Alva Review-Courier -

It gives me courage to say something about TV since Lynn commented on late night shows (June 7, 2017, Newsgram).

I do not want to complain because they may come after me, but I will mention some things I have observed. In addition to the comedians that Lynn listed, there were a variety of guests on the Tonight Show who were funny, unique, entertaining and even strange. Take the guy with long blonde hair, a falsetto voice and a tiny ukulele. He was so bad that people would watch him and he even was invited back several times. Oh, I think his name was Tiny Tim.

I started watching the Tonight Show before it even had that title, with Ernie Kovacs and Steve Allen. I also enjoyed a little humor after 10:30 and before bedtime.

In more recent times, we were not amused.

A few years ago, I observed one late night host talking about the New Jersey governor. He would start out “he is so fat that,” etc. Then every night he would have another fat 'joke'.

Then another victim was the NY city mayor, who would be described as “he is so short that ...”

I was offended by fat jokes because I was always insulted for being too skinny.

I wondered why certain people were constantly insulted and I finally figured out they were all Republicans who might possibly run for president.

Even more recently, one late night host was accusing members of the president's family of doing crude things that used to be illegal in 12 states. Apparently, it is possible to get away with that if you claim it is funny. I am old enough to remember what would happen to a guy who made a crude remark about someone's wife, daughter or granddaughter.

Even way back, I remember when President Truman chewed out a commentator for saying that his daughter was a bad piano player. This happened at a time when the back east radio and newspapers were telling the rest of the country that no one liked Kansas City politician Harry Truman, and that everyone liked New Yorker Dewey. One New York newspaper become so convinced about what they were saying that they went ahead and printed headlines before the election was over, saying DEWEY WINS. But I don't need to tell you that the central part of the country carried Truman to a landslide over Dewey. I sometimes think of that deal when I see stories and commentaries coming from back east. But I am not criticizing, since they have the freedom to tell us what we like and dislike.

Disclaimer: I can claim the information, surveys and observations to be 100 percent mine, plus or minus 4 percent.