You would think since Don Imus and his dumb attempt at humor got him kicked off of MSNBC that TV personalities would think before they joke. You would like to think that's true -- but it's not. In the latest bit of amazing insensitivity and stupidity, NBC's Jay Leno has apologized for a gay gag.The star of Tonight was chatting with Ryan Phillippe the other night about the star's new film Stop-Loss. Thanks to some crack researcher on the Tonight writing staff, Jay decided to ask Ryan about one of his earliest acting jobs -- playing Billy Douglas, a closeted, gay teenager on One Life to Live struggling with his sexual identity. In a flip way, Leno asked Ryan to show him what it was like when he was playing gay. He said, "Can you give me your gayest look? Say that camera is Billy Bob... Billy Bob has just ridden in shirtless from Wyoming."
Phillippe was clearly taken aback and refused to play along. Now, Jay Leno has been dressed down by GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and he has responded with an apology. "In talking about Ryan's first role, I realize that what I said came out wrong. I certainly didn't mean any malice. I agree it was a dumb thing to say, and I apologize."
It's perfectly fine for Mr. Leno to apologize after the fact, much like Mr. Imus did after slurring the Rutgers women's basketball players by calling them "nappy-headed hos." But it doesn't change the fact that the inappropriate joke that came to Imus's mind was as offensive as the Leno bit about homosexuality. If he was an enlightened as he probably thinks he is, the idea for the joke would have never made it out of the writers' room.
If anyone on the Tonight writing team had checked, they would have learned that Phillippe's role on One Life to Live was groundbreaking. His character eventually came to terms with being gay thanks to the help of a minister, Reverend Andrew Carpenter, whose brother died of AIDS. The storyline culminated with one of the most poignant and memorable scenes every shown on daytime -- the presentation of the AIDS quilt in Llanview. I remember it well; it was amazingly effective and great television.
Sadly, Mr. Leno's faux pas is just another example of really embarrassing television.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-02-2008 @ 12:02PM
Ari said...
I think it's very different than the Imus situation. First Imus' remarks were directly derogatory racist ones. Leno was joking around with stereotypes.
Second Imus has a long history of racist and otherwise unacceptable comments. Leno does not and has long had openly gay (think Ross the intern) people do segments on his show.
This doesn't excuse his comments but you can't go around making every poor remark to Imus.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:39PM
eugene said...
Listen to the WHOLE imus remark, not just the soundbite. He was comparing them unfavorably to the other team, which also happened to be all black, whome he found to be very attractive.
The remark was not racist, in that Imus was attacking the rutger's team based on their race. It was racist in that Imus is what and therefore stupid for using language that clearly "only black people can use".
4-02-2008 @ 12:25PM
doug said...
Maybe true enlightenment comes when people have a sense of humor and can accept a joke as a joke.
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4-02-2008 @ 12:29PM
ladi said...
As a point of information. "Playing around with stereotypes" is directly derogatory and homophobic. The fact that he didn't know this shows how seemingly very enlightened people aren't aware of how their actions and words affect other people. It is just like Imus, but some people can't see that because they still think it's okay to make fun of gays and lesbians.
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4-02-2008 @ 12:43PM
Tom said...
As a point of information, ladi's an idiot (not for his opinion but for being a pompous jerk who gives his opinions like they're facts)
Comedy is all about distorting stereotypes to produce humor. Take Eddie Murphy's SNL work (which is hilarious), with the rules being put down here I wouldn't be allowed to find him funny. Because his jokes were all about "white guys" and I am a "white guy".
But I know that some white guys can dance and that we don't all give each other free stuff when black people aren't around.
When people make a joke about "being gay" everyone, EVERYONE knows all gay people don't act that way. So it isn't a slur its just a distortion like any other distortion used in comedy.
As for those people out there who are actually homophobic, incidents like this just reinforce their negative view of the community. GLAAD would be better off just letting the joke go and showing that Gay people are just people like everyone else and not some elite group demanding special treatment at every turn.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:31PM
ladi said...
Wow. I guess that makes Tom an idiot (not for his opinion but for being a pompous jerk who gives his opinions like they're facts). Perhaps he is a gay man and these jokes don't bother him, that would be worthy of discussion. I am a gay man and I was bothered, that is also worthy of discussion. Hopefully there will be a time when gay people are treated fairly and a joke will just be a joke. Currently that isn't the case and a joke that hurts someone take on malicious overtones, and makes people that are left out feel even more so.
4-02-2008 @ 12:45PM
Rick B said...
hey guess what, its ok to make fun of anyone, isn't that what comedians do?! we are all targets for comedian fodder.
get over yourselves!
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4-02-2008 @ 12:49PM
Ster said...
IMHO, this is by no means in the same league as the Imus comments. Saying "Nappy-headed hoes" and making an attempt to be funny, though ineptly so, are not similar in the slightest. The first is malicious and demonstrates clear racism by mentioning physical characteristics in a derogatory manner and using the vernacular of African-Americans in a typically racist fashion. Imus should never try to talk like a black person, he's simply too white. Heterosexual men, even car loving muscle heads like Jay, deserve some leeway given the amount of support they've given to the gay community. Thus, my objection to the castigation of Leno this article does.
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4-02-2008 @ 12:58PM
Sy said...
Wow, imagine that ...comedian playing on stereotypes. If gay stereotypes are off limits, then I guess men, women, whites, Jews, Blacks, Asians, fat people, Catholics, liberals, conservatives, Muslims, and any other human stereotypes are off limits too. So much for comedy.
GLADD pointing these insignificant jokes out only reinforces a few stereotypes people have of gays.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:03PM
Ster said...
Unfortunately, the fact that it's playing on stereotypes to some degree is troublesome. Though he did try to break away from the stereotype of gay men by using the name Billy Bob (lest that was a Deliverance reference). But stereotypes are everywhere in comedy, take miners for example. They're a minority, but what do you think of when you think of a miner? Some old bearded white guy wearing a flannel and reaking of ass right? That's what I thought. Stereotypes are true, and only when a minority has some level of autonomy can they accept a joke. There will always be those that can't handle jokes, but then again, you can't please everyone all the time.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:03PM
Oreo said...
Wow! Jay Leno being an asshole! Shocking!
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4-02-2008 @ 1:13PM
the_0ne said...
hmmm, usually when I don't like something that a comedian/actor/politician says, I just turn off the show. I don't think I ever called up an organization or even used my artistic ability for a protest sign. Seems so easy...
People that have the time to b*tch about something like this really need to get a life.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:31PM
Duane said...
The only stereotypes you're not allowed to play with, apparently, are those big enough to have Alliances who will publicly come out and smack you down. I'm sure that every monologue Jay does results in letters written by individuals saying "As a miner, I was offended by your joke and demand an apology." But that alone does not get them the media coverage, therefore they don't typically get an apology.
Leno is a bit different than Imus, though, and is known for apologizing at the least offense:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060315/leno_apology_060315/20060315?hub=Entertainment
He made a joke about the doctor who set John Wilkes Booth's broken leg after the Lincoln assassination...and then later apologized to the family of the doctor.
(Which reminds me of my favorite Johnny Carson bit where during the monologue, if he made a Lincoln joke, every time without fail the audience would groan. Then he'd pause and say, "Too soon?")
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4-02-2008 @ 1:45PM
eugene said...
So.... you're saying that language and behaviour is directly tied to one's ethnicity and/or skin color? Look it up, THAT'S CALLED RACISM.
Either it's okay for EVERYBODY to do it, or it's not okay for anyone to do it. To run around using offensive language because you happen to be "in" whatever social group and then blasting other people who you deem "out" of the social group is just another form of racism or bigotry.
Of course, in america, racism/bigotry/sexism has been so completely reinvented so that it can ONLY apply to white protesant males... so hell, I know I'm talking to a brick wall here.
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4-02-2008 @ 2:53PM
Ster said...
What seems fair to me is that those that have reinvented words to some extent so that they feel comfortable using them to describe themselves then they should be the only ones allowed to use them without concern for context. But anyone outside of that group should be careful of context. Jay's comments where not any kind of a play on a stereotype, so it seems petty that GLAAD would come out to flog him down.
4-02-2008 @ 3:39PM
eugene said...
How does that make any sense? If those words are so offensive when a white person says it, or straight, or christian or purple bug eater, whatever, why is it okay for anyone to use it?
In university, we would have this debate over the N word all the time. We would hear, "well, white people invented the word to keep down African Americans, so that's why they can't use it. It's a symbol of oppression."
So... by that reasoning, can Asians call African Americans the N word? Asian Americans never owned slaves, so we're cool, right?
By continuing to draw distinctions such as what group can use which word, all we're doing is keeping racism alive. The mentality behind saying some word is for "minorities only" is exactly the same as the mentality behind "for whites only".
4-02-2008 @ 1:58PM
Neal said...
It was a JOKE people. We really need to get our sense of humor back in this country. This political correctness is killing us. Jokes, people, jokes!!!
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4-02-2008 @ 3:41PM
Eric H said...
I hate Jay Leno but I have to say this was clearly meant as a joke, maybe not funny, but still a joke, if it were reversed would it still be such an uproar?
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4-02-2008 @ 3:52PM
Dave said...
"This political correctness is killing us. Jokes, people, jokes!!!"
So according to you, we should do away with political correctness? And that means it will be alright for us to make jokes about black people and we can use the "n" word as long as its a joke?
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4-02-2008 @ 3:58PM
James said...
Playing on stereotypes is not the problem; it's more of Jay's attitude toward gays and women in general that annoys the sh*t about out of me. Night in and night out, he speaks to all women like they belong in a kitchen, and gays like they all belong at a spa or something. I don't think he means anything malevolent about it, but his jokes and remarks are so boneheaded and chauvinistic I can't believe anyone finds him at all tolerable, let alone funny.
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