Sept. 6, 2026

Comedy After 9/11: What Happened When the Laughing Stopped

Show Notes
Transcript

On September 17, 2001, David Letterman came back and didn't do a monologue. Jon Stewart came back the same night and cried on camera before becoming recognizably himself again. SNL came back September 29 with Lorne Michaels asking Rudy Giuliani if it was okay to be funny, and Giuliani delivering the best line of the night. Bill Maher said something true at the wrong moment and lost his show. Gilbert Gottfried made a 9/11 joke at the Friar's Club three weeks later, got booed, and pivoted into the Aristocrats and won the room back. Johnny Mac — a New Yorker who was there — traces how comedy came back after the attacks, what it cost the people who pushed too early, and what the whole episode tells you about what comedy is actually for.

What did David Letterman say when he came back after 9/11?"
– "What did Jon Stewart say on The Daily Show after 9/11?"
– "What was the SNL cold open after 9/11?"
– "Why was Bill Maher fired after 9/11?"
– "What did Gilbert Gottfried do at the Friar's Club after 9/11?"
– "When did late night shows come back after 9/11?"
– "What did Rudy Giuliani say on SNL after 9/11?"
– "How did comedy change after 9/11?"
– "What was the first 9/11 joke told by a comedian?"
– "Did the Comedy Cellar stay open after 9/11?"

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Calaroga Shark Media.

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Hey there, I'm Johnny Mac. Let me do some house

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cleaning before we dive in today. So on Saturdays, I've

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been doing these deep dives, and today's also a deep dive.

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And I'm aware today's not a Saturday, but the calendar

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forced my hand. Yesterday, I wanted to talk about the

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Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, and that was an episode

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yesterday that I feel came out pretty well. And today

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I want to talk about comedy after 9-11 because Friday

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is the 25th anniversary. And let me just table set

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before we get into it. I was in New York

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City that day. I was the assistant program director of

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WOR New York. Our offices were on 40th Street and Broadway,

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so I don't want to make it sound like it

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was across the street. But we had a large bay

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window in the main studio where the morning show was,

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and you could directly see the Twin Towers down there.

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And on that particular morning, I was editing some tape.

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It was about 8.50 something in the morning. And I

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noticed on the TV that there was a fire at

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the Twin Towers. I walked down the hall. The boss

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wasn't in yet. And I said, hey, let's keep the

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morning show on the air. The Twin Towers are on fire.

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I remember a couple of minutes later, George Meade, who

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was the helicopter pilot who did traffic reports, he was

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in studio that day. And he immediately said, I flew

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copters over the city for 25 years. It's crystal clear

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out there. There's no way you would accidentally crash into

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that building. And we know how the rest of the

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day went. I watched one of the towers fall with

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my own eyes while looking out the window. The other

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one I saw fall on TV. I was running the board,

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even though that wasn't my job anymore. But whoever was

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running the board that morning needed a bathroom break. So

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I jumped behind the board for 10 minutes. So all

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that growing up in New York City, dealing with the

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stress of that day. Having staffers who we had sent

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down to the World Trade Center. I'd had one co-worker, Mara,

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we had sent her down to cover. We didn't hear

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from her for like six hours. I happened to be

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in the lobby when she showed up and I gave

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her a hug and she looked at me like, and

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in modern times, I'd probably get in trouble with HR.

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She was like, what are you doing? And I'm like,

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I thought you were dead. So I share all that

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because it shapes everything about me. And the weeks after

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September 11th in New York City were unlike anything before

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or since. It was very disorienting. Everybody knew somebody who

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was in those buildings that day. Everybody knew somebody with

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a story of, oh, normally I would have been at

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work except I was sick or the train was delayed

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or I went to my parent-teacher meeting. Everybody knew a

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story like that. Everybody knew somebody. The late night shows

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went dark immediately. No Letterman, no Leno, no Conan. News

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coverage ran continuously for days. That was the time when

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we first got the tickers on the bottoms. I mean,

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what would you even do on a talk show that night?

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I'll tell you a story from the radio days. So

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I wound up in charge of the radio station all day,

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and I immediately gave the order. It just sounds like,

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you know, you know what I mean. I was in charge.

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And I said, OK, don't play any jingles. You know,

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the W.O.R. No jingles, no commercials. Keep the air stark.

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As the day went on, I even told people, don't

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even screen the calls. Just plop people down. This is

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just about raw emotion. Just let people talk. And that's

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what we did. And then my overnight producer comes in

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and I'm like, OK, I'm going to me and the

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daytime team, we're going to try and get a couple

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hours sleep because no one's going to get into the

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building tomorrow and we got to do this all again.

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So let me see if we all get four hours sleep.

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And she's like, yeah. And I booked these guys. They

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do like phony phone calls. And I was like, what

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are you? Are you insane?

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No.

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And I didn't let her do the guess. I'm like,

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just just take callers. Are you crazy? So, you know,

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how would you even do a late night talk show

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on September 11th in New York City, right? And I'm

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looking at the list. Letterman and Conan were in New York. Leno,

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I guess, was out in L.A. those days. You know,

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when there was a time, like, how is anything ever

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going to feel normal again? The first person back was

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David Letterman, September 17th, 2001, six days after the attacks.

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Broadcasting from the Ed Sullivan Theater, so about 10, 9

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or 10 blocks north of where I had been on

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September 11th. The city smelled like smoke, and oh yeah,

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every surface of the city had missing person flyers. Do

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you remember those? Have you seen this person? I mean,

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in those early days, we thought people were just missing,

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or they were somehow disoriented from the explosions, or they

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were going to somehow crawl out of the rubble. There

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were people lined up at the emergency rooms, just waiting

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for all the bodies to come in, and none of

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that happened. Nobody ever... You know, there was none of that.

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So you would see all these missing person flyers and

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it was just, oh, I can't even. So there's David

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Letterman and the band is there and Paul Schaefer's there.

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Letterman walks out. He doesn't do a monologue. He sits

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at his desk and talked. He talked about being confused

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about what to do. He talked about his son. He

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talked about the city.

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This is our first show on the air since New

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York and Washington were attacked. And I need to ask

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your patience and indulgence here because I want to say

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a few things. And believe me, sadly, I'm not going

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to be saying anything new. And in the past week,

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others have said what I will be saying here tonight

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far more eloquently than I'm equipped to do. But if

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we are going to continue to do shows... I just

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need to hear myself talk for a couple of minutes,

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and so that's what I'm going to do here. It's

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terribly sad here in New York City. We've lost 5,000

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fellow New Yorkers, and you can feel it. You can

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feel it. You can see it. It's terribly sad. Terribly,

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terribly sad. And watching all of this, I wasn't sure.

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That I should be doing a television show because for

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20 years we've been in the city making fun of everything,

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making fun of the city, making fun of my hair,

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making fun of Paul. So to come to this circumstance

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that is so desperately sad, and I don't trust my

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judgment in matters like this, but I'll tell you the

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reason that I am doing a show and the reason

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I am back to work is because of Mayor Giuliani.

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Uh.

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very early on after the attack and how strange does

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it uh... sound to invoke that phrase after the attack uh...

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mayor giuliani encouraged us and here lately implored us to

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to go back to our lives go on living uh...

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continue trying to make uh... new york city uh... the

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place that it should be twenty years we've been here

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in new york city we've worked closely with the police

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officers and and uh... firefighters And fortunately, most of us

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don't really have to think too much about what these

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men and women do on a daily basis. And the phrase,

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New York's finest and New York's bravest, did it mean

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anything to us personally, firsthand? Well, maybe, hopefully, but probably not.

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But boy, it means something now, doesn't it? They put

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themselves in harm's way to protect people like us. And

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the men and women from the firefighters and the police

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department who are lost, are going to be missed by

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this city for a very, very long time. And my

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hope for myself and everybody else, not only in New

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York but everywhere, is that we never, ever take these

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people for granted. Absolutely never take them for granted.

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David Letterman, whose whole persona was ironic distance, got emotional.

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Dan Rather came out as a guest. He cried on camera.

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the face of CBS News, crying on a comedy talk show.

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And that's what you did. You put two people in

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a room and you let the cameras run. Towards the

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end of the show, David Letterman said, if we're going

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to continue, we must be allowed to be funny again.

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He said it quietly, almost as a question. And the

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audience responded like it was the thing they'd been waiting

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to hear someone with authority say out loud. Not that

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everything was okay, not that the grief was over, that

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the laughing could come back without it being a betrayal

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that people had died. That permission, from a man who

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had spent 20 minutes being about as unfunny as ever been,

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was one of the more important things said in public

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in that specific week. Now, I don't know if you

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can hear it in my voice. The emotions are coming back.

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I'm going to take the break because I need to regroup.

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That same night, September 17th, 2001, Jon Stewart returned. That

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was the same night Letterman did. Letterman came back with grief.

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Jon Stewart was grief plus anger plus the beginning of

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the political argument that he would spend the next decade

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making on The Daily Show about media failure and institutional

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dishonesty and the gap between what the country was being

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told and what was actually happening. John talked about his

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view from his apartment and how he could still see

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the Statue of Liberty after the towers fell. He talked

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about what the towers had meant, what their absence meant.

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And then he made the argument that the view from

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his apartment told him that it was going to be okay,

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that the freedom that the towers represented had not been

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destroyed with the buildings. There was the show that existed

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before 9-11 and the show that existed after 9-11. Related,

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but different. Jon Stewart gave himself the permission to be

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serious about things that mattered. Saturday Night Live returned September 29, 2001,

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with a cold open. Lorne Michaels standing on stage with

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New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Time out there. The

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last 25 years have definitely changed Rudy Giuliani's legacy, but

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in 2001, he was a massively respected figure. Out of

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the Letterman clip I cut, Dave did about two minutes

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just praising Mayor Giuliani. In my old basement in Long Island,

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I had a framed photo of Giuliani at one of

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the funerals, and the guy went to every funeral and

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it was just such a striking photo. I probably still

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have it in the back. I don't have it hung

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up right now in the new house. But if we

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can separate the Giuliani in our mind in 2026 from

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the one in 2001, this is Lorne Michael standing on

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stage with the mayor of New York City, surrounded by

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police officers and firefighters. Lauren looked at Giuliani and asked,

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can we be funny? Giuliani said, why start now? The

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audience laughed. Paul Simon came out and sang the boxer.

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And we had begun the transition from before to after.

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The acknowledgement that the after was going to include comedy again.

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Bill Maher was on Politically Incorrect that same September 17th.

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A guest claimed that the hijackers were cowards. Bill Maher said,

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whatever else you could say about the hijackers, cowardly wasn't

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the right word. The timing was catastrophic. I even considered

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not even repeating this segment here 25 years later. FedEx

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and Sears pulled their advertising from the show immediately. Several

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ABC affiliates refused to air it. ABC canceled Politically Incorrect

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in 2002. Officially, ratings, but the timeline made the relationship

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to that comment hard to deny. Then there's Gilbert Gottfried.

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October 5th, 2001. It's three weeks and three days after

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the attacks. It's the Friars Club Roast a Few Hefner

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being held at the New York Hilton. Now, let me

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jump in again, because I'm sure you're picking up how

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raw this is for me. So as I set up

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the Gilbert thing, I'm like, let me pull the clip. Now,

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to pull clips, I do this five, six days a

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week on the podcast. I use a program called Audio Hijack.

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And what it does is it hijacks the sound card.

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So if I play something, say, off YouTube, it grabs

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the audio. It hijacks the audio. I do this every day. Today,

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in the middle of doing this episode, I saw the

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word hijack, and I'm having that emotional reaction that's coming

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out on the show today. Anyway, it's the roast of

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Hugh Hefner, and Gilbert Gottfried explained he wanted to discuss

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the elephant in the room, and here's the joke. The

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room booed him. Not politely.

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Booed him. In the way a room full of comedians

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boos someone who's gone somewhere the room isn't ready to go.

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Too soon? Too soon, 24 days after the attacks, in

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New York City, making a joke about flying planes into buildings.

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Too soon. Gilbert stood his ground and then pivoted. He

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started telling the aristocrats. And he kept going. And by

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the time he finished his version of the aristocrats, the

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room was laughing. It's textbook. Gilbert tested a line, found

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it too far for the room, and instead of retreating,

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he went a different direction in a way that gave

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the room permission to laugh without having to endorse the

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original joke. It's so disconnected from 9-11, laughing at the

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aristocrats doesn't feel like it's laughing at the attacks. It

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feels like laughing at something that exists in its own

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separate universe of comedy transgression that has nothing to do

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with what just happened. Gilbert found the room. As we

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went into the fall, there were also, that's when I

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was producing Joan Rivers' radio show, and that's when the

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anthrax was hitting New York. That was like October, if

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I'm remembering correctly. So we're not even done with 9-11,

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and now working in the media in New York City,

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opening the mail every day might get you killed. The

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comedy cellar stayed open. The performers working at the cellar

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were working through something, not necessarily material, but through the

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grief and trying to find jokes that still worked in

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the new world. Something had shifted. Some comedians addressed it

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from the stage, others avoided it entirely and did their

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regular material. That in itself was a statement. I remember

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it was weird at that time when people didn't want

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to talk about 9-11. The first wave of comedians to

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incorporate 9-11 material into their actual stand-up acts did so

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carefully and mostly through the side door. Not so much

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here's a 9-11 joke, but here's a joke about airport security,

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or here's a joke about the news. By the time

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Louis Black and David Cross and others were doing explicitly

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political stand-up about the war in Iraq, comedy had fully

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absorbed the event and was using it as subject matter

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rather than navigating around it. That brings us to this clip.

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I'll let Joe Rogan and Louis C.K. take it from here.

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Louis C.K. caught some grief for this upcoming joke.

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Giuliani, at one point in time, people thought he should

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be president.

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After the way he handled 9-11.

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That's right.

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Everybody's like, he's our leader.

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Yeah.

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And just because he walked down the street with a

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coffee and said, oh, boy, it's rough. That's basically what

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he did. He didn't stop 9-11. He didn't solve 9-11.

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He didn't save anybody. There was no one to save.

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That's the most up thing about that day is that

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there was no, you know, they had the hospitals were

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all ready and there was not like one. There was

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like nobody was injured.

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Were you living in New York City when that happened?

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Yeah, I was.

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I was not in the city. The day before on

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the 10th, I flew to L.A. to pitch a TV show. Wow.

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And my wife was pregnant. And we were living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn,

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which was right. I mean, it came out of our house.

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The towers were our view right out the door. And

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so she was there six months pregnant and whammo. And

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she called me. It was like 9 in the morning

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in L.A. Or earlier, I guess. It was like 6.

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And she called me and she was just bawling. And

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I was like, what's wrong? And she couldn't say anything.

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Partly I'm like, am I in trouble? And then she says,

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turn on the TV. And I saw these towers on

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fire and I was like, okay. It's nothing to do

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with home. This is a big, it's a world problem.

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Not a me problem. I'm pretty sure that's not my fault.

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No. No.

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Anyway, she handled it really well. Todd Barry, you know Todd, right?

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He called her. She's the one who told him what

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had happened. He woke up not understanding what was happening,

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and he was really scared, and called my ex-wife, and

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she calmed him down. She's a good person.

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Speaking of Todd Barry, I think this is actually the

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best 9-11 material that I've heard. I've always liked this one.

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You guys want to hear my favorite September 11th story?

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I know, that's probably not the way I should have

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phrased that. We'll rewind that one. Want to hear my

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most bizarre September 11th song? Is that better? I'm walking

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down the street. It's smoky, it's sad, it's awful. I

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see a guy I know a little bit coming towards me.

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He comes within a foot of me, looks up, and

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he goes... The new Mercury Rev album is out. Are

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you sure about that? Because I just watched the news,

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and I didn't see that.

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Comedy works around the edge of the thing, finds the

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angle that allows the room to breathe, and eventually, when

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the room's ready, looks at the thing itself. The room

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eventually did get ready, it always does. That's what comedy

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is for, and that Here's your comedy news for today.

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See you tomorrow.