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I watched Jay Leno on Oprah yesterday. Apparently nothing is his fault. He's just an innocent victim of the horrible decision-making team behind NBC's late-night division. Poor guy.The truth is -- I don't give a crap. I don't care at all about the late-night drama. It's not Jay's responsibility to give Conan a job. He's just doing what any guy who only thinks of himself would do in this situation.
My problem with Jay Leno taking "The Tonight Show" back is that JAY LENO IS NOT FUNNY. I repeat, JAY LENO IS NOT FUNNY, and if you think he's funny then you have a horrible sense of humor. And so does your mother.
Why, NBC? Why are you doing this to us again? Anybody but Jay Leno! So Conan wasn't getting the ratings you wanted ... can't you find somebody who is funny?
IMHO, Jay Leno hasn't been funny since the last time shoulder pads were popular. "Oh, he was a funny stand-up ..." I hear from people all the time. He was, it's true, he wasn't a half-bad stand-up comic -- in the late '80s. But that doesn't give you carte blanche to shove your mediocre brand of brainless comedy in our faces after the news every night.
How did "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" get to be number one in late night? Who watches this show? Nobody I know. In my house it's a race to get to the remote to change the channel after the news, so that we don't have to hear the blaring horns of Jay's trumpeting house band.
Then people will say, "But what about Jaywalking? Now, THAT'S funny."
Really? What's funny about it? I can tell you it's not Jay. Jay does not put the funny in Jaywalking. Sometimes people other than Jay say funny things. Sometimes people other than Jay say colossally stupid things. But none of them have anything to do with Jay Leno or his writers. What does it say when the allegedly funniest sketch on the show relies on what people other than Jay say when confronted with a camera in a crosswalk? That is an utter outrage, people!
Where do you stand on this whole late-night fiasco? Do you love Jay Leno? Does your heart bleed for Conan? Or would you -- like me -- rather change the channel? I moderately care what you have to say on this topic, so tune in and pipe up.
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Friday 29 January
By turtlegirl76
I've never thought Jay was funny. Conan's show was 10 times better than Jay's. I never understood why more people watched Jay than David Letterman.
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Friday 29 January
By Rachel @ Shedding It
Oh my god, I could NOT agree more!!!! This whole time all this has been going on, that's all I can think!!! HE SUCKS!
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Friday 29 January
By Geri Greene
I'm thinkin' you need to adjust your set! Jay was NUMBER ONE clear up until NBC decided to GIVE the spot to Conan who has zero personality, not to mention that horrid hair. It would seem someone could make him presentable if they are going to thrust him in front of us - I say "us" but it's not me as I never watched him other than his first night and his last. He never caught my funny bone, and it may be just I had bonded with Jay, after FINALLY accepting that "JC" (Johnny Carson) was just not coming back.
NBC screwed up huge time. If Jay came off as not funny on Oprah, I think he is tired of being blamed for NBC moving his time slot, and then when Conan could not attract enough viewers and came crawling back to him, JAY gets blamed for Conan's lack of ratings.
I'd be tired of it too - but the network and the news have not done a good job of 'splaining the fiasco. NBC must be a horrid place to work - like that is headline news. They played Letterman against Leno some 14 years ago and that was a ratings ploy that left the world feeling pretty ugly about the whole situation.
I don't feel too badly for Conan. Most people get their series canceled and leave with the change in their pocket. O'Brien left with 32 MILLION $$$, and the one good thing I can say for him is he asked to have con$ideration for his $taff.
You can switch channels and watch Conan when he lands on Fox. I'm glad to have Jay back in HIS time slot - as it was never his request to be moved into competing with 289 cable shows that air at 9 Central time. Now he will be back where I can find him.
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Friday 29 January
By jb
What a dumb article. Of course Jay is funny and his Tonight show was the greatest! Conan is/was the worst show I've ever seen. I never watched the Tonight show after Jay left and Conan took over. Conan had the lamest jokes and acted so dumb. I welcome Jay back to the late night scene and say "good ridance" to Conan.
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Friday 29 January
By Erin
Jay's humor is for an older generation, using Conan was great because he could bring in a larger audience of young people. I swear I can't watch 5 minutes Leno, he could not be more unfunny if he made fun of deformed babies and kicked puppies.
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Friday 29 January
By C.J.
Geri Greene has just proven my point about Jay Leno fans having no sense of humor. Thanks for that Ger!
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Friday 29 January
By Von Riesling
He's kinda funny looking. That probably doesn't count.
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Friday 29 January
By Kristen Behrendt
I think the whole thing is so typical of Networks panicking because something isn't going EXACTLY the way they want it. 7 months?? Really? They hung in there with him for the first year of his show and the ratings were terrible. But it grew because they gave him the chance to let it become something great.
On the other hand, I don't think Conan was the right choice for that time slot. The 11:35 - 12:35 is for people who WANT pablum. They don't want to be challenged by real humor or anything that's slightly edgy. That's why Jaywalking is the funniest bit on the Jay Leno Tonight Show. It's as challenging as that audience wants to be at that hour. Then they can turn off the TV and sleep well knowing that asinine people still walk the streets of LA.
Conan will land on his feet and we who love him will follow him. Jay will do what Jay does until NBC decides otherwise.
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Friday 29 January
By Bonnie
I don't like Conan because I was working in coat check one night and not only did he NOT tip me but he didn't even say "Than you"
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Friday 29 January
By lacheraqui
agreed, CJ, right down to the bone.
in the hands of johnny carson, the tonight show exhibited a generous balance of wit, slapstick and gravitas...given those criteria, the torch should have been passed to letterman, who was the heir apparent. he had worked hard, and successfully, for years in his 12:30a NBC slot, with the clear intention of taking over 11:30 when johnny retired. but NBC opted to dumb it down, for fear that their audience would not follow dave's offbeat brand -- which was certainly closer to carson's than conan's was to leno's.
i was working for CBS when they made the offer to letterman and, while the ratings have been rocky at times, they've never looked back. the polarity between the letterman and leno audiences has become more pronounced over the years, and i attribute that, in large part, to the proliferation of crappy reality programming which, with rare exception, has funneled exceptionally mindless material into the brains of television audiences over the past decade.
i have much more to say on the subject, but i have to go back to looking for work.
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Friday 29 January
By Jerry Anderson
C.J. You are so right. I think we should start a Draft David Higgins movement. Now there is a funny guy!!
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Friday 29 January
By Crix Lee
I think Leno needs to give me lessons on how to give oral because he seems to be really, REALLY good at it.
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Friday 29 January
By Caitlin
I think it's a generational divide. Old people think Jay Leno is funny and they don't "get" Conan. I thought Conan was hilarious in his old spot, but I didn't really have any interest in watching him take over the Tonight Show. I'm sad he's out of NBC totally, but hey, that's just another excuse for me to watch Craig Ferguson!
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Friday 29 January
By Geri
I agree it must be a generational divide. However, Conan didn't get the audience, the ratings, or a promise of doing so. THAT is what networks demand - how they get paid by sponsors. There are entertainers who can entertain most ages and that did not seem to be the potential of this arrangement.
What I disagree about strongly is that Leno is somehow confused with demanding the spot back and being blamed for the reversal.
And my current fav in the late night mix is also Craig Ferguson. I don't think HE even knows where he is going at times - his fluidity plays to the audience in a manner I have not seen since a handful of comics made it to the big time!
Saturday 30 January
By Nancy
I've never thought Leno was funny. I refused to watch his prime time hour and resented that NBC took away an hour of drama TV for it. You forgot to mention his other supposedly hilarious bit....headlines and other clippings from newspapers around the country thing...just another example of something people loved that had nothing to do with Jay or his writers being funny.
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Saturday 30 January
By muffy
Jay Leno is a hopeless, no-talent meathook who only appeals to those with grey cooters, baggy elbows, and ossified prostates. If there is a single, solitary, sober, SANE motherfucker under the age of 65 who likes this guy, I'd certainly like to meet 'em. Or actually, to tell you the truth, no, I wouldn't. They'd probably just bore me to piss telling me all about their inability to digest lettuce and manage their own smells.
The talented, insightful, and oh, so delightful Ms. Arabia is absolutely correct in her assessment: Conan O'Brien is so clearly head and shoulders above Jay LeNO...and anybody who disagrees needs to pull their ancient head outta their ancient ass and get some taste. The people who like Jay LeNO are the exact same flaccid crowd who laugh like jackals on amyl-nitrate when they're listening to that watered-down cesspool of corny Midwestern mediocrity, A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. So unbelievably FECKLESS -- just like Jay himself.
ALL HAIL CONAN O'BRIEN! xoxo
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Saturday 30 January
By Edie
cheers
;)
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Saturday 30 January
By Garvito
You know what's funny?
Funny.
Mel Brooks: " Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."
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Saturday 30 January
By Apple
couldn't agree more. Jay Leno is not funny!! I don't get how anyone could enjoy watching him.
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Saturday 30 January
By Michael Staicer
Like assholes everyone has an opinion. As an "older person" I do think jay is pretty funny. However, the whole issue is ratings. Jay is correct and NBC screwed up. The reason why they have not been number one for years. CBS has a much better lineup of shows.
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