Defend The Indefensible: Jay Leno

Patton Oswalt likes to swear up and down that Leno was the most talented comic of his generation before he sold out.

i like patton oswalt, and i've heard him say that. but i just can't believe it. leno hasn't been funny in so long i can't imagine a time where he was. you remember him in that horrendous action movie (maybe mid-80s)? we're talking about a long period of lameness.

The only old old Leno footage I've seen is from tv, so I don't know what his club act was like in the early years, but I can't imagine he was ever that terribly funny. The only difference I could think of is that he used to be a single poor guy and now he's a wealthy married guy.

yeah. his delivery is hamfisted and terrible. i can't see how "selling-out" changes that one way or the other.

the fact that his joeks are lame doesn't help his delivery, tho, i must admit.

a father of some guys i went to college with was one of leno's writers. i met him once. he was about as corny as leno. it's not like they've got a hot staff of hilarious writers being kept down by leno. this is the aesthetic they are purposely cultivating. (lots of dad jokes)

I linked this upthread but what the hey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbwZs1gTkQc

1978!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfUVxIUkmA0

2:19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7f8Di_YlzI

1975!

Get down tonight.

that 1975 routine is painfully unfunny.

Myth: busted

people always talk about his legendary appearances on Letterman, and every time I watch them it's boring Reiserish material.

letterman was bad, but leno's first appearance on the tonight show was wretched.

steve martin and garry shandling seemed funny, tho.

predictably, eddie murphy was the funniest by far.

Shandling's act has always been gold

Patton is a liar

i had no idea he was going down the gangplank this week. how long before some AARP network can slot him vs Fallon?

So is there like a lost Leno standup deep cut video somewhere on the internet that is funny or something?

Or is that the one video artifact that will never appear on the internet?

As far as the defenders go, Patton was like 20 at best when he "sold out," right? Could definitely be a "dude made me laugh SO HARD when I was in middle school...now he sucks!"

A super-funny early Jay Leno just sounds like the ultimate comedian hipster myth or something.

I thought his sitdown segments on Letterman shows about 30 years ago were amusing (the ones above that've been pulled off YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb7NkqvL0iw

"there's zesty onions" *shakes doritos bag while straightening tie*

1987

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4guJZcwAXT4

an '86 "belts through his stand-up routine while letterman laughs" couch appearance, with a rather ironic bit where he mocks Lorne Greene for doing Alpo ads for 15 years. "How many Mercedes can the guy drive, huh?"

http://img2-2.timeinc.net/ew/covergallery/img/1992/apr171992_114_lg.jpg

they all laughed - but who's laughing now?

i'm pretty sure croup used some Leno jokes on me at the end of that Mekons show 3 years ago

tmi

weird to name-drop me when i'm right here

ok, i'm going up the fire ladder like Dennis Miller

he's not very funny but he's crying on tv right now and talking about how other people made him look smarter than he is and how his family died

Dude gave a shout out to unions, so points for that.

i can't get past his outfit in that last video

his family died?

Yeah in his farewell he was like "my mom died, then my dad died, then my brother died...my whole family died" and he was crying and that was kinda sad to watch. Then Garth Brooks played and it was pretty bad.

He shouldn't have played "Papa Loved Mama" at that particular moment.

This gyu is som funnt!

how long before some AARP network can slot him

NBC still owns him through September, but the word is that he's going to do something on CNN. So Morbs otm.

Dude gave a shout out to unions, so points for that.

― da croupier, Friday, February 7, 2014 3:33 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

During the 1997 UPS strike he had Teamsters on practically every night, usually clumsily shoehorned into a comedy bit, but it was probably the most high-profile support they got from anyone in showbiz (or the media, for that matter).

The old Letterman bits still hold up for me, and when I was 12-13 they were hyperventilatingly hilarious. But from the first moments of his first guest-hosting gig for Carson, the crankiness and spontaneity were gone for good.

I don't think I've watched Leno since those Doritos commercials and the night Dad brought this home:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw9flncMR71qz8ui7o1_400.jpg

When Billy Crystal brought out that somewhat arbitrary parade of stars, I figured he'd included Oprah just to spite Letterman.

It was eerie how most of the tributes felt purely dutiful and devoid of enthusiasm.

Even Crystal ended his speech (which included proud memories of racial profiling and lorena bobbitt jokes - or subtle digs posing as proud memories) with something like "I promised to be the last guest. Promise kept."

The Martha Stewart one was just weird and gross.

Main last-show interview:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jay-leno-depth-post-tonight-674139

As startling/touching as his tears at the end were, the sentiment was undercut by the sense that he was trying to give a mea culpa for the ugliness of this kazillionaire clinging to his old job even after they gave it to a deserving successor (that NBC was his "family" after his own died, and that he couldn't be expected to start a new one elsewhere). Throughout the awkwardness of acknowledging the Conan period/pretending it didn't happen could be felt.

from that hollywood reporter interview: Johnny was 66 when he left. This always felt about the right age. The last time I got canned I said that it didn't really seem natural at 57 to be leaving, but 63, 64 feels about right.

actually, he said ON TV that the only person who should be hosting late night after 60 is Johnny.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6d1caacad1/jay-s-2004-announcement?rel=player

Did I miss something, no more Jay Leno on late night television?

felt very odd to wake up this morning to a world without laughter

Did I miss something, no more Jay Leno on late night television?

Thursday night's show was Jay's final Tonight Show for NBC. He may wind up elsewhere, but Jimmy Fallon takes over on the 17th.

That took forever! Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll have a car show or just stay off tv and play with his cars.

Hardly saw him at all in the last 15 years, but around 2003 he did a monologue joke on the theory that the US would divide Iraq into 3 sectors: "regular, premium, and unleaded." I though that was pretty good for Jay Leno.

i wish the guy would let somebody do a documenatary on him. like in that interview when he's all "Dave says i'm insecure? how am i insecure?" Gee, Jay, keeping a "work two jobs, keep half the paychecks in the bank" mentality when both jobs get you millions a year? Hanging around a network that has always shown disdain for you despite big ratings because you're afraid to try another?

Flu Reviews (what I watched while sick)
COLLISION COURSE: Pat Morita and Jay Leno team up for one of the most anti-Asian racist romps since the 1940s. Leno plays a wisecracking Detroit detective who jabs Morita with endless references to Benihana, Godzilla, Honda, sushi, etc. pic.twitter.com/SHxnIy15lk

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) November 10, 2018

Could've sworn he said regular grandfather since he was making a point about men in his family having kids late in life, but if not I stand corrected

That's the thing--he was new and very much a third-party, and he decided to push himself right into the middle of everything. Someone else might see this differently, but he was invited onto Leno's failed show as a peace offering (and, true, a little self-serving manipulation by Leno), and Kimmel completely ambushed him.

― clemenza, Sunday, October 13, 2019 5:20 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Jay wanted a chummy "welp, gee-whiz, we're all in this wacky show business together! Whaddya gonna do?" segment -- because taking back a show you left on your own terms (as he claimed at the time) because your new show is tanking is just how showbiz goes! -- and Kimmel wasn't entirely a third-party:

According to Kimmel, Leno had some years prior been in serious discussions with ABC about the possibility of jumping ship from NBC. During this period, Leno initiated a friendship with Kimmel, wanting to ensure that they would be on good terms if the move was made. (Under that scenario, Leno would have taken Kimmel's time slot and become his lead-in.) However, after Leno made the arrangement to remain at NBC, "those conversations were gone," according to Kimmel. Realizing that Leno's relationship with him had been artificial, Kimmel felt "worked over," reasoning that Leno was using the ABC discussions as a bargaining tactic to try to get his old job back.[166]

What reason could Kimmel possibly have for going along with a smug, smirky, shruggy-ass bullshit comedy bit like that?

(fwiw, I never liked Kimmel, nor ever found him the least bit funny, but compared to Leno, he's Richard Pryor)

Remember when?

Movie characters watching Jay Leno talk about what is happening in the movie pic.twitter.com/fWpOeOLSm5

— Buck LePard (@BuckLePard) August 5, 2020

all of those were barely jokes

https://news.sky.com/story/jay-leno-seriously-burned-after-his-car-bursts-into-flames-12747744

just to get to the main thing i want to know and i'm assuming others want to know

"I got some serious burns from a gasoline fire. I am OK. Just need a week or two to get back on my feet," he said in a statement to Sky News partner, NBC News.

Conan was playing the long game

wonder which of his cars caught on fire. i feel like with the way every disaster is converging on one thing right now it should be a tesla

https://i.imgur.com/IH5PinF.jpg

here's sumfin