When Jay Leno was hosting the Tonight Show, he was always known as a “both sides” guy. He generally gave equal time to Democrats and Republicans, and politicians knew that Leno was never going to be a hard-hitting interview where they would have to be on the defensive. Leno’s monologues sometimes had political jokes, but again, he was an equal-opportunity comedian who made jokes about Dems and Republicans. A lot has changed since Leno was on network television, and the landscape of political comedy and late-night comedy has changed dramatically in the past decade especially. But Leno is out of touch with those changes, and so he blamed Stephen Colbert for Colbert’s own firing at CBS. This is one of the smarmiest interviews I’ve read in a minute.
Jay Leno is speaking out about the political landscape of late-night television, given the recent cancellation of The Late Show. In a July 27 interview with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, the comedian and former late-night host said, “I love political humor, don’t get me wrong, but what happens is people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other. I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture,” he added.
Leno, 75, hosted The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2009 and then again — after a messy, public handover-gone-wrong with Conan O’Brien — from 2010 to 2014. While there was plenty of political fodder during that time, he said he tried not to alienate viewers by going too far to one side or the other.
“Why shoot for half an audience? Why not try to get the whole? I like to bring people into the big picture. I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular group,” he said. “Or just don’t do it at all. I’m not saying you have to throw your support or whatever, but just do what’s funny.”
In fact, Leno said, he prided himself when angry feedback came from both sides of the aisle.
“It was fun to me when I got hate letters: ‘You and your Republican friends’ [or] ‘Well, I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy’… over the same joke,” he recalled. “I go, ‘Well, that’s good.’ That’s how you get a whole audience. [Nowadays], you have to be content with half the audience because you have to give your opinion.”
Leno’s criticism comes just over a week after Stephen Colbert made the shocking announcement that his No. 1-rated Late Show was being canceled after more than 30 years.
The greatest comedy myth is that there’s a certain kind of comedy which will be funny/palatable/apolitical enough for both sides. The greatest political myth is that both sides are equal, and both sides need to be lampooned/criticized/mocked in equal measure. “Yeah, so Trump-supporting assassins murdered Minnesota politicians, but let’s make a Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky joke!” Colbert tried to read the room AND listen to his conscience – he tried to speak for the people using his particular pulpit, and he tried to speak with both humor and honesty in a much crazier and much more dangerous political landscape. While I didn’t agree with some of Colbert’s political positions and jokes, I find Colbert a million times braver than Jay Leno.
Meanwhile, David Letterman also spoke out a few days during a YouTube discussion – he blasted the f–k out of CBS, called the cancellation of The Late Show “gutless” and “pure cowardice,” and absolutely stood up for Colbert. Letterman was always better than Leno. At everything, in every way.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid and screengrabs from The Late Show/CBS.
