I didn't know you, Jay Leno, and a monkey were bathing a clown!

bethje and I watched the Simpsons episode "The Last Temptation of Krust" with commentary last night. Jay Leno was a special guest commentator, which wasn't cool, since I'm no kind of fan of his. From what little of his show I've seen (mostly from when Beth, who really doesn't like him, forces me to watch it), he seems to be the kind of guy who tries really hard to play it safe with his jokes, yet often comes across as more offensive than comedians who actually share a controversial opinion every once in a while. I remember when I saw him on Oprah (truly a match made in Middle America, there), and he mentioned how he wouldn't make jokes about his wife, but he would about women in general. It seems to me that the opposite actually makes more sense. I mean, if you know someone well, you're going to know what will and won't bother them (and if you don't, you can always, y'know, ASK), while stereotyping an entire gender might well offend someone. But the bigger problem with Leno might actually be laziness. I mean, sure, "Headlines" is sometimes funny, but that's because of the humor in the headlines themselves, not any actual effort on the part of Jay or his writers. Oh, and the guy still makes O.J. Simpson jokes, without any discernible hint of irony.

I don't remember liking that particular Simpsons episode that much anyway. It's been a while since I've seen it (without commentary, anyway), but I remember Krusty's "telling it like it is" humor being neither good enough to be funny on its own nor bad enough to be satirically effective. I guess it's kind of difficult to write a sitcom episode actually about comedy, though. After all, the comedy there generally comes out of...well, the situations. {g}