Most people who follow popular culture are aware of the drama unfolding at NBC related to its late night programming. The network’s decision to return Jay Leno to hosting duties on The Tonight Show, ousting Conan O’Brien, has dominated the conversation on social networking sites and provided plenty of ammunition for comedians.
This clip from a recent episode of The Late Show with David Letterman illustrates how important context is when analyzing a pop culture text. Because David Letterman is a late night personality on a rival network, it isn’t unusual to see him poking fun at the mess over at NBC. However, as Letterman explains in the clip, the whole situation played out once before – with Letterman as a participant.
“The same kind of thing happened when I was over there,” Letterman explains, referring to the conflict that developed when Johnny Carson retired from hosting The Tonight Show in 1992. Letterman continues: “It was announced that Johnny Carson was leaving and we just thought that they would move us right in.” Instead, NBC gave the program to Jay Leno (who Letterman refers to here as ‘Big Jaw Leno’). What should have been a smooth transition became a nasty split between NBC and Letterman, who moved to rival CBS and started a new talk show in the same timeslot as Leno.
“Here we are, almost twenty years later,” Letterman says. “Once again, it’s happened.” Indeed, NBC’s decision to put Leno back on The Tonight Show means Conan O’Brien is leaving the network, probably to start a new show on Fox.
Knowing the backstory involved gives Letterman more credibility than someone like Jimmy Kimmel or Jon Stewart making jokes about the situation. He knows how it feels to lose out to Leno, as Conan has. And he knows how unpleasant it is to have the private details of your business aired publicly.
Of course, that isn’t stopping him from making jokes about it.
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