David Letterman unpacks bizarre Quentin Tarantino feud during delightful Desus & Mero interview
Aux Features TV
The legacy of late night collided with the format’s freshest faces in a cloud of smoke on Desus & Mero this week, when David Letterman linked up with the Bodega Boys for a sprawling, hilarious interview. Letterman, who reveals himself to be a big fan of the pair—“These guys, this is it. This is the future. This is the way it ought to be,” he recalls thinking when he first watched them—cycled through a number of topics across 33 minutes, from his Netflix series to losing awards to hot pepper-related hearing loss.
Most amusing, however, was an anecdote about a feud of sorts with Quentin Tarantino. “There was one guest on the show and her girlfriend was someone [Tarantino] was dating. A famous star,” he recounted. “And I was saying, ‘No, you’re not dating Quentin Tarantino.’ And she said, ‘Yes, yes I am.’ And I said, ‘Oh, please tell me this isn’t true.’” Letterman goes on to explain that, obviously, he was doing a bit: “I’m pretending that I’m stunned that this glorious movie star is dating this little squirrelly guy,” he explains.
Tarantino didn’t see the humor, however. A few days later, Letterman found himself on a call with the director. “He starts screaming at me, ‘I’m going to beat you to death, I’m going to kill you. I’m coming to New York and I’m going to beat the crap out of you. How can you say that about me?’…And on and on and on, like the guy is full-blown, clinically goofy.”
Tarantino did, however, return to the show some years later, only for Letterman to demand an apology. Tarantino reluctantly offered one, but didn’t want to turn the feud into content by discussing it on the show. “As we say in hip-hop, he didn’t want the smoke,” Desus cracked.
Without missing a beat, Letterman replied, “That’s what I said to him, ‘You don’t want the smoke.’”
Watch the full interview below. The Tarantino story, which contains even more bizarre layers, begins roughly six minutes in.
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75 Comments
As someone who listens to a lot of talk radio, Desus and Mero, on a purely technical level, are insanely good. Letterman’s spot-on calling them the future.
I’ve watched only a small amount, but found them sort of grating. Not particularly insightful and not particularly clever.
Totally agree. They’re great. And this is the single best thing Dave has done since he pulled the plug on late night television, hands down.
Tarantino dated Teri Garr?
Yes, you don’t remember? Their couple name was “Teri-Tino.”
I love their pizza rolls.
Gtfo. No! Noooo!!Its just too bizarre.
It now occurs to me that “Teri ‘n’ Tino” would have been better.
TBH both Tarantino and Letterman sound bad in this. Letterman’s ‘bit’ sounds like a hacky insult comic’s failed attempt at crowd work.“But you’re hot and he’s ugly,” is such a bad joke it’s not even really a joke; it’s just a lazy, unclever insult. Tarantino’s behavior speaks for itself but I’d expect better of Letterman.
Letterman’s later CBS years were mostly lazy. He seemed to be bored of the whole thing by the late 90s.
Not to mention pervy AF.
There is a lot of time to fill in and hackiness takes up some of it. I mean Dave was always doing the “hello nurse” thing and the “you’re dating that nerd?” thing…the real news is that QT took Dave being hacky sometimes so seriously. What better evidence that Dave hit a raw nerve, but seriously if Dermot Mulroney called you SCREAMING that he’s not Dylan McDermott then it’s pretty clear who has the problem: Derlan McMoney.
Not exactly shocking to hear that Tarantino acted like a 9th grader.
He’d be Weinstein if Weinstein hadn’t already been Weinstein.
I don’t mind him, but I also maintained if he ever put out one of his movies under a pseudonym, the critics who laud Tarantino would rip it to shreds.
Conan STILL busts out the “loser nerd being creepy to hot girls schtick,” and whether its him being the creepy one or him mocking “nerds” in general it just feels so fucking tired and out-dated at this point.
Funny how sometimes they’re like “I’m a nerd” and other times you can see that they really don’t think they are, I remember when Michael Cera said he would probably beat George Michael up…and then he played that part in This is the End. Also, like The Big Bang Theory, that schtick still works in Cleveland.
It’s an incredibly rude joke, and you can tell Letterman knows this because he lies in his own explanation of it: The premise isn’t that Tarantino is “little” or “squirrelly,” it’s that he’s ugly. I don’t think the joke justifies threats of violence, but if the same joke were made about a plain looking or overweight female director dating a handsome actor, I don’t think we’d see a story about how she “didn’t see the humor.”
Eh. May be slightly “both” but far, far from equally. The one actually threatening violence is automatically a thousand times more the asshole than the one making some cheap insults on their comedy show.
its a dang late-night comedic talk show. The entirety of the premise is shooting the sh*t, getting a rise out of someone, in jest. Its not supposed to be Shakespeare.
But QT is a virulent bigot and indeed squirrelly. Letterman is a comic. QT has to know that he wasn’t with that young hottie for his charm and good looks, lol!
Thanks for putting it in context; now I know what a real hacky statement from an idiot sounds like.
I’m still pretty sure Tarantino is a brand of little frozen pizza things.
The shitty ones that are buck on sale.
We prefer the BagelBite-inos.
Copied from a recipe in Hong Kong.
No that’s Totinos. You’re thinking of a hairy arachnid that often lives in burrowed out holes in the ground.
“There was one guest on the show and her girlfriend was someone [Tarantino] was dating. A famous star,” This confuses me. Letterman’s guest had a girlfriend. The guest’s girlfriend was also dating Tarantino?
I didn’t get it either. I’m guessing he just misspoke and meant to say she was the girlfriend, not that she had a girlfriend. Or maybe the guest and the girlfriend were both on the show, like in a walk-on appearance.
I’m guessing girlfriend as in a female friend and not female romantic partner. It’s like the difference between guy friend and boyfriend, but women don’t get a separate term.
Mira Sorvino?
Yep and it always struck me as an odd pairing, but then again Dax Shepard ended up with Kristen Bell so it happens.IIRC correctly because of their relationship Mira was able to get a Big Kahuna burger bag Easter Egged into Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, so there’s that.
And IIRC, Mira Sorvino only starred in “The Replacement Killers” because Tarantino was a huge Chow Yun Fat fan. So there’s that as well.
Are you really comparing the looks of Quentin Tarantino with Dax Shepherd?
Really stunning woman with a really not stunning guy. Also Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel. Though I will admit Quentin has a bit of a creepy vibe going on there as well.
That’s who I’m guessing.
Almost certainly. And Tarantino dated her during that period between Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown when he was behaving pretty badly, so what Letterman describes wouldn’t be surprising in that period.
Tarantino is only a good talk show guest if your talk show is about movies. His knowledge and enthusiasm for movies is remarkable.
I’ve just never seen a good interview with him talking about anything else. I guess they keep booking him because he’s a director with name recognition, though thankfully there’s more and more of them these days who actually can be interesting and entertaining without just talking about their chosen profession.
I suspect that’d apply to real life too. While I indeed am a big fan of his, outside of film he seems to be insufferable at best.
I’ve never seen an interview at all with him talking about anything else.
Yeah, it really doesn’t matter what your talk show is about, Tarantino will make it about movies. If you’re wise, you’ll go with the flow.
And don’t let him bring up digital film.
I think most interviewers know to only talk about movies, because anything else and he’s just boring or weird or both.
BREAKING: Kirk Douglas, icon and one of the few stars left from Hollywood’s Golden Age, has passed away at age 103. https://eonli.ne/2v6DAXe
He was too young.
“What’s that terrible restaurant we went to in LA and it had overpriced calamari? Hotel ma mo Hotel Monroe?”
“Chateau Marmont.”
That’s a good joke.
Mira Sorvino?
https://news.avclub.com/1841479343
Thanks! I’m the Mary and you’re the Rhoda!
We’re gonna make it after aaaaall…
I’m surprised Letterman is still putting himself out there with this whole #metoo thing.
Uhhhhh
He said he was sorry
We forgave Kobe a while ago, so Letterman is probably uncancelled, too.
Enlighten me.
Letterman was alleged to have engaged in workplace sexual harassment for decades.
Ah, right. “Alleged”.
Is there someone you think he molested without their consent, or are you just talking about his consensual affair…?
The feud was really over the fact that Norm MacDonald did terrible impersonations of both on Saturday Night Live.
What are you talking about, Norm’s impressions are always spot on. Have you never seen his Christopher Walken?
That beard is disturbing.
Why?
has Letterman been doing this for so long that he can absolutely school any interviewer, or are those hosts just really bad at their job?
“Clinically goofy” is a masterpiece David Letterman insult. Neither word on their own is offensive but when you put them together, just devastating.
Tarantino is a turd
just a public masturbating racist shitbag
Best guest appearance to date. I had no idea Letterman was that funny IRL. The guy must be a trip at parties.
Letterman was never anything but himself. I grew up in the same part of the country he is from and the number of old men with that beard and that biting insight/humor/cynisim/callingoutdumbshit who live on those damn farms is remarkable. It’s like a trait, mean old men and a jump shot that doesn’t involve jumping.
Wait does footage exist of Tarantino apologizing? Was that on the air?
Still miss him every night when there’s nothing on at 11:30. And then miss Ferguson if I stay up til 12:30.
The Letterman/Ferguson combo was really the last glory days of late night tv. Maybe forever. I like Colbert to a degree but Dave was the king. Corden doesn’t do anything for me. and forget about nbc and abc.
Agree with you on Letterman, but Seth Meyers is actually pretty good in the 12:30am slot. Not that I usually see him before the next morning….
We already know QT is a humorless prick.
We should just be glad it was Mira Sorvino and Uma Thurman, or there would be 90 seconds of Dave going “uuummmmmmmaaaaaaa” over and over again.
Letterman also gets major props for calling Bill O’Reilly a GOON – right to Bill’s face, punking O’Reilly out right there. O’Reilly likes intimidating smaller guys, but Letterman said it like he was absolutely ready to throw hands if O’Reilly “wanted that smoke!” That was a glorious exchange and Letterman put that virulently bigoted, disgraced fearmonger in check. Desus, that was a serious G-Check that O’Reilly cowered from!
Midnight and the kitties are sleeping