As I’ve stated before, I can’t watch David Letterman due to the rage blackouts I suffer when I hear or see Paul Shaffer. But Letterman can still pull some ballsy moves: on last night’s show, he reacted to a death threat on an extremist Muslim message board by basing his monologue and Top Ten list around the threat (videos below).

And why not? It’s not like the poster, someone using the alias Umar al-Basrawi, knows anything about Letterman:

“Is there not among you a Sayyid Nosair al-Mairi … to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever?” Al-Basrawi wrote, referring to El Sayyid Nosair, convicted of the 1990 killing of Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane, and to Letterman, who is not Jewish. [LA Times]

Dude, David Letterman’s from Indiana. If there are any Jews in Indiana, they’re only there by accident. Hell, I’ve made more serious death threats online. Not that the FBI needs to look into that. Let’s just forget I ever brought this up.

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According to a group that tracks extremist websites, David Letterman has been targeted by an online jihadist group. From The Hollywood Reporter:

The CBS late-night host was threatened by a frequent online commenter who called on Muslims to kill Letterman after being upset that the on-air personality made a slashing motion across his neck while discussing the death of senior al-Qaida member Ilyas Kashmiri, the NY Daily News reports.

The poster, who goes by the name Umar al-Basrawi, reportedly wrote “Is there not amongst you a Sayyid Nosair al-Masri (may Allah release him) to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever. Just as Sayyid (may Allah release him) did with the Jew Kahane.”

Letterman is not of Jewish decent.

Ok. Three things:

1) If there’s one thing I hate, it’s a lazy jihadist. You couldn’t take 60 seconds and Google Letterman’s religion? Come on, guy.

2) The title of the page the THR story is on is “David Letterman Becomes A Jihadist Target,” but they shortened it for the web address to “david-letterman-becomes-a-jihadist.” Which, quite frankly, would be a MUCH bigger story.

3) I don’t see the point of threatening comedians like Letterman or the “South Park” guys. Don’t jihadists have much bigger fish to fry? I understand it’s not awesome to have jokes made at your expense, whether they be real or perceived, but I’ll never understand why you’d need to call for someone’s death over it. Then again, the word “extreme” is right there in “extremist,” so, you know, there’s that. Regardless, all the best to Dave.

Harrison Ford gave one of the strangest late-night interviews of 2010 with his spaced-out appearance on “Conan,” and now he’s taken the lead in 2011 with last night’s trip to Letterman’s couch. As the Cajun Boy noted at Uproxx, Ford is rumored to be one of the biggest stoners in Hollywood, and last night’s interview will do absolutely nothing to dispel that. Even after the oddity of the Conan appearance, it’s still jarring to see Han Solo/Indiana Jones/Jack Ryan on TV talking like James Franco.

The 15-minute interview is embedded below, and I watched the entire thing even though I have the attention span of a fruit fly. There’s so much to love: the spacey look on Ford’s face as he walks onstage, a surprisingly excellent series of Elizabeth Taylor jokes, Ford disparaging the Grand Canyon, his rambling introduction to the Cowboys & Aliens clip, and horseback riding. Yes, horseback riding (it’s what they called acting with Liz Taylor back in the day).

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James Whittemore, a 22-year-old aspiring actor, was arrested early Sunday morning after he concluded a drunken bender by smashing the glass doors and lobby of the Ed Sullivan Theater, the home of “The Late Show with David Letterman.” Stand by for hilarious reporting from the New York Daily News…

Whittemore, tore through the box-office and lobby of the historic Ed Sullivan Theater, shattering the front doors and upending trash cans, a source close to the investigation said.

Whittemore, of Harlem, apparently used only his feet to kick in the doors, police sources said.

I know that it’s a shame to do something like that to a historic old theater, but man… that sounds like a blast. When I was 22, one of my favorite things to do in the world was get drunk and break things. Game respect game.

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This week’s list takes a look at TV episodes that ventured outside of their shows’ established formats. In order to highlight originality, I specifically asked Josh to avoid common gimmicks like the “bottle episode.” And to keep things from getting too meta, we’re leaving “Community” off the list altogether, because its gimmick is using gimmicks so often that they’re no longer gimmicks. And now my head hurts. –Ed.

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