Charlie Rose Science Series
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10/18/1996
Jay Leno
An interview with The Tonight Show host Jay Leno
Keywords:
An interview with Jay Leno, host of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", about his relationship with fellow late night host David Letterman and his book, "Leading with My Chin", which chronicles Leno's early years of show business after leaving his hometown of Andover, Massachusetts.
DVD
Charlie Rose DVDs on Amazon.
Charlie Rose DVDs on Amazon.
Audio
Audio available through Audible.com.
Audio available through Audible.com.
Transcripts
Transcripts available through Voxant.
Transcripts available through Voxant.
I love Jay, but in terms of the late night talk shows in general, when it came to political humor, the jokes were really kind of pedestrian (ie. just not very good.) Same thing with most political jokes comics would do in the night clubs. Except for a few of them the political jokes just weren't very insightful or clever for that matter and THAT is why people weren't interested in political comedy. It wasn't about politics, we are all touched by it wether we like it or not, it was about the QUALITY of the jokes. Problem was as a comic you can't do good political humor if you aren't really interested in politics or clued in as to what is really going on. Bill Hicks, Jon Stewart and Bill Maher amongst others have proven that political humor can be HUGELY popular if it is done right, if its truthful and elucidates some bigger truth behind the headlines. That is an art, because not only do you need to be funny, but also politically astute. I am glad the days where all we had was cheap political humor with no depth to it is over.