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Our Dave took up the challenge of talking to the American Dave this week, with Cameron wholly expected to be completely “PWNED” by David Letterman, the king of late night US talk shows. But he did OK. Not laugh out loud funny, but also not the amazing cringe-fest you might’ve expected.
Letterman’s interview started out with some questions about Wales, Northern Ireland and the usual queries you might expect an American who likes to play dumb to ask. Cameron fielded them well, without going red in the face at all or calling Letterman a pleb, doing a good job of breaking down the United Kingdom’s odd make-up to the US layman.
Cameron stumbled a bit when Letterman started asking him questions about who wrote the national anthem and what “Magna Carta” literally translates to, which has been pounced upon my the UK press as the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened to a man. But really, it was a small chunk of an interview in which Cameron did an adequate job of being the straight man to Letterman’s usual bewildered clown persona.
Due to the way no UK TV network has ever managed to make Letterman a success in the UK, despite decades of on/off scheduling, the full interview won’t be broadcast over here, but there are plenty of clips of the interview up on YouTube and the whole episode’s also on the torrent sites if you long to see a bit of Dave on Dave action. [YouTube]
we expected nothing less, he fails here too
global failure
Actually Letterman is quite popular in the US and some other countries like Japan.
Good write up Mr Cutlack! What with this and your Xperia T review, there might be a future for you writing yet.
I thought he did ok but I would be very surprised if he didn’t know the magna carta translation – there is a copy of it on display in the House of Commons. If he genuinely didn’t know then as sad as it may be, I imagine he is with the majority of the population on that.
Also I thought he didn’t know who wrote Rule Britannia rather than God Save the Queen….
I got lucky again. Letterman’s another one of my chosen specialist subjects, as I’ve been watching him goofing about for decades.
To be fair, I have no idea who wrote Rule Britannia, and have no idea what the literal translation of Magna Carta is (without looking it up) so its hardly a failure.
That said, why is he off doing this rubbish when he should be over here running the country.
1) Spice Girls?
2) Large piece of card?
3) He probably figures; “I’m no good in a flood, call the fire-brigade, insurance company and plumber in that order, PM can have a holiday”.
No! Forget all this trying to drum up support for UK businesses in the global markets and helping proliferate the rise in popularity of British brands and the British ‘brand’ in the US through an affable appearance on a very popular TV show. He is the PM, he should get his waders on and start helping to move sandbags dammit!!!
I agree, he went to Eton, closest he’ll come to a sandbag is some kind of weird private school ritual involving sand and his balls that I don’t want to think too much about just now.
However, I don’t think he’s the best person to endear people to think: “That bloke seems nice, I’m going to invest in his country”. Scottish Independence has never been so popular since his fat puss first started to appear on TV.
But this is the USA – they already think we’re all like that so it works fine. He fits their perceptions perfectly as did Blair and thus further endears us to them.
And as for the rise in popularity in Scottish Independence, that is just an added bonus.
But it would be the same with any Conservative PM – Scotland & Wales = dominated by anti-Cons MPs, England = dominated by Cons MPs – it has been that way for many a year and isn’t likely to change any time soon.
Fingers crossed about the Scottish independence eh!
Theres 1 Conservative MP in Scotland out of a possible 59 – why should Scotland be dominated by a party its people didnt actually vote for? The Scottish Parliament was introduced as a way to clip the wings of independence but its just a bit of a sad front really.
2014 – bring it on! Sadly, I wont’t be able to vote. I’m German.
Why should London be dominated by the votes of lots of MPs that we didn’t vote for? I think London should declare independence from the rest of the UK – everyone seems to hate it so much I’m sure they wouldn’t mind…
I quite like London. Just don’t like Londoners.
We had a meeting, there was a vote, you didn’t do well. London has a huge diversity of people and we don’t generalise in the way you seem to.
How is it different to when South East England was dominated by a Labour government for over a decade? At least Scotland has it’s own devolved government. Scotland has had a turn with a UK government that they did largely vote for. It’s not like the conservatives win every election.
Well, that escalated…
Psyk60 – that’s an argument FOR Scottish independence, right?
Doctor – don’t forget the MP London DID vote for… (that’d actually make a good poster, BoJo with Never Forget underneath).
Maybe every country in the UK should just have a proper devolved government. One step ahead of what is in Scotland just now.
Scotland has just got a deep rooted hatred of the Tories. Not because of the posh/public school thing etc, I don’t really think that has too much to do with it. The tories decimated central scotland in closing heavy industry (rightly or wrongly im not bothered im just stating a fact) in the 70s/80s where the most seats are. Even in the more affluent areas of Glasgow/Edinburgh their reach is still limited because of this. The Highlands is traditionally lib dem or SNP and the borders always seems to have a torie because of the farming/country pack.
Swings and roundabouts but still intersting!
The notion that the Tories decimated central scotland isn’t so much fact as perception because, as with many historical events there were many contributing factors of which the government were just one. But I certainly agree that that perception is largely the cause of the loss of cons support as it was in Wales.
I think independence will cause surprises on both sides of the border with the English not appreciating some of the corporate benefits of Scotland and the Scots not realising that the ‘North Sea oil money’ won’t exactly compensate for the loss of the additional central govt funding – you’re right it will certainly be interesting!!
Uhhh – he’s there because all the world’s leaders are at the UN general assembly meetings. The rest is all just filling in the time and making him seem busy…
I think he did alright, that’s not to say I agree with his policies, but it could have been worse! Imagine some of our previous prime ministers being interviewed by Letterman…
Grodon Brown would’ve stolen the show.
Oh God, I’m getting cold sweats just imagining it.
Boris Johnson should take over….Londoners owe him for ending Ken Livingstone’s political career!
If they did show it on freeview over here it could be Dave on Dave, on Dave.
Sorry, I’ll get me coat.
Dave on Dave, on Dave and if you miss it on Dave you can catch it on Dave+1. Or watch Dave on Dave, on Dave HD.
Nice one Dave!
Dave ja vu. That’s Dave +1. Yes, really.
He didn’t know what Magna Carta means? This must be why Michael Gove wants Latin to be on the curriculum of state schools then. Surely Dave Snooty’s been doing latin since nursey weaned him. I bet Boris knows what Magna Carta means.
From my school Latin, I figured it was ‘Great Document’. Turns out it’s ‘Great Charter’, but my guess would have been better than Dave’s. Perhaps he just didn’t want to take a guess on live TV..
As expected. He’s been a wealthy, bumbling, but well-connected twat his whole life who’s never really needed to know anything more than whose hand to shake. NB : it would also be a mistake to think he really does much in the running of the country. When the Tories are in power, all that gets handled by the 1922 Committee.
All I can say is I can’t remember the last time a British chat show host grilled a US President on history, on how “American” he is and on translations of old words.
I mean, George W Bush didn’t even have a clue what’s going on in the world NOW, never mind historical events. I think Cameron did well considering!
Fucking Letterman, thinking he’s above people with his pre-prepared questions, as if America is a great example of anything other than a poorly governed society full of obesity and poverty.
Typical for an American really, all they teach in schools is their own history, so they assume its the way everyone else does it to. Granted if anyone should know the translation for Magna Carta it’d be him, i’m sure his party generally consider it as the moment British politics went downhill.
But seriously, i’d be more interested in seeing just how many Americans know about foreign history. Or geography for that matter. I swear some of them still think they speak their own language instead of just murdering ours.