It is a rare event to find something laugh-out-loud funny in the business section. In fact, we could suggest it is near never-happens rare.
But, the NYT business section last week had a story about the battle between Jay Leno, a funny man with a late night talk show, and David Letterman, also allegedly funny and with a late night talk show.
There is a writers' strike in the US right now that is threatening the very fabric of the country, meaning that very soon there will be nothing new to watch on TV. Whether anyone actually notices is another issue but it is certainly riling up some people, mostly the writers themselves.
These writers have made a deal with Letterman such that they can for some Byzantine reason write for him despite this strike; not so Leno who decided what the hell, I used to be a funny guy, I'll just do it myself.
He did, and people laughed their heads off; his ratings soared. Letterman, despite the phalanx of writers, was not so funny. Ratings there soured.
What a quandry!! The writers' guilds then went into swift action, saying that Leno MUST NOT BE FUNNY until the end of the strike. He must not write his own stuff, he must sit still and wait for them to figure this problem out. And it is a big problem. If he's funny without them, what do THEY do for a living? My god, is it possible that Leno can DO HIS JOB?? Are writers obsolete? Is Letterman just plain boring? So many questions! So few answers!
So the writers are flipping out. Leno says too bad, seems I'm pretty good at this and I'm going to keep on keepin' on.
Now, here is the metaphysical issue that the writers could do some thinking upon in their newly-acquired strike-permitted spare time: is it the WRITING that is the problem? So, if Leno just stood up and said stuff off the top of his head would that be okay? Is there a difference between what he thinks up and what he writes down? There cannot be...so where is their guild's jurisdiction?
Not to put a damper on a good story. I cannot wait for the next episode.
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2 comments:
Kafka had a team of writers, didn't he?
I think the anger from the writers resulted more from the fact that Leno is a union member who effectively crossed a picket line, while Letterman, also a union member, insisted he would not come back without his team and worked to broker a deal with the union's support.
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