When my daughter was born 22 years ago we were filling in her baby book. Headline in the newspaper the day she was born, what fads and novelties were in vogue, noted actors and such. I wrote down “Jay Leno, comedian” and Mr. Sali said, “why him, is anyone going to remember who Jay Leno is in the future”? :rolleyes:
After the OJ trial I never thought I would hear about Kardashians again. 
The headlines part of his show is the best part… and he (and his staff) doesn’t really have much to do with the writing of that. It’s the funny/stupid stuff others write…
And he dicked over Conan.
Whoa, WHOA, WHOA! Back that crap off, son. I and all my boomer friend loathe Leno. I’m pretty sure his audience is more likely to be boomer’s parents.
I’d say that’s the bulk of it, right there. I’ve never really taken any notice of either of them, finding them both thoroughly unamusing but overall harmless. But you don’t need to like Conan to think he got done dirty and to think poorly of everyone who took part in that. Of course, even at that I would still pretty much be “meh” about Jay except for one thing–his attempts to portray himself as someone who got the shaft just as much as Conan. I mean, really.
What a bizarre statement. Hated? Why hated? Why not just ignored?
I have an answer, of course.
So much of this discussion is a wonderful example of the psychology - or, better, psychopathology - of coolness. Cool is found in threads about a wide variety of cultural items, especially entertainment, so you can apply this wherever you find it.
Coolness has three dimensions.
- I am cool.
- You are not cool.
- I must force you to acknowledge how cool I am.
Notice how similar this is to expressions of religion.
- I am a believer.
- You are not a believer.
- I must marginalize/proselytize/persecute you the better to show my faith.
Coolness doesn’t have the force behind it of religion, but works in the same way. People who are not cool are mocked for their lack of coolness, their lack of belief.
What are old people in this scheme?
Atheists.
The difference between religion and coolness is that almost every old person loses belief in coolness. You realize how silly a concept it was, and how foolish you were to ever believe in it. Why do you have to like or dislike certain bands or clothing or places to eat or things to watch? Do whatever you like. It doesn’t matter. It really, really doesn’t matter. What you personally like is far more important.
You see where I’m going with this. When old people continue to watch the hated Leno it’s doing more than merely saying that the beliefs of the cool people aren’t important, or even that they are wrong. It’s that they’re saying that they’re foolish to have those beliefs in the first place. That’s as irritating as atheists saying that believers in religion are foolish just having that belief in God. (or god.) It destroys their whole worldview.
And lack of coolness is even worse! Because all old people are not cool. And that means you have no hope! You’re going to turn into your worst nightmare! Guaranteed!
Thank you, and don’t forget to tip your T.A.s.
:D:D:D AWESOME POST! AWESOME! Thank you for articulating the truth so very well! The older I get, the more “coolness” makes me want to puke. Cool? Sez WHO?
This is the real reason people hate Jay Leno.
http://tv.gawker.com/5531817/jay-leno-takes-shot-at-conan-obrien-and-for-the-first-time-his-fans
If you want to insult Conan, just do it like a man and point “team coco” out, and not put shit in the camera frame as some inside extra joke.
I wonder if Kirstie Alley would have a bit of a different opinion on this observation… 
I don’t hate the man, I just never found him entertaining. Especially those little videos where he goes out to show the world just how stupid people are. Oh haha someone thinks Benjamin Franklin was a president. That’s a good one.
Blah.
The only late night talk show host I really like is Craig Ferguson. He’s funny and silly and way amusing plus he’s just so endearing. Conan is fun and silly but he has these weird movements, he exaggerates these expressions that I guess some people enjoy. I do not.
I’m a young boomer, and can’t stand Leno. Mostly, he visibly tries too hard, and his material isn’t that great. When Carson was doing it, he was smooth and never broke a sweat, not even when he got pooped on by one of the animals. Jay, though, is the sort of guy who will put his arm around your shoulders, breathe beer into your face, and tell you the same stale joke he’s told you a hundred times before. Then he’ll poke you in the ribs to make sure that you understand that was a joke and you’re supposed to laugh. He can’t let a joke just fall flat, he keeps trying to make it funny, somehow. And he or his writers think that Photoshopping/altering videos is FUNNY. There’s more than enough funny material to be found in real life, one doesn’t need to alter things.
Of course, it’s been years since I’ve watched him, so maybe he’s changed. But I never saw the appeal of the guy in the first place.
Recently somebody on here crowing about how the Iron Man 2 stars were allegedly boycotting Leno. Guess that’s not true since he had Mickey Rourke on last week and Johannsen and Downey Jr. are on this week.
That’s actually pretty funny. I prefer Conan’s comedy, but there’s nothing wrong with a subtle jab. It’s comedy, people. It’s not for the easily offended.
Just as a reality check re comparisons Johnny Carson was not quite the God King of late night hosts his entire career. He had his time in the sun, but in his last few years he was actually pretty boring and disengaged, and as Exapno Mapcase said the show was being “phoned in”. As a comedy technician Leno is a better pure stand up comedian than Carson, Letterman, or Conan. Carson and Letterman were the best interviewers and Conan has the best skits and supporting cast for the comedy.
While there’s a lot of bitter feelings I (personally) don’t think Conan has/had the charisma or mass appeal to carry Late Night. It was doomed from the start. What I really don’t understand about the whole process was why, years in advance, NBC agreed to take out Leno, the popular star of it’s cash cow late night show just to hang on to someone who might be successful in the role. How passive did Leno have to be, and how aggressive did Conan have to be to let that insane deal ever be agreed to? It’s boggling.
It basically boils down to the people who actually felt shafted by Leno being very good about getting their version of the story out. And, of course, when you don’t find the guy funny (for the reasons given above), you want to believe bad things about him.
Every time I hear something about Leno, I remember that every other person in the business does the exact same thing. They all screw each other over. Jay’s just done a better job of covering it up. You think Dave wasn’t kicking himself for not trying the tactics Jay employed? Puh-lease. The guy is horribly mean ON THE AIR–how nice can he be in real life?
It’s just hard to feel bad for the guy being perceived as doing well. It’s easier to feel bad for the guy who got kicked out, or “cheated” out of a show.
And I’ll point this out: while I remember Carson being funny, every clip I’ve found online falls flat. I don’t see how it’s anything like Jay’s humor.
After saying this, I’m not pro-Jay. I do think Conan got the short end of the stick. I just don’t get why the hell I should care. This thing happens all the time in the Showbiz world, and nothing I do will stop it. I’m more mad about the people who keep bringing it up. I have no problems saying both sides are crap.
By all accounts I’ve heard and read, Jay Leno eats/sleeps/breathes/excreets/worships/wears/wraps himself in/is defined by/has no identity other than- being host of The Tonight Show far more than Carson ever did. He’s a workaholic to the point of the neurotic; like Peter Sellers, who would bring home his characters at the end of a day of shooting and speak in Clousseau or Dr. Strangelove accents to his wife and kids and never drop character in spite of their begging him to, Leno seems to be his job.
Example: when he first took the job Rosie O’Donnell was hired as his permanent guest host for whenever he took a vacation or off-day. (Keep in mind that unlike Carson, Leno has an active touring schedule.) O’Donnell was thrilled, but has held a grudge ever since because Leno told the producers “Nope- I don’t need a guest host, I don’t plan to take vacations or off-days, and I’ll only do my stand-up in the L.A. area or on weekends, and on the very few times I do miss a performance we’ll run repeats.” Like Letterman, Leno has never had a guest host one time on his program.
Leno has also said he never planned to step down. It was never his idea to quit at 60- it was the network’s. This is how he rationalizes taking back the job when it was offered- he never wanted to quit in the first place.
Taking the program away from him seemed to be like weaning an alcoholic overnight from his booze. He couldn’t cope, even with Tonight Show Lite that he was hosting, and when offered the chance to return if he’d had to wrestle Conan in a knife fight he probably would have because he couldn’t NOT do it. That show literally is his life.
He’s married but he has no kids, and while he has more money than he could ever spend, other than his cars he has really no interests or hobbies other than his career. He was jonesing when they took that away from him.
That said I can’t stand him; he’s annoying, he has the all the glibness and edgelessness of Bob Hope with none of the charm, I think he has the worst comic timing and delivery of anyone I’ve ever seen and his habit of repeating every punchline six times is surpassed only by Jimmy Fallon laughing in his SNL sketches or by Kevin Eubanks “Oh yeah Jay, Lawd lawd… oooh wee, yes!” (the man makes Ed McMahon look like Sir Thomas More when it comes to asskissing).
And I ultimately see it as Conan O’Brien, who I’m not crazy about but who’s certainly much funnier and more intelligent than Leno, got the shaft but he also got tens of millions of dollars to walk away. If that’s “getting screwed” then lube me up and call the fleet; it’s just not something I care about save as a sideshow.
Letterman did have guest hosts, when he went down with the bypass surgery. There wasn’t one specific host.
I also remember watching Late Show with Adam Sandler as host.
not sure if Leno had guest hosts during his time in the Tonight Show.
nitpick: Actually, Letterman has had guest hosts many times. Several years ago, when he had heart surgery, and again a few years later when he developed a bad case of shingles, he had many different guest hosts (Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn, Regis Philbin, etc.). I believe he’s even had guest hosts a few times since then. Granted, these were not ordinary situations, but he has definitely had guest hosts.
I don’t think people cared about Leno’s hypocrisy. Conan is actually funny, and he was the first network comedy personality to do a show that people under age 30 grew up with and enjoyed on its own merits rather than because their parents told them it was supposed to be entertaining. Jay simply isn’t funny. Yes, I know some middle-aged housewife in Iowa probably thinks he is, but she’s an idiot. The people who got into Conan when he was an unheralded, low-rated show that we watched during summer break from high school felt betrayed when he was dumped for this elderly hack who already had his years in the sun, simple as that.
OMG! That was *painful * to watch. Adam Sandler wasn’t even supposed to be the host. He was booked as a guest, but then Letterman had a sudden medical incident prior to taping so the producers asked Sandler to step in at the last minute. He was so awkward and did not know how to do the last night host thing. I mean, he’s a good comic actor, but that really showed how talk show hosting is a totally different skill.
Actually, Letterman was the talk show host for the under 30 set a decade before Conan. He was the cool, edgy talk show host for twenty-somethings like my dad who weren’t going to be into Carson’s Tonight Show like his parents were.