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The Smoking Gun has obtained an e-mail circulated by picket-line-crossing late-night talk show host Carson Daly, in which he personally petitions friends, family, and co-workers to call in to a "joke hotline," on which they can contribute some pro bono comic material for him to play on the air.

In case the missive left its recipients scratching their heads, Daly then goes to the trouble of scripting out a sample message that might have come from his own father, which we've reproduced above. While Daly's innovative approach to filling up the monologue portion of his show has an almost heartwarming, Amish-barn-raising quality to it, we can't say we approve of a tactic that involves turning friends and relatives hoping to lend a hand into unwitting scabs, leaving them susceptible to nighttime devourings by hungry, striking horror writers.