Jay Leno has a lot of fans in The Villages and one in the White House.
Leno — who plays two shows at the Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center on Wednesday — just got some tweet love from Donald Trump.
“Jay Leno points out that comedy (on the very boring late night shows) is totally one-sided. It’s tough when there’s only one topic,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “Actually, the one-sided hatred on these shows is incredible and for me, unwatchable. But remember, WE are number one.”
In his tweet, Trump incorrectly pointed out that Leno’s remarks were on “Fox and Friends.” Turns out, what sparked Trump’s tweet were remarks that Leno made Tuesday morning on NBC”s “The Today Show.”
Leno used to host “The Tonight Show,” but said he doesn’t miss it because: “it’s all very serious” and “everyone has to know your politics.”
Leno offered praise for the King of the “Tonight Show” – the late Johnny Carson.
“I’d like to see a bit of civility come back,” Leno said, adding that “people couldn’t figure out” if Carson was a Democrat or a Republican.
Carson, Leno said, joked about both political parties, and he added: “I used to get hate mail from both sides equally.”
Leno added that Trump has changed the nature of political comedy on late-night TV. The old presidential jokes no longer apply.
“I did it when, you know, Clinton was horny and Bush was dumb, and it was just a little easier,” Leno said.
Trump jokes go a little deeper, Leno told NBC. They are, “actually harder because the punch line of the joke used to be ‘That’s like the president with a porn star.’ Well, now the president is with a porn star. Where do you go with that? How do you get more outrageous than that?”
A late night host should be an equal-offensive political wiseguy, Leno believes because “that’s our job. People can kind of figure out your politics if they’re paying attention. So I just always put the joke first.”
Here is another Leno explanation:
Trump was not always a Leno fan. USA Today noted that in August and September 2013, Trump posted several tweets attacking the talk show host who was then leaving “The Tonight Show.”
“I’ve always defended @jayleno but he never defends me,” Trump tweeted. “He’s not a loyal person & I now understand why everybody dumped him. Jay sucks!”
Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday fired back at Trump on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
“What a snowflake,” Kimmel said, after he read Trump’s tweet on the air. “How about this: you stop being terrible, we’ll stop pointing it out.
“(Leno’s) right,” Kimmel added, “it’s harder now because Trump is dumb and horny at the same time, and so now we have to cover both things.
“I don’t want to talk about Donald Trump every night. None of us who host these shows do, but he gives us no choice. If he sat in the White House all day quietly working on things I would almost never mention him because it’s not interesting.
“But before 10 o’clock this morning: his former campaign chairman was sentenced to prison for the second time in a week. He called himself the most successful president in history, and he tweeted to let people know his wife hasn’t been replaced by a body double.
“I’m not supposed to mention that? Obama wore mom jeans one time we made jokes about it for six straight years.”
