Stephen Colbert and the Late Show

Last night I watched Stephen Colbert's The Late Show and was appalled at what I saw and heard:  primitive jokes and inane conversation.  You may wonder why I tuned into a show that seems to appeal to inebriated high school students who watch while they eat their meatball subs and drink beer.  I did so last night because The New York Times said that author Karl Ove Knausgaard was going to be on. Knausgaard did not appear; instead they had Bryan Cranston talking about his new movie, Trumbo, as he and Colbert seemed to know nothing about the Hollywood Ten or even in what decade WW II took place!  So they quickly switched to more primitive humor, about looking at the stars and thinking about God, humor that would have been considered too primitive for Abbot and Costello!  Colbert seems as witless as they come and his musical guest, one Shamir, was as primitive musically as Colbert's "jokes" about Guinness and Mexican restaurants. 

I should have known that an intelligent writer such as the neurotic Knausgaard would not feel comfortable in this crude setting, which included a tour of New Orleans bars and streets with The Late Show's musical director, Jon Baptiste, which told us exactly nothing and included additional unfunny jokes. Whatever happened to intelligent discourse?  Even Johnny Carson had an opera singer on occasionally and Ed Sullivan had ballet dancers.  David Susskind had "Open End," where he would talk with writers and artists.  Perhaps I am an old fart, but it seems to me that the audience for these current late night shows (I also sat through Jimmy Fallon's show once) don't have enough intelligence to realize that their intelligence is being insulted!