Comedian Andy Kindler, a frequent guest and occasional correspondent on David Letterman’s show, recently dedicated part of his time on the Late Show to complain about a misquote in Montreal’s daily English language paper, The Gazette.
Kindler was interviewed by Gazette columnist Bill Brownstein back in January for a piece about how comics would handle the new Obama administration. (Disclosure: Bill and I are friends.) At one point in the column, Kindler was quoted as saying, “Bottom line is that Letterman is unwatchable now. And the best Saturday Night Live can do is give us Fred Armisen trying to do Obama, but he is so weak.”
After the article appeared, Kindler called Brownstein to say he was misquoted, and it turns out he was. In a subsequent column, Brownstein added this note:
Because of an unfortunate static disruption while recording an interview with comic Andy Kindler for my column of Jan. 21 – about the death of political comedy with the departure of Dubya – a key word, “not,” went missing. The Kindler quote should have read: “Bottom line is that only Letterman is not unwatchable now.” And not: “Letterman is unwatchable now.”
Kindler’s concern over this omission is not unwarranted: he is an occasional correspondent for Letterman’s Late Show. “The ironic part of this mix-up is that David Letterman is one of the few people whose comedy I have unconditional love for,” Kindler says. “I think that’s the proper context for the word ‘irony.’ If it’s not, that would be ironic.”
However, and not surprisingly, Kindler still stands by his statement that with little to mock about Barack Obama for the time being, he will start focusing more on Jay Leno,”the next big threat facing our country.”
Kindler wanted to make sure everyone knew what he really meant, so he made a point of mentioning the misquote during his recent appearance on Letterman’s show. The relevant bit starts at about the 1:30 mark.
Thanks, Paul!
