What does the Tonight show have to do with Politics?

[DonCoquixote]

Submitted for your approval:

Jay Leno: His ideas were edgy back in the 1990's, but have not really been funny for years. He has been coasting on his old reputation. He tries to act like he is Mr. Nice guy, but knows he got into his position by helping NBC shove Johnny Carson out. Now, he is relying on a contract to get his way, even though the very nature of that contract breaks a previous contract, as well as breaking a promise that when his time to hand the show over came, he would do it gracefully.

Jay Leno is the DLC: still relying on old material, still trying to play nice guy, all the while profiting form backstabbing and back door deals.

Conan O'Brien: Young and Talented, but still very awkward. He has a sharp wit, but does not seem to translate it into results. He can strike back, but very often, seems to want to try and play nice with the very bastards who are selling him down the river. He talks of ideals, like the Johnny Carson show, as if in complete denial that the Culture that produced Johnny Carson is no more. He actually does believe a lot of the old American myths of the 50's and 60's, myths that, whatever bit of truth they may have had at one point, really need to be moved past. As long as he thinks things can be resolved with kindness and meekness, he will be a pushover.

Conan of course, is Barack Obama.

As far as NBC, they are a bunch of cynical bastards who thought they could still make a lot of money while slashing programming budgets. They threw up a ton of jargon to hide the fact that what they were creating had little to no actual VALUE. They gutted established shows, because they so wanted to believe that they could run things on the cheap and rake in maximum profit. They quote contracts, but will break them the first chance they get. They pretend to offer opportunity, but, cross them, and they will bury you. Just like NBC is trying to force Conan to be unable to even find a job on his own for three years.

Take your pick, NBC = Congress or Wall Street, either fits.

[fishwax]

1. I don't think Leno was edgy in the 90s

I don't really think Conan is any funnier, either.

But I agree about the NBC execs. They've been obnoxious idiots throughout this mess, making stupid business decisions going back to the decision to force Leno out 5 years ago when they guaranteed Conan the TS chair in his contract. They don't deserve the huge ratings boost they've been getting from this whole silly affair.

[DonCoquixote]

2. Correct

Which of course leads to another political analogy. On paper, this should be a disaster for NBC, but in the modern culture, there is no such thing as bad publicity. To this day, there are people who say the whole "New Coke" thing was a scam, because ever since, Coke has remained the number one brand, due in part to all the publicity. This is not about news, it's about fake events meant to masquerade as news so that we do not realize we have been played as pawns all along.

[Odin2005]

3. Conan is WAY better than Leno.

Fuck Leno!