Wag the Chin

Every weekday, I drive to work and I hear on the radio a selection of jokes from the previous night’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno monologue.

I gotta say that, based on these daily comedy bits, there are some comedy writers out in LA who are making some pretty easy coin.

In terms of quality of content, I kinda equate The Tonight Show with the Air Farce: both are shows designed to appeal to The Greatest Common Denominator and/or grandmothers. Very safe comedy. Read: boring. It’s greatest sin is that it tries to trick us into thinking it’s comedy-on-the-edge. The sad thing is that so many people fall for the trick. It’s not on-the-edge. It’s repetitive and simple and mean. I like comedy that’s mean, but to me, mean comedy must also be smart. Jay Leno jokes are not smart.

3 Comments

  1. Cyn's avatar Cyn says:

    I couldn’t agree more Rob.
    I’ve been a bit addicted to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart lately. I love Stephen Colbert, even if he looks like Gus Hillstrom.

    Check this link out:
    This Week In God

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  2. Nils Ling's avatar Nils Ling says:

    Someone once described “Air Farce” to me as “Old white men telling penis jokes”. I thought that was a bit simplistic. But since then, any time I have turned on the show (or, more accurately, landed on it briefly during a video lap) it has taken less than 15 seconds for some form of Benny Hill grade penis/Viagra/erection/impotence joke to appear. Seriously. Time it. It’s uncanny. And hideously, cringingly un-funny.

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