Defend The Indefensible: Jay Leno

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Oh, I remember it well. I was on team anybody who was grinding Jay Leno to powder, so I guess we disagree on his level of jerkiness.

Johnny Fever, Monday, 14 October 2019 02:39 (four years ago) link

I cannot recall anything Jay Leno has ever said or done that struck me as funny. His main talent would appear to be projecting a kind of ersatz geniality that superficially resembles good humor, but he never convinces me it is genuine or heartfelt, only that it is intended to appear genuine or heartfelt. That standard seems to be good enough for the host of a late night talk show, but imo late night talk shows resemble entertainment as much as near-beer resembles an alcoholic drink.

A is for (Aimless), Monday, 14 October 2019 03:33 (four years ago) link

Eh. Pre-internet and pre over saturation of the TV market, I totally understand the appeal of the format. Being awake late at night is lonely. Conan got me through some shit in my late teens.

Jay always seemed totally disingenuous to me. Ruthlessly driven dude and by all accounts a machine from the early stand up days and forward, but the mask never drops. He creeps me out.

circa1916, Monday, 14 October 2019 04:40 (four years ago) link

startling trivia: Jay has a grandfather (from Naples) who was born in 1857

Still?

Sam Weller, Monday, 14 October 2019 13:18 (four years ago) link

great-grandfather from what I see.

by the light of the burning Citroën, Monday, 14 October 2019 13:25 (four years ago) link

The fact that his mother is from Greenock is more startling to me.

Michael Oliver of Penge Wins £5 (Tom D.), Monday, 14 October 2019 13:28 (four years ago) link

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

Josefa, Monday, 14 October 2019 13:32 (four years ago) link

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)

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 14 October 2019 14:27 (four years ago) link

nine months pass...

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

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 6 August 2020 03:11 (three years ago) link

all of those were barely jokes

Wayne Grotski (symsymsym), Thursday, 6 August 2020 06:14 (three years ago) link

two years pass...

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.

Karl Malone, Monday, 14 November 2022 21:31 (one year ago) link

Conan was playing the long game

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 14 November 2022 21:32 (one year ago) link

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

Karl Malone, Monday, 14 November 2022 21:32 (one year ago) link

eight months pass...

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

pplains, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 03:16 (nine months ago) link

here's sumfin

New No-No Bettencourt (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 03:18 (nine months ago) link


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