Jay Leno isn't funny anymore...

[Blade]

all he does is poke fun at Clinton-just to get cheap laughter from the audience. Christ, Leno, get new material!

[Frances]

1. I think he's afraid

[Khephra]

2. He hasn't been funny since the days of him being a regular

guest on Letterman.

[Blade]

3. True...

the only reason I'm watching is because of the "Headlines" segment on Mondays. That's all that's funny.

[ironflange]

15. The best part of "Headlines"

is that they are funnier with the sound off. You don't have to listen to Leno's vapid comments.

[Ilsa]

21. I even gave up on that.

Waiting for the Headlines segment wasn't worth watching his monologue. That, and waiting for his reruns to be over during holidays and his summer vacation got me out of the habit of watching him on Mondays.

He isn't funny.

[Philostopher]

8. Just me -- I didn't think he was all that funny then, either.

He never bothered to write new jokes when he went on Letterman -- he'd do the same routine he'd done on other shows, practically word for word. He'd pull out that TV Guide (that was one of his big schticks back then, riffing on TV Guide) and Dave would roll his eyes. Sticks in my mind like at least once, Letterman called him on it.

[bpcmxr]

20. Amen, khephra.

Bill Hicks' Leno routine (on 'Rant In E-minor') pretty much sums it up for me.

[madfloridian]

4. Jon Stewart's show tonight just made fun of all of them.

I do not think he is funny when he does that. It is rather sad. I know he is not supposed to be partisan, but when I see him make fun of smiles and height it makes me angry.

Bush got a free ride as far as I watched tonight.

[whathappened]

5. you have notice this too

i use to think he had something inlife , now i would'nt change anything in my lfe to be rich like him , just for a few laughts , i like ahving laughts just like the next person , but this man is'nt funny to me anymore , give of johnney back , or turn the channel to dave

[Lisa0825]

6. he's been like that for years......

I loved Leno as a sub for Carson, but his style changed a lot when he took over. During/after Clinton, he really got worse. My mom (R.I.P.) HATED Leno for the way he bashes Clinton. She used to think Letterman was too strange, but she switched bc of Leno's bad attitude. The only times I have watched Leno recently were when I had heard ahead of time that a Dem candidate would be on.

[HEyHEY]

7. He hasn't ever been funny

And he looks like Brian Mulroney

http://imagescommerce.bcentral.com/merchantfiles/4868479/Mulroney,%20Brian0001.jpg
Mulroney


Leno

SEE!

[ironflange]

18. UGH!!!

Please note the sig line

[rumguy]

9. Leno gets worse and worse as time goes, but Letterman

is like a fine violin, he just gets better and better...

Letterman sticks it to Bush.

[eileen_d]

10. I haven't watched Leno in quite a while

But my Dad watches religiously, and oddly enough he always repeats jokes Leno makes at Bush's (or Gropinator's) expense. Maybe he just knows better than to repeat Clinton jokes to me. ;) However, it would take a hundred Lenos to match one Jon Stewart.

[tinrobot]

11. John Stewart...

...and Conan O'Brien, though I'm starting to get sick of Conan licking his eyebrows and growling like a cat.

I'll watch Letterman over Leno, but usually watch Charlie Rose instead.

Whaddya know - all my favorite late night shows are from New York.

[grannylib]

12. He never was; he is in bed with the Bushistas

[Marlie]

13. Don't forget who signs Leno's Big Paycheck

GE and we know who that giant corporation just loves.... any
Republican in office. Let's just say Jay knows where his bread is
buttered.

[FATNED]

14. I don't mind jokes about Clinton...

if they happen to be even remotely funny. I think comedy should take shots at everything and everybody -- I have few sacred cows. But good lord has Leno even once been funny about Clinton, Bush or anything? Letterman gleefully rips Dubya and I piss my pants but his jokes about Clinton used to make me laugh too. Note, "used to..." He very rarely tells them anymore, probably because CLINTON HASN'T BEEN OUR PRESIDENT FOR THREE YEARS! For Christ's sake Jay, let it go...

[HuckleB]

16. You mean he used to be funny?

I never knew.

[Blade]

17. Well....

you know what I mean.

[HuckleB]

27. It's just that you could have written the same thread starting post 10...

years ago, and been just as accurate.

[Nlighten1]

19. when was he funny?

Cause I guess I missed it.

[Kamika]

22. hehe no he sure aint

Most of the time I just go "this is't funny, it's just stupid..

[skypilot]

23. Anymore???

Was the prick EVER funny? I must have missed him that night. And what you describe in your post is EXACTLY what I've never found funny about him. He's been doing that tired Clinton-bashing schtick forever. Damned hack.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. If he keeps this up, Leno will turn into Lenny Bruce...

at the end of Bruce's career.

[bif]

25. When WAS he funny?

And how did he inherit the Tonight Show? that's what I'd like to know.

[Philostopher]

29. Just my theory, but ...

I think Carson was grooming Letterman for the takeover, and then Letterman got a show that succeeded on his own. So Carson moved on to Seinfeld, who ... yep, got a show that succeeded on his own. What to do? Two reasonably talented and definitely hard-working guys he chose to take over when he retired, and they both managed to go off on their own, after the attention they received as guest hosts on Tonight.

Oh, by the way -- he also had Joan Rivers in line, back in the '80s, but I think they had a falling out that didn't have anything to do with the show, so she was off the list, too.

So Carson decided to groom an unfunny hack who couldn't have succeeded on his own and that's how the Tonight Show ended up with Leno.

[The Walrus Was Rob]

30. Read "The Late Shift"

This is a very interesting read about the "late night wars" between Leno and Letterman and the backroom BS that goes on in network TV. Long story short: the PTB at NBC were always uncomfortable with Dave's style. Especially after GE bought the network and Letterman would makes his "pinhead GE executive" remarks. Leno was very affable and personable (if a bit aloof)in his dealings with the network. Basically, when he would be on the road doing comedy shows, Jay would always visit the local NBC affiliate and press the flesh (you can bet that Bill Cosby or Johnny Carson wouldn't walk into the NBC affiliate in Omaha) and volunteer to cut promos. All of which put him in good with NBC. Letterman would refuse to so stuff like that because he never wanted to be seen as someone who is an ass kisser. Because of Leno's "networking skills", he was the net's first choice to replace Carson.

Supposedly, Johnny was never consulted. Johnny liked Leno personally, but he would have preferred to have seen Dave get the gig. "The Late Shift" is a great read. Leno and his people (especially his former manager) are painted unflatteringly.

[Bertha Venation]

26. He's pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Jay Leno sucks. Cheap laughs, stupid sexual jokes, that's all he has. He's not funny.

I miss Johnny Carson: "Ronald Reagan doesn't dye his hair -- he bleaches his face."

[amandae]

28. He never was ... he kisses too much a$$ to be funny

it's not funny when he almost bends over backwards to be pc at times, and unoffensive (to certain people, that is). the only thing i do like about his show are the "headlines" and he doesn't write those.

maybe it's cause i'm an east coast girl, i dunno, but i've always preferred Letterman.

:hi:

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

31. jay's 'nice guy' image is a fraud, too

he got the tonight show by have a cut-throat manager like helen kushnik screw over dave's people (and carson as well)

then when the network decides they don't like her-leno fires her

he then hosts the tonight show and bombs against dave (until hugh grant)

then he steals a lot of letterman's bits (man on the street stuff) and dumbs his jokes down

nowdays, he's a vehicle for the latest weekly dennis miller GOP commercial (which he always cheers on)

and freed ad space for arnold and ca GOP

i'll always rember him acting like a total whore and gleefully slapping the desk when the gropinator announced-then denying equal time to davis or bustamante

then , of course, he emceed arnold's victory party

add to that , the fact that he is an avid hate radio fan and you have a pathetic rightwing, network-exec brownnosing piece of shit

god, i hate him