NEW YORK — If David Letterman were on the air now, he might offer this wry commentary about the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike: "Everyone in New York City is behind the writers. Today, I was walking through Central Park, and I saw a squirrel picketing his nuts."
That joke, by "Late Show With David Letterman" writer Bill Scheft, was instead posted on a blog created by 10 of the late-night program's writers, who are drawing on the humor they usually bring to their jobs to cope with the walkout.
Eric Stangel, who is co-head writer and a producer of the show, along with his older brother, Justin, launched LateShowWritersOnStrike.com recently as a creative outlet for the staff.
"This was a good chance for these guys to get their writing styles out there, communicate the message of the strike and also show how funny they are," he said.
Plus, "we're a bunch of guys who work 12 hours a day, all year round, and all of a sudden we have nothing to do," said Justin Stangel.
Since the bare-bones blog went up, the sardonic chronicle of life on the picket line has not only given the "Late Show" staff a platform, but it also has emerged as an effective guerrilla weapon in the public-relations battle between the union and the studios.
With a mixture of offbeat jokes and familiar Letterman bits (the unflappable Hello Deli owner Rupert Jee has video cameos), the writers offer up self-deprecating anecdotes about their strike experiences, peppered with jabs at their corporate adversaries. (One entry by Steve Young, "Talking to Children About the Writers' Strike," suggests assuring them: "The Writers Guild will always love you very, very much. The media companies would sell you to the Gypsies in a second if they thought it would boost their share price."
Quipped Young: "It's all the fun of working on the show, without the stress or the pay."
By the end of its second week, the site had logged more than 60,000 hits and had received fan e-mails from as far away as Australia and Germany. (The blog was even noted on an Israeli website, much to the amusement of the "Late Show" writers, who cross-posted the all-Hebrew entry on their own site.)
"It started as an outlet because we were going nuts from walking in a circle," said Scheft, a 16-year veteran of the show. "Then, with the firestorm of hits and the awareness, I think we realized there was a bit of responsibility that came with it.
