‘I’ve Always Considered You Dave Jr.’: David Letterman Has Gone Soft for Jimmy Kimmel

There was once a time when David Letterman was late-night comedy’s most cutting iconoclast — now he’s talk show Santa Claus.

Letterman returned to the late-night stage on the most recent airing of Jimmy Kimmel Live! where the beloved and once-biting industry icon promoted his upcoming documentary on Irish rock band U2, who, unlike Letterman, still have their Edge. Letterman was loquaciously complimentary of Kimmel as he turned the interview into a sickly sweet love-fest that would make the old Letterman dizzy.

After telling Kimmel about how nice it was to see Kimmel’s parents and to look over all of the pictures of Kimmel and Letterman together that hang in Kimmel’s studio, Letterman praised Kimmel’s dressing rooms before telling Kimmel that he would willingly move in with Jimmy Kimmel Live! saying, “Everybody I meet is a family member, so I would fit right in. Because, as you know, I’ve always thought of you as Dave Jr.” 

I’d say they should get a room, but that seems like Letterman’s intention.

It’s inevitable that the idols we love will change as they age, because no person, famous or otherwise, is the same at 75 as they were at 35. Everyone either becomes a bitter curmudgeon, or the years dull their edges and they become a big bearded softie who strokes Kimmel’s already Oscars-inflated ego. Seeing as Letterman spent the last decade and change of his 33-year career in late-night as the medium’s resident grumpy old man, it makes some sense that he’d soften his touch as he aged out of the game. 

That doesn’t make it any less disappointing, though — if Letterman writes James Corden a love letter during the latter’s goodbye tour, we’ll throw up our egg yolk omelet.