My favorite late nighter

I caught Craig Ferguson on Bill Maher's Real Time on HBO on Friday night, and I was somewhat impressed that he's intelligent without being an idiot. Being an intelligent idiot myself, I feel I'm qualified to make that assessment.

Anyway, Maher usually has a comedian on in the chair next to him, and when it's DL Hughley I know we're going to get the same ol' same ol', and when it's Larry Miller you know you're going to get meandering and preachy palaver that makes you want to change the channel post haste! I like both of those comedian examples, but they are just plain no good in the panel format (which may be why DL's show didn't go for too long).

Craig, on the other hand, has that immigrant perspective, and he's lived life-- sometimes not for the best, but he doesn't pull too many punches from what I've seen, so he comes off to me as "real." Hearing him without the BLEEP of broadcast tv was also sort of cool, because he didn't go crazy, he just sounded like a normal Scottish guy having a laugh.

His Monday night show was one of a few he's done now and then where he blows off the monologue for something much more thoughtful, and once again he hand-delivers a decent message that still managed to make some people laugh even though it wasn't intentional (or didn't seem so). Personally, I think Jay Leno is the worst when it comes to this, and Conan isn't much better, and Letterman is right in there as well-- cheap, easy shots at the latest celebrity meltdown or divorce or whatever are throw-aways. If Craig really does "re-adjust" his aim, then I for one applaud him for taking a more intelligent-- and probably even funnier-- road.

Add to that his 15 years of sobriety as of Feb 18, and you've got a good guy. I'm watching.