We know that the scandal in the Catholic Church is ready-made material for late-night comedians. But when one particular entertainer can’t seem to give it up, we begin to wonder. We are speaking about David Letterman.
Letterman’s obsession with the scandal—and obsession is the only word that accurately describes what’s going on—was evident to the New York Times last spring. Since that time, Letterman has relentlessly attacked Catholicism. His prime competitor, Jay Leno, evinced no such obsession.
For example, during a three-week period, August 19 to September 6, Letterman aired fifteen shows and told seven jokes on six episodes that disparaged Catholicism. The Virginia couple that had sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral was milked for four jokes alone. All the jokes made a sexual statement and all of them targeted either New York City or Los Angeles. The audience, it should be noted, couldn’t get enough of it.
We were bombed on September 11, 2001, by 19 Muslim men. This was great script for Letterman. But aside from a few jokes about terrorists and Muslim nations, we haven’t heard Letterman stab Islam (and rightly so). Maybe that’s because he’s too busy sticking it to Catholics. Or maybe he doesn’t have the guts to do it.
