As we've reported before, the staffs of Late Night With David Letterman and The Daily Show started their own blogs during the writers' strike. They post jokes and funny videos about the strike. The material is very recognizable to audiences who watch those shows -- it has the same style and comedic timing. Now those blogs may be one of the reasons that the AMPTP is going back to the negotiating table today. The LA Times reports:
With a mixture of offbeat jokes and familiar Letterman bits (the unflappable Hello Deli owner Rupert Jee has video cameos), the writers offer up self-deprecating anecdotes about their strike experiences, peppered with jabs at their corporate adversaries. (One entry by Steve Young, "Talking to Children About the Writers' Strike," suggests assuring them: "The Writers Guild will always love you very, very much. The media companies would sell you to the Gypsies in a second if they thought it would boost their share price."
Quipped Young: "It's all the fun of working on the show, without the stress or the pay."
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When the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced plans to resume talks today, one factor that apparently contributed to the detente was the fear among some studios that the blogs and videos were effectively casting them as villains.
"They're our version of electronic samizdat," said Michael Winship, president of WGA East, alluding to underground publications distributed in the former Soviet Union. "The humor is devastating."
Perhaps the most prolific purveyors have been writers for late-night comedy shows, who are accustomed to quickly satirizing current events.
"We have the rapid-response model," explained Rob Kutner, a writer for "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," who worked with his colleagues on a "Daily Show"-esque video report about the strike, delivered by writer Jason Ross from a makeshift set in front of the picket line.
"It is important to us that people understand what we're doing and that we're not just willfully taking their shows off the air," said "Daily Show" writer Tim Carvell. "But it also just felt so good to write jokes again."
You can keep up with you favorite late-night comedy writers' creations at LateShowWritersOnStrike.com. You can see one of the videos from the staff of The Daily Showhere.
