The Difference Between Johnny Carson and David Letterman, According to Patton Oswalt

David Letterman was the heir apparent to Johnny Carson’s late-night throne, but when both hosts were on the air, landing a spot on their respective shows meant different things for comedians, Patton Oswalt said this week on the Club Random podcast.

Oswalt reminisced about a coffee table book featuring artistic photographs of comedians. “It came out in the eighties,” he remembered, and “there was a picture of Carson and Letterman together. Because Carson loved Letterman.”

For up-and-coming comics, Oswalt said, appearing with the two legends meant different things.  “If you went on Carson and did well, you could be famous,” he said. “But if you went on Letterman and didn't do well, you would never be cool.”

For example, Oswalt told a story about an Andy Kindler set on Late Night with David Letterman that received a terrible reaction. “There's a chunk of it, he's getting nothing,” Oswalt said. “And then he does a very weird joke, and it gets nothing. Then he just says, ‘Folks, I don't write this stuff,’ and people just explode. It's like he handled a bad crowd on national TV. It's an amazing moment.”

Bill Maher had some amazing moments as well, an argument advanced by none other than Bill Maher. Getting famous on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show was a breeze, at least for him. “You're doing your best six minutes you ever came up with,” he said. “It was cake. If you couldn't do that, you didn't belong in show business. If you couldn't ace the first Tonight Show, you suck.”

(If you actually watch Maher’s well-received set, it gets off to a bumpier start than he remembers. He’s about a minute in before he wins over the crowd.)

Once he finished giving himself flowers, Maher agreed that Carson and Letterman brought different vibes to late-night. “I vividly remember when Letterman came on the scene, and it was the passing of the guard,” Maher said. “Johnny was the greatest for his era.”

“Carson was Carson and Letterman was a guy that came along and said, ‘I want to take this to this next level,” said Oswalt. “And Conan was a guy who was like, ‘I love you, Letterman, and I wanna take you to the next level’. It was a continuation.”

Carson, who represented a pre-Boomer generation, knew that when the torch passed, it was time to walk away, said Oswalt. “And when he walked away, he walked away. You never saw him again, and that's what increased his legend. And people don't realize you can do that, that can be part of your arc.”

Both men admired Carson’s stepping aside to make room for the new, but Maher reminded Oswalt that leaving wasn’t entirely selfless on the part of the chain-smoking comedian. “It was also because he had emphysema,” Maher said.

Fair, agreed Oswalt. “He could barely talk at the end. That also didn't help.”