I’m sorry, I’ve not liked Jay Leno for quite awhile now. I’ve never found him to be particularly funny, his jokes mostly boil down to sexual references that any cheap comedian can get. His interview skills lack a lot, he never seems to connect with his guests and on occasion he makes them uncomfortable.
Let’s take poor Ryan Phillippe for instance, who appeared on Leno’s show last week. Immediately upon sitting down, Leno starts in on the fact that Phillippe played the first ever gay teenager on One Life To Live many years ago.
Up to par with his usual repertoire, Leno makes a few wisecracks, even a Brokeback Mountain reference. And then, to top it all off, he tell Ryan to pretend the camera is his boyfriend and to give it his GAYEST look.
Are you kidding me? It’s hard to imagine in this day and age that someone like Leno would do something like that and think it’s funny. It’s rude, insulting and made Phillippe visibly uncomfortable. So much so, he almost threatened to leave from the embarrassing topics.
It’s lit a firestorm that probably wont go away for awhile and who knows what kind of trouble Leno will get into. His comments led to a letter from Jeff Whitty, which led to another post which led to the beginnings of mygayestlook.com (NSFW).
All the photos on the site are basically people flipping off the camera, which is in essence supposed to be Jay Leno.
The sad thing is, the guy still leads in the ratings and it only proves to me that a lot of people like childish, immature humor compared to more intelligent and witty writing on other late night shows.
I still don’t know how a guy like Leno thinks this kind of thing is okay. He hasn’t commented on the issue at all yet, but we’ll see if he does.
What do you think? Is this crossing the line? Watch the video below.
I haven’t ever really liked Leno, but crossing the picket line and writing his own jokes pushed me over the edge with him. The day that Conan takes over his show cannot come fast enough.
Adam’s last blog post..Catch up on Battlestar Galactica
I’m with you Mike. He did cross the line with this. It will be interesting to see if he apologizes. Can’t understand why he leads in the ratings.
Steven’s last blog post..Top 100 Movies: Mars, Sir Anthony, and Mel
yeah, he sucks. i can’t believe there is not more of an outrage over this. it’s the same to me as being a blatant racist or sexist. (like the don imus deal.) just immature and ignorant.
nicky’s last blog post..Poisonous flower.
Seriously who watches this guy? I can’t believe they haven’t yanked him yet, he’s just not funny.
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I am looking forward to Conan O Brien to take over. Conan has this crazy ability to make his guests laugh, and therefore his audience. I like how he makes fun of himself at the same time and doesn’t take pride in embrassing his guests for nothing. Johnny Carson was the master of late night talk shows and I found him to be respectful of his guests, yet funny and full of wit, something J. Leno should have adopted. I have the same problem with David Letterman, who I find to be just mean to his guests. That is just not funny to me. There is a fine line between humor and embrassment. In this instance with Ryan Phillippe J Leno was just cras.
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Letterman is a great interviewer, much better than Leno, and I think he’s only been really “mean” to Paris Hilton.
Most of his guests love him, unlike Leno, so I disagree with yuo there Raven.
Agreed Mike, but did you ever seen the exchange between Letterman and Harvey Pekar of American Splendor fame (see the movie – it’s pretty good)? Pekar was being extremely difficult, but Letterman ends up making fun of his comic and calling him a dork. You have to see the movie to understand what started it all. Here it is:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iBr4NxujLvw
Steven’s last blog post..Top 100 Movies: Mars, Sir Anthony, and Mel
I’ve seen this before, and A) that was a super long time ago and B) Pekar was just as bad himself…
Letterman usually has fun with people like that, and they usually are with him…like with Richard Simmons, he constantly bags on him, but it’s all an act.
True, it was a super long time ago, but Pekar wasn’t just as bad. Letterman basically used him for laughs and when Pekar tried to call him out on it, Letterman got personal. I think Letterman is great, but he was out of line there.
Steven’s last blog post..Top 100 Movies: Mars, Sir Anthony, and Mel
Alright, well I’m sure every host has made a mistake out there.
But I just see Letterman as being much classier and a better interviewer than Leno…all Leno does is childish crap, and really looks awkward up there…Letterman is brilliant at times.
Anyways, I love Dave, so I’m biased
I’m not trying to disparage Dave at all, the clip is just relevant to the discussion. I am sure if you look over the career of anyone in television as long as Dave has been you’ll find some similar moments. Plus, I’m originally from Indiana, so I am technically required to love Dave
Steven’s last blog post..Top 100 Movies: Mars, Sir Anthony, and Mel