Louis C.K. Gets A Microroast on The Late Show

The only thing more fun than watching David Letterman interview someone he thinks is an idiot is watching him interview someone he holds very dear — though this takes different forms depending on the sex of the beloved. With ladies, he gets flirty in a reassuringly sexless way, like a fond grandpa; you've seen it if you've ever tuned in on a night when his lead guest is Julia Roberts. With guys, there's usually a lot more ballbreaking. That's my favourite.

The lead guest in the latest episode is Louis C.K., who — unlike a Bill Murray or a Charles Grodin, two undisputed Late Show Hall Of Famers — isn't someone Letterman could really count as a peer. But it's clear that Letterman recognizes C.K.'s talent and that the two have a collegial relationship; if they didn't, it would have been hard for C.K., in the last season of Louie, to have pulled off the story arc in which his "character" took a shot at replacing Letterman as host of The Late Show. The last time I saw C.K. on the show, they talked about the shot from the final moments of the story, where Louie stands outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre and gleefully flips it off; even someone like C.K., who doesn't place much stock in showbiz tradition, wouldn't try something that aggressive if he didn't think Letterman liked him enough to take it in the spirit in which it was intended.

C.K. happens to have popped up in a couple of big Oscar movies this year — Blue Jasmine and American Hustle — so naturally, they came up in his latest appearance, leading to the question of how the roles have changed C.K.'s perspective on his career and his public notoriety. C.K. gives a thoughtful answer that kind of blows by the fact that he's actually about as beloved as it's possible for a famous entertainer to be, and the whole thing winds up exactly as it should.

I mean, honestly. A turquoise t-shirt under a black blazer? Going straight from here to your job at Aeropostale in 1988?