196 Comments
User's avatar
MartyB's avatar

Poll answer: bring back the Test Pattern.

Joe LaGreca's avatar

I know it's seasonal, but I prefer the logs burning in the fire place. One of our favorite restaurants in Aruba actually has the large TV showing the fire place going continuously - my wife I both had the WTH thought when we saw that.

Sheila Barkofske's avatar

I loved the test pattern.

CactusMatt32's avatar

I liked the Star Spangled Banner & the Air Force Jets at Sign-off.

Arpad Hrunta's avatar

In the Good Old Days (1970s) DC TV stations used to show a giant American flag waving in the wind while they played the the Star Spangled Banner.

A heartwarming end-of-the-day.

dancingtime's avatar

Tune in to America's Untold Stories (Eric Hunley and Mark Groubert) on Locals....one supporter did up that pattern to play while they switch from YT/ Rumble to Locals.

Joe LaGreca's avatar

The "Why Files" would be great.

Reddog's avatar

Nick Freitas is a funny and very articulate at explaining something in a very short time. Once you start watching his short videos you’re hooked.

steph_gray's avatar

I was kinda tempted to find and watch that Heil Honey episode - but I've managed to crush the temptation beneath my boots.

Don Reed's avatar

05/07/26: My TV Test Pattern scores qualified me to become the governor of California, but I graciously acceded to Gavin Newsom's request that I step aside and let a real boob run the state. And how right he was!

***

I've also spent a lot of time trying to convince people that after a certain age, it simply isn't true that all men turn into Dan Rather (clueless gasbags).

And whenever I finally get ahead of the curve, Letterman then opens his damned mouth.

I have had the dubious pleasure of meeting D. L. And even at the young age that he was in 1980, he radiated a hatred for humanity that set off Geiger counters around the world.

Retirednottired's avatar

Wait…I thought Colbert WAS the test pattern.

BlasterJack's avatar

They could run the test pattern and it would be better. Only savvy seniors will understand. 🙂

OldeArtiste's avatar

I remember as a kid, I would see on the TV the American flag waving in the wind while the American Anthem was playing at midnight before the test pattern appeared (this was on Friday nights when my parents let me stay up).

VICKI's avatar

Anything with our flag waving is ok with me. And yes, I must be prissy but unfortunately I saw the C....holster said live in person and seriously, I have not been the same since. And no, I don't lead a sheltered life but I do not ever find coarse comments amusing or to my liking. How could that be ok to say that on television. From then on, I immediately turned the channel when I saw his face, dissed him everywhere I could and am ecstatic that he is finally getting fired.

WTPuck's avatar

While they play the National Anthem.

John A. Barnes's avatar

I vote for cute kitten videos......

steph_gray's avatar

Unfortunately they are mostly available on FauxBook and ScrewUTube.

FauxBook "Reels" are crack for one of my friends. Scrolls them for hours.

It's a guy thing. Back in the day the same guy sat on the couch clicking the remote between channels.

MLR's avatar

Colbert and Kimmel are the perfect examples of how pond scum rises to the top in a cesspool that is now slowly being drained by people like Gutfeld and modern media.

Reddog's avatar

If Guttfeld is the new answer to comedy then comedy is dying.

Sam Prentice's avatar

Gutfeld is a comedic genius, but he gets too carried away with his scatological humor and constant aspersions to being gay. I've been watching his late night show for a few months and I find it amusing. He has some comics on as guests that are very funny. His first show, Red Eye, was in the middle of the night but was funny. I think he is funny but he would do much better if he started acting like he was more than three years old. Tyrus, one of his regulars, is not only funny, but very provocative in his thinking and I like to hear different takes on things sometimes. But you are correct that the quality of comedy is definitely dying.

Reddog's avatar

All very true. Guttfeld is spot on many times but he delivers it like the nine year old loud kid at school who won’t leave you alone. He just seems to try to hard but it might just be that I don’t care for him too.

VICKI's avatar

Too much prattling, too many wannabes and as for Tyrus, get the backward hat off...you're not a teenager and shave your face, speak up and maybe I will get a chance to watch. And hear. I don't struggle to see/hear, it's not worth it.

Shrugged's avatar

I long for a day when humor isn't needed to buffer the absurdities of politicians. Good humor stands on its own without having to send a secondary message.

Reddog's avatar

You and I both my friend.

VICKI's avatar

I turn the channel on Gutfeld too, I have no idea how that idiot stays on TV...Fugly and not funny, just annoying. None of them can compete with test patterns and music background.

Adorable Deplorable's avatar

These people literally make one sick to their stomach. "Humanity"? Really? Where was the "humanity" when funny boy was so disappointed in the botched attempts at our President's life?

And BTW, Letterman's incoherent prattle was pathetic.

donald b welch's avatar

those believing he would become a republican...are living in fantasyland. letterman is similar to joe manchin. he loves his position of leverage.

Reddog's avatar

Except Manchin is a principaled human and part of the Democrat party that is no more.

Sam Prentice's avatar

Manchin was a typical Democrat fraud. He always talked a good game and had that smile on his face, but the one thing you could always count on Manchin for is that he's always there until you need him.

Stephen Wolf's avatar

He would talk center-right but always voted left on all issues. Glad he is gone.

Reddog's avatar

I don’t view people as all bad or all good. Most people that go into politics are some of both. Or put another way, flawed. The ones I detest are the ones who do not respect the integrity and role of our congressional processes. And just because they got themselves elected is no indication that they are smart or have wisdom and character. So I wont argue with your analysis of Manchin. But from my view, he was one of those Dems willing to defend his opinion or position even when it went against his party. Not all of them can do so. Most cant do so coherently.

Sam Prentice's avatar

He and Kristin Sinnema did go against the grain and buck their party when they would not vote to eliminate the 60 vote cloture rule. He stood tall that day, but in my useless opinion he was not someone who could be depended upon to follow through and actually do what he said he was going to do. And don't forget that at the time, Manchin was seriously considering throwing his hat in the ring for president. That didn't happen and Manchin realized the Democrat Party had moved far to the left of him so he retired. That was an act of courage and decency he displayed by getting out with his dignity intact.

Reddog's avatar

Good points. I think his ego was running away with him when he thought out running for POTUS, but then again, isn’t much real or credible competition for that in his party either. I see a lot of Joe Manchins in the GOP right now too. Need term limits with no retreading to the other House.

donald b welch's avatar

i 100% agree with your take!

Douglas Baringer's avatar

And when Letterman paused for applause and no one laughed he just looked like a spaz.

OldeArtiste's avatar

As Letterman got older, he got crotchety, incoherent, and nasty about Trump, his supporters, and Republicans in general - as Robert de Niro, Bruce Springsteen, and Maddona did.

Retirednottired's avatar

Letterman has been a yuge disappointment. He was genuinely funny in his early years on Late Night, but as time wore on, he was more hackneyed, boring and just not funny any more. Since his retirement, I was hoping he would just disappear, but…no.

VICKI's avatar

He looks like Rip Van Winkle with the hideous beard and I think he's got dementia settling in and not the happy kind.

John Swindall's avatar

I never really thought Letterman was that funny. His politics were always on display.

Dutchmn007's avatar

Nor I. Was never a fan. Loved Jay Leno though. His monologues were funny.

Doug's avatar

Leno was funny, and his car collection is awesome!!

Reddog's avatar

Leno was a great replacement for Carson, but I never thought he was as close to funny as was Carson. But Leno is a good, honest and caring person and that’s not bad in this day and age.

Sam Prentice's avatar

My favorite Leno is when he had just moved to Los Angeles from New York and was asked what he thought was the biggest difference between the two cities. He commented how odd he thought it was to be driving your car and then have to yield to any pedestrians who stepped out into the road. He said, "in New York, we thought it was our responsibility to chase them back up onto the sidewalk!"

Reddog's avatar

And no four letter words, light on the politics, and a understanding that people wanted to hear comedy, not be insulted.

Sam Prentice's avatar

When I watch all of our old comedy shows I marvel at how funny they all were able to be without any vulgarity, or even allusions of it.

Brian LeMay's avatar

Both ( Carson and Leno ) are great Americans .

Reddog's avatar

Johnny knew his audience better than anyone. I think Leno is one of those few people not corrupted my fame and money. Sad to see that his long time wife has dementia, but he’s taking care of her. He’s a good person. Never saw either of them ever make fun of or talk down to their audience or base dialog on a class structure. Can’t say that about today’s fake comedians.

VICKI's avatar

I saw Leno live in Palm Springs on stage just standing there for over an hour and he was BRILLIANT and amusing with no swear words. He is an amazing guy now caring for his demented wife who doesn't know much...he is an unusually kind human being. Lots of kudos to him.

Reddog's avatar

I agree. I liked Carson better than Leno but Leno is a far more compassionate human than Carson was according to those that knew him. I have stopped watching comedians today because, among other things, they aren’t funny.

Joe LaGreca's avatar

I think they forced Leno out to appeal to a younger crowd.

Sam Prentice's avatar

That doesn't look like it has worked the way they planned.

Marlan Hoerer's avatar

Not sure if it is true but heard Leno never spent a dime of the Tonight Show pay but lived well doing stand up gigs .

Joe LaGreca's avatar

True, but not sure if it was vice-versa - he lived off only one of those gigs.

Marlan Hoerer's avatar

Leno was at his best on the walk abouts on campi.

Joe LaGreca's avatar

He exposed the minds full of mush - especially the college students.

Brian LeMay's avatar

Agree ; the beginnings of Hollywood derailing their own gravy train . Talk about stupid !

Retirednottired's avatar

Leno was warm and human, and still is in retirement. And yes, his cars are the stuff of legend.

TeaPartyGal's avatar

Instead of jokes, his material always came across to me as a smug sneer.

Edit: I just saw Richard Luthman's comment and see he had already used the same words--"smug" and "sneer". These really do describe Letterman. His whole tone was just a "downer".

John Swindall's avatar

The word smarmy comes to mind

Sam Prentice's avatar

But what makes his "smug" and "sneer" even more bizarre and idiotic is that it is completely undeserved. Nobody wanted to buy what he was selling because there wasn't any "there" there.

Joe LaGreca's avatar

Towards the end of his run, it looked like he was mailing it in. He looked bored & wasn't even trying.

Reddog's avatar

He was worn out by then.

Reddog's avatar

Yes, he got it wrong from the start due to his egotistical arrogance.

dts3204's avatar

Only saving grace kept bringing on Warren Zevon.

steph_gray's avatar

I did not know that.

I had the privilege of seeing Warren back at the Main Point in Pennsylvania, the night that he was recorded live doing "Werewolves of Bryn Mawr" for all the little college girls.

Retirednottired's avatar

The Main Point was an amazing place. Saw James Taylor and Billy Joel there, as well as many other talented acts of lesser renown.

steph_gray's avatar

The only other one I remember was Jackson Browne the week before Warren. I vaguely remember he promoted Warren in advance - that was probably why I took the train twice in two weeks…

Retirednottired's avatar

Fortunately, it was only about a 1 hour drive from NJ, so we were there fairly often in those days. Pretty sure it is closed now, sadly.

Richard Luthmann's avatar

Letterman defending Colbert is like the captain of the Titanic blaming the iceberg’s politics. Colbert did not lose late night because Trump silenced him. He lost because he stopped being a comedian and became a Democrat therapy animal with cue cards. The audience shrank because half the country got tired of being sneered at every night by a smug court jester for Obama-world. CBS says it was financial. Of course it was. Hate-Trump monologues are not a business model when viewers have podcasts, X, Gutfeld, and old sitcoms that are actually funny. Colbert failed because he wasn’t funny anymore.

OldeArtiste's avatar

"Democrat therapy animal with cue cards" - priceless!

Shrugged's avatar

"Colbert failed because he wasn’t funny anymore."

And doesn't care. He's happy to donate his sacred honor to the cause. Satan's cause.

steph_gray's avatar

> became a Democrat therapy animal with cue cards <

Oh that's good! 😆

GaryC9's avatar

The Weather Channel is funnier than Colbert.

dancingtime's avatar

Well, they were the first people on TV, back when I used it, to reinforce the concept in my mind that most people no longer know the difference between an adjective and an adverb.

LM Drew's avatar

Amen... "... no longer know the difference between an adjective and an adverb." ... can drive me crazy... (if I let it.)

steph_gray's avatar

PBS absolutely is funnier than Colbert.

They don't mean to be, which makes it better.

VICKI's avatar

QVC and HSN are great options and have good stuff to buy, what can go wrong? I have watched QVC since it started, never changes, interesting, good buys, lol. no bad news, no disgusting talentless "comedians" which they are not.

John Wiles's avatar

Don, good stuff. Orange Man Good! Colbert Bad! Period. Good riddance to the bad rubbish that is Colbert.

dancingtime's avatar

The problem, of course, is the live audience who laugh...and believe...and act it out...and vote.

John Wiles's avatar

You are absolutely correct. Remember half the people don't make 100 in the IQ quotient.

Reddog's avatar

I think IQ is over rated. I can give you the names of many people I know who probably (I assume here) have an average IQ but are highly successful and great humans. The one quality they have that cannot be quantified is commonsense.

VICKI's avatar

COMMON SENSE, THE KEY TO LIFE.

LM Drew's avatar

people hold cue cards promoting audience response.

dancingtime's avatar

Yes....that is known but the audience came because they agree...cards not needed...

Damn the torpedoes's avatar

On Jesse last night they ran segments of Colbert’s “interview“ with The One at his brutalist and slightly phallic library/park ( of course, being Chicago, there was snow on the ground and the whole thing looked post apocalyptic). Talk about a you-know-what holster! What was most disturbing was that during this lovefest, they clumsily inserted a laugh/applause track that ran over some of what they were saying, that was neither funny, nor applause-worthy. I found the whole thing, —and the two of them —nauseating. They can’t help themselves—they need to prop each other up when their relevance is ancient history.

Reddog's avatar

Obama is literally shrinking away before our eyes. His so-called legacy did him in. He can’t even raise enough to finish his monolith to world destruction.

Wim de Vriend's avatar

What do you mean by "slightly phallic"? The entire ugly thing is a failed disguise for a presidency that could rightly be described as LIMP -- and in sooooo many ways.

WTPuck's avatar

From the beginning I called his administration "the limp d!ck presidency."

Wim de Vriend's avatar

Ah yes, Great Minds think alike.

OldeArtiste's avatar

That thing reminds me of a Nazi Luftwaffe "Flakturm" or some "Empire" fortress from "Star Wars" - both empires lost.

steph_gray's avatar

Thanks for watching that so I never have to.

Dennis's avatar

It’s Letterman. It’s Colbert. I don’t care. Earlier comment to bring back the test pattern is spot-on. Can we get the one with the Indian?

John Swindall's avatar

Yes, but one with a 🐝 in his War bonnet

John Swindall's avatar

Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? Chant

Alice Ball's avatar

Murkowski was funny yesterday and is even funnier today!! Knocked that one way out of the park Don. Letterman-Colbert-Kimmel etc are all the same loser with different faces and names.👋🏻

steph_gray's avatar

Yep! Great cartoon, I mean meme. 😉

Jake's avatar

I long for the good old days when at the end of the day we all watched the nightly news to see what was happening. Instead of going to bed at 10:30 you had to stay up and watch Johnny's monologue. I'll never forget the night a tomahawk throwing exhibition resulted in a tomahawk in the crotch of the man sized target. Johnny wouldn't let Mingo retrieve his tomahawk. Classic....

I miss Johnathan Winters too.

I was tired in the morning when I went to work, but it was always worth it. Following generations have no idea how much fun it was and how much has been taken from them.

Marlan Hoerer's avatar

Ed Ames of Daniel Boone had Johnny flustered.

Vince Gallo's avatar

Colbert lasted this long because most of his audience must be AI generated bots and other liberals.

Joe LaGreca's avatar

I like "mind-numb robots" - not sure who came up with that, but think it was Rush.

Lee's avatar
1dEdited

Of course, Johnny is better than anything on late night TV now. An alternative could be the local weather without the weather announcer. Just the idiot music.

Reddog's avatar

Do a little searching on YouTube and you will find some hilarious weather reporters.

Vince Gallo's avatar

It must be embarrassing for Colbert when Joe Biden can get a bigger audience than him.

Reddog's avatar

Please, no more Biden comments. Most of us are still trying to recover from his reign of destruction.

Jeremy R's avatar

Well, Zhou Xiden males more sense.

Vince Gallo's avatar

Today’s poll left out the one selection I thought was most fitting: a test pattern.

steph_gray's avatar

We appear to have some great minds thinking alike today.