“Letterman… he got his problems. We don’t get along too well.”

In the late 1980’s, the success of American Splendor earned Harvey Pekar a significant amount of fame. Hoping to capitalize on this, producers at Late Night with David Letterman invited Pekar to be a guest on the show. Pekar came out for his six minutes and verbally sparred with Letterman, the two men trading blows like boxers in a game. In a story about Letterman that would appear in Our Cancer Year, Pekar would write, “No sense in tryin’ t’ talk about anything substantial. All the guy wants t’ do is banter and get laughs. I gotta get in his face. Take his game away from him. Smother him from the start.”[1] Pekar understood why he was on the show and gave the producers exactly what they wanted.

Pekar was a hit. Audiences loved the way he and Letterman played off each other. “He was originally asked to appear because one of Letterman’s writers was a fan of American Splendor. He was asked to return, however, because on TV he comes across as, well, a dork, and unusually colorful and loud-mouthed dork at that.”[2] Pekar would go on to make six appearances on the show, with the animosity and dislike between him and Letterman seeming to grow and become less veiled each time. That wasn’t part of the act, though. The two truly disliked each other, or at least Harvey disliked David. Joyce Brabner once remarked that doing the show was “like spending time with an unpleasant relative who may someday leave you something.”[1]

It all came to a head on August 31, 1988. Harvey’s previous appearance on the show was controversial, to say the least. NBC was in the middle of a writer’s strike, with accusations of malfeasance being hurled at the General Electric Corporation, the owners of the network at the time. Pekar came out wearing a shirt that boldly stated, “On Strike Against NBC.” Pekar wanted to talk about it. Letterman didn’t. The interview ended and that was that. At least until Harvey’s next appearance.

Harvey came out and he and Letterman started their conversation. The show that night had apparently been somewhat lame. “The jokes were bad, Letterman was grumpy and out of sorts, the Stupid Human Tricks were more stupid and less funny than usual.”[2] The two made small talk for a moment and then the subject came back to writer’s strike, with Pekar accusing Letterman of being a corporate shill for GE.

Letterman uncharacteristically lost his composure, adamantly denying the accusation and the two men began arguing, with David calling Pekar a dork and insulting his comic before declaring that Pekar would never be on the show again. They abruptly went to commercial and then Pekar was gone. Pekar would later tell Roger Ebert that right after they went to the commercial break, Letterman leaned over and whispered, “You blew a good thing.”[3]

“Dave doesn’t do AIDS. Dave doesn’t do cancer.”

Despite being banned from the show, Harvey was invited back for a second chance. He had to decline initially since he was undergoing chemotherapy and was far too sick to appear. He did eventually manage to appear again one last time to promote Our Cancer Year, although he was told not to discuss the subject matter. After all, cancer isn’t funny. Instead they just bantered and insulted each other for a few minutes. “Jerk stuff.”[1]

References

[1] “Harvey Pekar vs David Letterman.” Duane Dudek, Tap Milwaukee. July 12, 2010

[2] “The Big Shill.” James Hynes, In These Times, September 21, 1988.

[3] “American Splendor.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, August 22, 2003.