David Letterman never breaks form while confessing.

main

David Letterman’s confession last night that he has slept with women he works with was a perfect window into the twisted psyche of the comic. (Read Troy Patterson’s excellent close reading here.) This is why women don’t want to stay married to comedians (the subject of Judd Apatow’s Funny People). They can’t break form, even in what should be the most shattering and intimate of moments. Even as Letterman is changing our view of him forever he is exactly himself, with his deadpan delivery and self-mockery. There is hardly a moment when you’re totally sure whether he’s joking or not. The audience laughs in the beginning because they think it’s one of his usual routines, but they keep laughing even after he’s made his confession. Because they’re in shock? Because that’s how the relationship works—he makes the jokes, they laugh.

Troy asks: “Say sorry to whom? To his public? Why do we deserve an apology?” We don’t, I guess. Do the women? Who knows; we don’t know anything about what actually happened. But we will hash over endless scenarios involving Letterman the sleazebag predator until he actually says something real. Which, if the comedian stereotype is true, he never will.

Tags: David Letterman, David Letterman confession

Hanna Rosin Double X co- editor, reporter, prefer my friends live.

Comments

What to say

By: mj2746 | Sat, 10/03/2009 - 10:19

Actually I'll bet it did hurt his wife as I think she was his SO for many years before they married. (I'm not sure) Taking naked pictures (Madonna) means you're immodest. Using people you have control over for sex means you're immoral and mean.
Electric Tea Kettle

I'm not ready to judge...yet

By: Hanna Rosin | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 14:33

As time goes on, I realize I know nothing. If he slept with a couple of assistans, who am I to judge? I'm not his wife. But if it was known around the office that girls had to sleep with him in order to get ahead, well, there are sexual harrassment laws for a reason.

pointykitty

By: Jewellya | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 13:55

I'll see your rebuttal and raise you another analogy. Bill Clinton: man of power, philanderer of underlings, loved by millions. I have a suspicion that if Letterman had handled the news of his indiscretions the way Clinton had--as a bumbling idiot who ungracefully denied, denied, denied--not only would the story drag on indefinitely, but he and his family would have been subjected to the media's twisting of the story far beyond the bounds of the truth of what occured...
Yes, he is a man of power, Letterman, and he wasn't about to let this one get away from him.
Not only has he removed from power any tabloid spindoctor, but he's taken focus of what he actually did and centered it on how he told us what he did. I think this is what we're really pissed off about.
Now take the analogy the other direction: If Clinton, on the first inkling that some unsavory stories might make it to print in the next couple of days, had arranged a press conference,played the saxophone and then in a lighthearted manner told us about his philandering before anyone else had a chance to... we wouldn't know the name Lewinski the way we do today.

So sex by definition is bad?

By: gobacktoSlate | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 13:30

Where do the "immoral and mean" comments come from. The mere fact that he is 62 and had sex means that his partners felt like "worthless whores?" WHere is this coming from? This is the point of making it all a joke- all we know is that he fooled around and folks are trying to force this circumstance into some tried and true narrative.

correction

By: pointykitty | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 13:01

Jewellya

By: pointykitty | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 12:54

The wife's not the one he hurt here. Letterman is incredibly powerful. I imagine the women he slept with were young, inexperienced and desperate to please their powerful boss. I imagine he made them all feel like worthless whores. It's not rape but it's bad sex.

a la Madonna

By: Jewellya | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 11:25

Once upon a time, before Madonna became known for her over-sexualized image, she was just an early 80s pop princess, and very well liked. so some nude photos show up back when that kind of thing was oh-so shocking...
.
"So What?" she says. and defused the entire "scandal".
.
This is Letterman's "So What?" moment. presumably these affairs occured before his recent marriage to the mother of his five year old son. In my view, the only person in this physical world who is any position to be the judge of Letterman's character is his wife. He controled the flow of information regarding something that COULD HAVE haunted their marriage via tabloid news for quite some time, even though the issue may have already been settled between them. without knowing the facts, I believe he was honest with his wife before the marriage and he would not have been so non-chalant about the situation now, if she wasn't fully aware and had already forgiven him.
.
So what?

He's Still Dave

By: 00Pisces | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 10:42

Not that I'd want to be his wife right now, but I disagree. I thought that the way he handled it was probably the classiest way a comedian can handle such a thing. He screwed up and made embarrassing mistakes, but he's still Dave. If anything, that's kind of comforting. An affair doesn't necessarily have to radically alter your view of another person. It can be a sad reality that we accept, then move on. It sounds like that's what he's trying to do.

Demistify this

By: gobacktoSlate | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 10:21

You lost me at "what should be the most shattering and intimate of moments."-Why? Why aren't normal human foibles- the fact that we sleep with different people on different occasions for different reasons- be anything other than comedy? Treating this as a "shattering and intimate" moment gives the blackmailers too much power and makes this stuff way more important than it is. Hey its life. Dave was brilliant and the only people he offends are ones that aren't fans anyway- I imagine Sarah Palin will weigh in

Also don't trust journalists from TV gotcha shows

David Letterman's Bizarre Confession