Who’s making us laugh (or not) in this weird strike era

Strike or no strike, there’s one thing every late-night talk show host fears - the jaded star promoting a movie. You know, the preening, joyless type without much to say, whose sense of dignity is offended by frivolity and irreverence.

That’s what happened Monday on “The Late Show With David Letterman” when Katie Holmes put in an appearance to flog “Mad Money,” her new film. Holmes’ time on Letterman’s couch dragged, though I snapped to attention when she said that her daughter, Suri, who is not yet 2 years old, is allowed to go to bed at 11 p.m. What?

Even that strange admission didn’t perk things up. Letterman, himself the father of a 4-year-old, couldn’t hide behind parenting anecdotes forever. But the Holmes interview was typical of the host’s laconic encounters with puffed-up actors and actresses - glib promotional blather doesn’t really engage Letterman.

He got the name of Holmes’ first TV show wrong (possibly on purpose), and he repeatedly commented on how pretty she looked. Beyond that, both parties were clearly playing for time, and Holmes resorted to one-word replies when Letterman treated her A-list existence with anything less than reverence.

Contrast that with the most unpredictable and funny thing that happened on TV on Monday - and on a show with no writing staff (Letterman’s production company has reached an interim agreement with the striking Writers Guild of America). Like other shows whose writing staffs are on strike, Conan O’Brien can’t draw A-, B- or even C-list guests, most of whom don’t want to cross picket lines. But that night, anyway, O’Brien’s show was much more fun than Letterman’s, which has had its pick of top guests.

O’Brien’s interview with feisty sex expert Sue Johanson was almost as fun as last week’s nightly German Disco Light Show. The interview was clearly the longest 11 minutes of O’Brien’s life - Johanson was prickly, unpredictable and a little goofy, and O’Brien was a little wigged out by discussions of sex toys and bedroom games.

But as he does at his best - and as he’s done since he returned without writers on Jan. 2 - O’Brien turned the awkwardness to his advantage. “I blacked out for a minute,” O’Brien said at one point when his embarrassment became acute.

His sharp comic timing transformed his surprise and frustrated reactions into laugh-out-loud moments, and he gave Johanson as good as he got. He chided her for her abrupt dismissal of a famous adult film from the `70s.

“But they’ve remastered it,” O’Brien replied calmly. “It’s in high definition now.”

O’Brien’s interview segments have been, at times, the least fun part of his show (as his recent segment with a jittery Howie Mandel proved). Letterman’s interviews can also be sluggish, especially when he’s not really interested in his guest (though when he is engaged, he is a peerless eviscerator of pomposity). Letterman doesn’t try much when he figures it’s not really worth it. O’Brien, on the other hand, sometimes tries too hard when he’s afraid the interview will be a flop.

But O’Brien has been in excellent form since Jan. 2. He makes a nightly plea to get his writers back, as do most of the late-night hosts, but in the last couple of weeks, O’Brien has appeared to be having the time of his life. The German Disco Light Show has been a hit, and the same goes for his nightly attempt to make his wedding ring spin on his desk for more than 41 seconds. Monday night he rode a zipline down to the stage while wearing a helmet emitting smoke.

He’s game to try anything, as evidenced by his request that viewers help him improve that stunt (how about combining the German Disco and the zipline trip? Just a thought).

What’s enjoyable about O’Brien’s show is how at ease he is in the midst of chaos, but that’s no surprise to fans of his finest hour, his 2006 trip to Finland, which demonstrated his affinity for the surreal, unexpected moment.

Scripted banter with robotic celebrities, which is what will be expected of him when he takes over “The Tonight Show” next year, is not his strong suit. But the strike, despite its hardships, has put O’Brien in his element. He loves offbeat stunts and bits that go wrong and bizarre digressions. Everything that the current “Tonight Show,” in other words, avoids like the plague.

Though the strike itself is nobody’s idea of a good time, it must be noted that it has led to one of the few - if not the only - true moments to ever occur on the Leno-era “Tonight Show.” As Leno said when Jimmy Kimmel guested on Leno’s show, the lack of A-list guests meant that hosts “don’t have to see a lot of stupid movies and pretend they’re good.”

If you’ve ever wondered what Leno’s late-night philosophy is, he encapsulated it in that statement: It’s all just a hollow pretense to get the suckers in the TV audience to go see some lame Hollywood blockbuster.

The Leno-Kimmel swap was notable only for reinforcing Kimmel’s good-guy, Everyman image, and it demonstrated Leno’s rigid idea of what a good late-night show is all about.

“Don’t make me do all the work!” Leno said on Kimmel’s show in a mock-scolding of a hypothetical guest. But he didn’t appear to be joking. Leno derided guests who don’t arrive with prepackaged anecdotes. The horror of a host actually having to improvise!

I’m sure in his view, Leno, who supplied a few dutifully constructed “funny stories” on Kimmel’s program, saw himself as demonstrating perfect guest behavior. But the entire performance was as predictable, bland and colorless as the “Tonight Show” has been for the last decade and a half.

A PBS series that runs throughout January, “Pioneers of Television,” showed how different it all was a long, long time ago. In the `50s, late-night trailblazer Steve Allen and his cohorts would entertain TV audiences for two solid hours - all on the basis of a one-page outline of bits and skits. And they appeared to be having an inordinate amount of fun.

The removal of star-promotion machine has freed late-night hosts to try things that might be fun. Kimmel can spend even more time with his endless array of relatives and friends. O’Brien can spin his ring.

Leno, who never appeared to be having all that much fun anyway, continues his frantic attempts to entertain. But without the Hollywood-PR machinery, he’s spinning his wheels.

Of course, the cool kids of the late-night pack, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, have long disdained the Hollywood promotion machine. The hosts of “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” would much rather pick the brains of academics, authors and wonks such as Fareed Zakaria, the Newsweek International editor, than promote Kate Hudson’s latest romantic comedy. So the strike hasn’t changed those shows much when it comes to the interview segments.

As for the stuff that becomes before the interviews - well, Stewart is a very funny man. Anyone’s who’s seen him do standup knows that. But “The Daily Show” should be at the top of its game during this unexpectedly engrossing primary season. To make that happen, Stewart needs the feedback and creativity of a room crammed with fully caffeinated writers. Not all of Stewart’s jokes work, and he seems all too aware of that.

Stewart, more than any other host, doesn’t appear to be having much fun - he knows he needs his writing staff more than any other late-night host does. It must be a grind to come up with a new, politically sharp material four nights a week, and though he still gets in his share of zingers, at times, the strain shows.

Stewart can’t fall back on a litany of jokes about celebrity misbehavior - the “Daily Show” audience wouldn’t stand for that. And unlike Stephen Colbert, he can’t rely on an alternative blowhard persona that would allow him to spout outrageous and giggle-provoking theories and beliefs.

It’s strange that the two hosts who actually have writing staffs, Craig Ferguson and Letterman, have proved they don’t need them all that much. (Both “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and “The Late Show” are owned by Letterman’s company). Ferguson is more or less the same as he ever was - the chatty, self-deprecating, often charming party guest who sometimes yaks a little too much.

Letterman, meanwhile, made shaving his strike beard, a task that hardly required writers, into one of the most entertaining TV gags in recent memory. It proved once again that he’s the master of the casual riff. Like Oprah Winfrey, he makes the presentation of his TV persona appear effortless.

To see him and Tom Hanks, a game and funny recent guest, play off each other was to see two masters at work - two men who make entertaining us all at bedtime look like no work at all.

If only the world of late-night would stay this loose and unpredictable after the strike ends.