Jimmy Fallon Hoping For That Greg Gutfeld Bump
Another episode worth missing.
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld will make his first appearance Thursday on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Yes, this is as desperate as it seems. The Tonight Show is dead last in the ratings after The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live! (it’s not in fact live). However, the ratings for Gutfeld! are growing steadily. He’s the toxic nightcap after three hours of Fox News propaganda. He also has no other real direct competition in pro-MAGA content at 10 p.m.
Gutfeld is deliberately offensive, but he’s not Don Rickles. He’s just a jerk. (Watch below for some classic Rickles action.)
Gutfeld gloated about his Tonight Show booking last week on Fox: “I’m psyched about it because Fallon comes across as a great guy, nice guy. Also me going on his show shows him that he’s not worried about upsetting his peers.”
When David Letterman had Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly on The Late Show, he humiliated both of them. It was fun to watch. (Watch below.)
Letterman treated Limbaugh like a hack comic whose stale act bombed in front of a more demanding crowd. Richard Pryor roasted Chevy Chase mercilessly when they appeared together on Carson. Now, late night hosts usually defer to politicians and the result is more PR than actual entertainment. There’s zero risk for the guest.
Gutfeld is reasonably expecting the softball treatment. He brought up how Fallon received backlash a decade ago when he fawned over Donald Trump, even tousling his gross Tribble hair.
“But [the backlash] didn’t come from anybody but the people on the left who wanted to teach all entertainers a lesson that if you dare show that Trump is a human, then you’re toast,” Gutfeld added. “And so it’s kind of nice that he's taken this risk.”
Of course, Fallon isn’t risking anything by platforming a right-wing hate monger, especially now that CBS just cancelled The Late Show to Trump’s delight. Carson refused to invite lousy comics back to the couch, but that wasn’t politics. He just thought they sucked.
Fallon’s decision to appease MAGA might earn praise from his predecessor Jay Leno, who said in a recent interview, “I don’t think anyone wants to hear a lecture. Why shoot for just half an audience? . . . Why not try to get the whole? I like to bring people into the big picture. I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular group. Or, just don’t do it at all. I’m not saying you have to throw your support. But just do what’s funny.”
This is a strange comment, considering that Leno himself never shied away from political humor. He made more than 4,600 jokes about former President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, a period he’s described as a golden age for comedy.
“Men behaving badly is the best, because nobody’s dying. It’s not a 9/11,” Leno said in 2014. “There’s nothing funnier than that. Plus, all the hypocrisy that goes with that. I think every comedian will probably tell you they did more jokes about that than almost any subject, because it was perfect.”
Leno seemingly ignores that a significant number of those jokes involved Monica Lewinsky, a private citizen whose life was turned inside out thanks to powerful men who used her for their own ends. Leno made fat jokes about the 25-year-old Lewinsky. (Watch below.)
Some other examples from past Leno monologues:
“Hillary Clinton told Time magazine that she sympathizes with Martha Stewart because they're friends. Apparently, Martha used to come by the Oval Office once a week to try to get the stains out.”
“Hillary said that after Bill admitted the affair with Monica he would spend time alone with Buddy, the dog. He would spend all his time with Buddy the dog. At least that's how he told her he got those scratches on his back.”
“Bob Dole and Bill Clinton did a point/counterpoint segment on 60 Minutes and both of them brought their own sponsors. Bob Dole of course had Viagra and Clinton had Dupont Stain Master Carpets.”
Of course, Leno was able to base a career on Clinton jokes because that particular president wasn’t a fascist who put political and financial pressure on NBC. In fairness, Leno also made his share of jokes about George W. Bush.
“President Bush released his tax returns yesterday. He listed the economy as a liability. He gets to write that off.”
“President Bush got a little upset with a reporter for calling him ‘sir’ instead of ‘Mr. President.’ Man, how upset is he going to be after the election when they start calling him George again?”
President Bush has unveiled his first campaign commercial, highlighting all of his accomplishes in office. That’s why it’s a 60-second spot.”
I suppose you could not immediately determine Leno’s actual political affiliation based on his nightly monologue. Late night hosts are more openly political now, to the point of advocacy. Colbert and Kimmel both actively campaigned for Joe Biden in 2024.
“Rodney Dangerfield and I were friends,” Leno said. “I knew Rodney 40 years and I have no idea if he was a Democrat or Republican. We never discussed politics, we just discussed jokes. I like to think that people come to a comedy show to get away from the pressures of life. I love political humor — don’t get me wrong. But people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.”
Rodney Dangerfield performed at the 1981 NBC tribute special for Ronald Reagan, “The Stars Salute the President.” That’s hardly conclusive proof that Dangerfield was a Republican or even a Reagan supporter. However, in our current Fox News reality, no celebrity could perform at a tribute for Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or Hillary Clinton without right-wingers labeling them “woke liberal shills.” Even if Greg Gutfeld received an invitation because literally no one else was available, he’d never perform a good-natured set for a Democrat. It would kill his business model.
Back in 2016, Leno felt sorry for his late-night successors because he didn’t think Trump was a funny subject.
“This one with all the anti-Muslim, anti-gay, anti-women — god, it’s just so nasty,” Leno added. “The humor’s not coming from — I always question their judgment, not the motive. I never want to think anybody running for president was bad or evil.”
Leno said it was easier with Clinton and Bush who were just “horny and dumb” — although it was more complicated than that. Monica Lewinsky was unwillingly cast in a right-wing production of The Crucible and George W. Bush lied the nation into a bloody war and approved torture on his watch.
“I’d like to think that people come to a comedy show to get away from the pressures of life… I mean, I like to bring people into the big picture. I don’t know why you would want to alienate one specific group,” Leno said.
There is a reasonable argument that networks don’t want the baggage and hassle from overtly political programming. Their bank accounts prefer the Leno approach of banal entertainment for the masses. After all, Harris is a major “get” for half the nation, but talk shows once simply booked guests who they believed most households would stay up late to see pitch their new project. Earlier this week, Colbert had on former labor secretary Robert Reich. That’s not quite the entertainment Carson provided middle America. When I was a kid, I always looked forward to seeing the stunning Joan Embery from the San Diego Zoo. (I was admittedly a strange child.)
Now, The Tonight Show has only slightly more nightly viewers than The Daily Show, which airs on cable television. It’s a steep drop from the days when Carson was king. Of course, Gutfeld doesn’t help. He is a less funny, less skilled Rush Limbaugh, who offers little entertainment value for viewers who aren’t already in the MAGA cult.
That’s why calls for apolitical late night comedy are so disingenuous. Leno imagines a simpler time when we could all come together across party lines and laugh at a young woman until she seriously considered suicide. He might consider that a comedic “golden age,” but it was definitely political and nasty.
I’ve despised Jay Leno for years. His relentlessly cruel focus on Clinton and Lewinsky's affair was bad enough; and for months he famously made light every single evening of the horrific murders by O.J. Simpson, at a time when Letterman correctly refused to do so.
When Leno retired, Conan O'Brien became his successor on The Tonight Show. Conan's position as Tonight Show host didn’t last — Leno wasn’t comfortable with retirement and demanded reinstatement as the show's host. NBC cruelly disposed of O'Brien, and Leno returned. That was an unforgivable shit move on Leno's part.
I have never really liked Fallon or Leno but when Leno and Dangerfield were hanging out nobody was wearing Reagan t-shirts or driving around with Clinton flags dangling from their cars. The difference is pretty fucking clear that those times were politics and now the gop has turned into a personality cult centered around literally the worst person on the planet.