Late-Night Style Talk-show hosts are looking to the headlines for laugh

By Richard Zoglin

Did you hear the one about George Bush's taxes? The IRS says you can write off part of your home if you use it as a workplace. Looks like there won't be any deductions at the White House this year.

And how about that Vice President Quayle? Just came back from a trip to the Far East. It was a good time to send him -- the airlines have a "Kids Fly Free" program.

But seriously, folks. An Alaska king crab just turned up in the Hudson River. Ever since the oil spill, they've been getting great mileage.

Funny? Dumb? Outrageous? That depends, but this is politics, late-night style. Talk-show monologues may still lean heavily on the latest TV mini- series, Rob Lowe's videotape and beautiful downtown Burbank, but more and more they are turning for their yucks to real-life politics. Johnny Carson, who slides easily from Doc's wardrobe to Noriega's goon squads in his Tonight show monologues, has long been TV's most reliable barometer of what Middle America thinks about the issues of the day. But now Johnny is just one of a late-night crowd. Jay Leno, Carson's regular fill-in as Tonight host, has added a sharp political edge to his stand-up material. David Letterman, camp counselor on NBC's irreverent Late Night, seems to have boosted his political consciousness as well -- not just in his brief monologues but in such regular bits as the often hilarious Top Ten lists. Newcomer Pat Sajak also takes regular, if timid, swings at political figures like Vice President Quayle.

Their one-liners not only reflect but can even help define the national mood. "When you see Jay Leno consistently making fun of a politician and getting laughs, you know the politician's probably finished," says Torie Clarke, press secretary to Republican Senator John McCain and a well-known Washington joke broker. The onslaught of one-liners about John Tower's reported drinking and womanizing helped scuttle his nomination for Secretary of Defense. Relentless gags about the Exxon oil spill undoubtedly aggravated the company's public relations disaster and spurred pressure for White House action. Deposed Speaker Jim Wright was tougher to lampoon -- the charges against him involved abstruse House rules rather than booze and women -- but that didn't stop the monologuists from trying. (Carson on Wright's negotiations with the House ethics committee: "Part of the deal was he would resign if the committee would buy 10,000 copies of his book.")

The political gibes are drawing more than just laughs. In Washington the TV jokes are repeated in Capitol cloakrooms and quoted widely in the news media. The Center for Media and Public Affairs, a conservative watchdog group, tapes Carson, Leno and Letterman each night and catalogs their jokes by subject. During the Bush Administration's first 100 days, the most joked-about political figure was Tower (61 jokes), followed by President Bush (52) and Vice President Quayle (35).

None of these comics are quite the second coming of Lenny Bruce. Their political humor tends to be mild, their targets relatively easy. Foreign dictators are always good fodder (Ferdinand Marcos, the Ayatullah Khomeini), especially dictators with bad complexions (General Noriega). What passes for political satire, moreover, is often formula gags bounced off stock comic types. Tower became the patsy for a slew of drunk jokes; Wright was turned into a cartoon of the corrupt politician; Quayle is the latest in a long line of dufus Vice Presidents. Letterman's Top Ten lists, meanwhile, tend to defuse their political topics with pop incongruities. (Among the Top Ten Chinese student slogans: "We want Coke machines in the forced labor camps," "Knicks in seven" and "No MSG!").

But the political commentary can sometimes be pointed. Carson noted not long ago that Bush wanted to veto the minimum-wage bill in order to "look tough." "Why does he have to look tough?" asked Johnny. "Why doesn't he look tough against Exxon?" (Few laughs, but lots of applause.) Leno has delved well beyond the front page for his topical jokes. One recent monologue covered, among other subjects, West Germany's call for the removal of U.S. nuclear missiles, the cold-fusion controversy and the FSX aircraft being developed jointly by the U.S. and Japan.

The comedians and their writers deny attempting to push any political agenda. "The joke always comes first," says Leno. "I don't think what we do sways public opinion. We reinforce what the public already knows." Says Darrell Vickers, co-head writer for Carson: "The point of view represented is Johnny's. And he mirrors the point of view of the audience." Vickers is one of eight writers who cull newspapers and magazines each morning to come up with gags for Carson. Leno still writes much of his own material, though he employs several writers to help out when he fills in on Tonight for an entire week.

One challenge for the monologuists is not crossing the line that divides irreverence from bad taste. "It's not fair to kick someone when he's down," says Carson. "Like when Wilbur Mills turned out to be alcoholic, we stopped. You can never be mean-spirited. But you've got to have a little bite." Some topics, like AIDS, are virtually taboo; others, like terrorism, can be touchy, though Letterman's writers often test the boundaries. "In Lebanon, switching to daylight saving time is causing a problem," ran one joke, "because they have to turn back all the time bombs an hour." Leno recently considered a line about Representative Donald Lukens, convicted of having sex with a 16- year-old girl: "I've heard of politicians kissing babies, but most guys know where to stop." He rejected it as going too far.

Some political observers are disturbed at the influence these late-night comics can wield. Once a public figure is skewered by Carson or Leno, it is almost impossible for him to wriggle away, regardless of such niceties as guilt or innocence. "The humor is often shallow, simple," says Bob Orben, a former speechwriter for President Ford and now " humor consultant" for politicians and corporate executives. "I don't know that it's good to have government by Johnny Carson." Maybe not, but hey, at least there'd be a good band.

With reporting by Dan Goodgame/Washington and Elaine Lafferty/Los Angeles