. The president’s strained girly lifts were a perfect fit for the late shows, which universally incorporate video clips into the monologues. It almost seems like the White House Press office intentionally leaked the video so comics wouldn’t dig into any of the other scandals going of like whoopee cushions around the Administration.

And what bugs most people at this point in history is that such conspiratorial talk no longer seems ridiculous.

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