Second Negative

The late shift

Jay Leno announced Monday that he will retire from the Tonight Show in 2009 and hand over hosting duties to Conan O’Brien. I like Conan, but it won’t make a great difference to me who hosts the Tonight Show as long as David Letterman is still on the air. I’ve always preferred Dave over Jay, and although I enjoy Conan’s show, I wouldn’t give up Dave for any other host, Johnny included.

I have a number of problems with Leno, but it mostly boils down to the interviews. After spending more than a decade on the Tonight Show, he barely seems more comfortable with guests then when he first took over. His style of questioning is often disjointed, and he seems to have difficulty asking follow up questions when his guests stop talking. I don’t expect him to be Chris Matthews or Tim Russert, but if you’re a celebrity or politician, you know that a visit with Jay will consist of softball style questions and multiple opportunities to plug the hell out of your latest project or campaign.

I’ve also never found him to be particularly funny, but that may be because I’m not really into generic humor. I’ve read that Jay spends a lot of time preparing for his monologue, and it can often last forever, but his routine seems to mainly consist of tossing out as many jokes as possible in the hopes that a couple of them will stick. It’s the higher quality by way of higher quantity system, and I’m not a fan.

Dave, on the other hand, is the king of sarcasm and wit. I don’t have a problem admitting that I’m biased, because I value sarcasm and wit as tools of humor above all others. Dave’s opening monologue is often short, but pointed and funny. He seems to believe that a few quality remarks better serve the content of his show than a barrage of throwaway jokes with obvious punch lines.

He also may be the smoothest interviewer on television, employing a conversational style that others should study. He never shies away from the hard questions, regardless of the guest. Case in point, while he’s obviously not a fan of Bush, and most likely votes Democratic, he didn’t hesitate to press Kerry about certain aspects of his record. He also asked FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS during the course of the interview.

I’m not a Jay hater. He seems like a nice, hard working guy, but the fact is that he’s the McDonalds of late night talk show hosts, and I prefer something with a little more flavor.