You get where he’s coming from.
Kimmel’s got Paul Shaffer as a guest bandleader, and he’s broadcasting from New York.
This was to be expected.
So he let his hero take the wheel.
Letterman ambled in a few tantalizing directions.
It’s still not clear."
Kimmel kept insisting he’d retired.
Maybe this was just Letterman playing the cranky oldster, or maybe there was something more there.
Kimmel didn’t pursue the point.
He asked Letterman about his new Netflix show, and then happily let his hero glide past any answers.
Letterman pretended to think that Netflix was still a DVD-shipping service.
Late Night Kremlinologists could attempt to tease out some real resonance from Letterman’s gags.
Then again, maybe best not to dig too deep.
Everyone loves to be loved, but you sense that Letterman wants his acolytes to lighten up a bit.
Kimmel, sounding endearingly teenaged, revealed that he was wearing a tie Letterman sent to him.
Did he miss a joke, too?
You wonder what a real conversation between equals would have sparked.
The job Kimmel has now isn’t the job Letterman left two years ago.
There’s the internet, which Letterman only ever seemed to barely notice.
There’s the explicit politics forefronted in the buzziest late-night monologues.
But maybe that would require a late-night host who didn’t grow up loving Letterman.
Instead, the sharpest question of the interview came from the nominal guest.
“You’re not thinking about leaving, are you?”
“What, this web link?”
the younger man responded.
“Eventually, sure.”
“Are people on you all the time about shaving?”
“No,” said Kimmel, “Theylikemine.”
“I look like a Civil War statue,” said Letterman.
“There’s talk you might get removed!”
Kimmel said, quick again.
“Ihavebeen removed,” Letterman said.
But the weirdest part of that joke was that Letterman hasn’t really been removed.
He’ll be back soon on Netflix.
Will Kimmel join him there?
