DVR Catch-Up: Kid Scientists!
In this segment, “DVR Catch-Up,” I hope to discuss things that catch my attention while trying to burn through some of the shows on my DVR that I watch in groups (i.e. Instead of watching Letterman everynight, I usually watch it twice a week, but see 2 or 3 episodes at a time and fast-forward through the slow parts).
On The Late Show Monday night Dave had on “Kid Scientists” in one of the segments. Fans of the show will be familiar with this as they have the kids on every year and it’s always a hoot. But this year I’m sitting there watching it with my lady-friend next to me and we’re both laughing out loud and something dawns on me: “Kid Scientist” is PURE Letterman. What I mean by this is not that the segment has been around for the past twenty years (I assume) and we’re all familiar with it, but that the parameters of the segment cater to Dave’s strengths more than anything else that is done on the show. “Kid Scientists” is David Letterman’s The Blue Album. It’s what you get if you reduce the show to its roots. Regular viewers will note that he seems to be having the most fun not with the written material or the interviews (natch), but when he’s interacting with people in the audience or on stage during specialty acts. But with Stupid Human/Pet Tricks and Know Your Current Events and Stump the Band etc., he’s playing off of adults who understand the significance of television and understand what Dave Letterman is doing. In short, they laugh at his jokes, and they play along and all is right with the world. With the kids, however, you don’t have that wall built up. Dave can crack wise to a 12 year old and be greeted with absolute dead silence. Sometimes it seems that they are actually bothered by his presence and they if he wasn’t there they could, perhaps, really teach these idiots in the audience a thing or two about science, and he seems to LOVE it. Combining the two you get this perfect combination of, basically, everything that The Late Show stands for: smart comedy coming out of the seemingly bland.
People swear by Conan, and I won’t disagree that his sketches are some of the wildest on television, but as a performer he simply can’t come close to screen presence of David Letterman, a presence that comes into complete focus once a year for “Kid Scientists.”
