The universe is just in a giving mood toward Jay Leno this week. Yesterday, it dropped off a month’s worth of Rod Blagojevich jokes in his driveway, and that wasn’t even the lead-off of his monologue. Entering the Tonight Show stage to a high-fiving audience, Leno told his stagehands, “Leave those boxes! I’m not going anywhere!”
Addressing his upcoming move to 10 p.m., Leno told the audience that people were shocked, not that he was moving to primetime, “but that NBC still had a primetime.” Ba-dum-dum! Leno repeated several other jokes at his bosses’ expense that he he trotted out in yesterday’s press conference, assuring that, if his show can’t save NBC, it will at least provide running commentary on the network’s downfall.
David Letterman, meanwhile, welcomed his audience to The Late Show—”still at 11:35″—then moved right on to the Regis and Sarah Palin gags. [Later, he aired a CBS “special programming announcement” that Dave would also be getting an earlier time slot: 4 a.m., right after the infomercial for the Slanket, “the first blanket with sleeves!”]
And Conan O’Brien? He couldn’t be happier. Under the circumstances.
Then it was Blagojevich jokes all around for everyone! Which sends a positive message to me and all my surname-ically challenged fellow Slavs out there. Screw up bad enough, and they’ll have to learn how to pronounce your name right!