""For some reason, my wife - we've been married for 72 years - has decided that she's my public defender," the comedy icon tells me, his voice as affably grumpy as ever. "So whenever we go anyplace and I say, 'Oh, what is this, a parakeet?' when we're clearly in Whole Foods, she will say, 'Oh, he's kidding. No, no, it's a joke. He's kidding.' And that happens all the time now.""
""I used to hope that the audience, whether it's one or 1,000, would recognize that something was a joke," Letterman says. "But the index of those who know who I am? Getting smaller every day. So in a way, I guess she's doing me a favor because I could easily be zip-tied and hauled out of these places.""
""And yet, while Letterman may not be at the center of the cultural Zeitgeist the way he was ten or 15 years ago, he has hardly disappeared into the background. His Netflix interview show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, has snagged multiple Emmy nominations (and one win) since launching in 2018 and, earlier this summer, netted a two-season renewal from the streamer.""
David Letterman retains his legendarily dry wit and continues to use self-deprecating humor in public. His wife frequently intercedes to explain his jokes to strangers, reflecting diminished immediate recognition and prompting jokes about being mistaken for a confused older man. Public awareness of him has shrunk compared with a decade or more ago, yet he remains prominent in media. His Netflix interview series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction has earned multiple Emmy nominations and a win, plus a two-season renewal, and he appears regularly on YouTube via The Barbara Gaines Show.
Read at Vulture
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