Bring Back Jay Leno
If the networks really want to rescue late night talk shows from their doldrums, maybe they should look back to when the stars actually offered real diversity.
Someone on social media compiled a greatest hits from the Leno era of the Tonight Show, to which I’ve added some inventory of my own from my meme archives. (Though it should be said he could be just as tough on Republicans):
GOLDEN OLDIES FROM JAY:
"I was going to start off tonight with an Obama joke, but I don't want to get audited by the IRS."
On NSA surveillance: "We wanted a president who listens to all Americans -- now we have one."
On a new IRS commissioner: "He's called 'acting commissioner' because he has to act like the scandal doesn't involve the White House."
On closing the Guantanamo prison for terrorists: "If he really wants to close it, turn it into a government-funded solar power company. The doors will be shut in a month."
Concerning the Benghazi, Associated Press, and IRS scandals: "Remember in the old days when President Obama's biggest embarrassment was Joe Biden?"
On saying he didn't know about the IRS scandal: "He was too busy not knowing anything about Benghazi to not know anything about the IRS."
"The White House has a new slogan about Benghazi: Hope and change the subject."
"It's casual Friday, which means that at the White House, they're casually going through everybody's phone calls and records."
"It is not looking good for President Obama. Today his teleprompter took the fifth." [This could be updated today with “President Biden’s autopen took the fifth.”]
"Fox News has changed its slogan from 'Fair and Balanced' to 'See, I told you so!'"
On commencement address: "He told the young graduates their future is bright unless, of course, they want jobs."
On a Chicago man who set a record for riding a Ferris wheel: "The only other way to go around and around in a circle that many times is to read the official report on Benghazi."
On White House claims of ignorance on the scandals: "They took 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' out of the Pentagon and moved it into the White House."
Now the last and I think best..... "These White House scandals are not going away anytime soon. It's gotten so bad that people in Kenya are now saying he's 100 percent American."
Then there was the time he got a gag that I inspired (from the news reports that I would be the University of Colorado’s first self-identified conservative faculty member):
Even better bring back Carson using AI.
Leno was a far better stand up comic than he ever was as a late night TV host. His early appearances with Johnny Carson were classics. And nobody, but nobody, could hold a candle to Carson and Ed McMahon.