Is it wrong that I think I kinda want the Team Conan boxer shorts?
And I think I agree with virtually every word of this take on Leno. Except for the parts about Seinfeld. The writer is clearly a fan, but I think the ex-sitcom star suffers from some of the same flaws identified in Leno.
Specifically, that he thinks it's funny when a multi-millionaire jokes about how expensive Junior Mints are at the movies. That sort of thing. Otherwise, it's dead-on.
ETA: On his show last night, Jay Leno said:
"Even Dave Letterman's taking shots at me," he continued. "Which surprised me—usually he's just taking shots at the interns."
Observation: Unless I'm mistaken, all the shots that Letterman and virtually all of the other late-night comics have taken at Leno stem from the same perception: That he (and NBC) has behaved unprofessionally and/or unethically.
They promised Conan O'Brien The Tonight Show, let him move his family and most if not all of his staff across the country, and then they went...psych! Whether or not this perception is true is debatable, I suppose, but I don't want to get into that.
My point is: Leno couldn't "fire back" at Dave on a professional or ethical level because by all reports, nobody questions his professionalism or ethics on the job, except perhaps for some network executives, who hardly count. So he went personal. NBC, meanwhile, did the same to Conan, calling the guy they chose to take over The Tonight Show names.
If 10-plus years online has taught me nothing else...and it hasn't...it has taught me this: The side that goes personal and starts calling names first hasn't any substantive criticism to make.
NBC blew it, they blew it publicly, and now they're circling the wagons. And Leno is still trying to exorcise his guilt for weaseling The Tonight Show away from Letterman in the first place.
If you can't join 'em, beat 'em, Conan.
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