Last month, comedian
and former “Tonight Show” host, Jay Leno suffered severe burns to his face and
body after an accident in his garage when the cars he was working on suddenly
erupted into flames.
Leno was treated at
the Grossman Burn Center in LA and discharged on Nov. 21.
He spoke to the TODAY show about the accident, his treatment, and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9scfWN6aXaU
Dr. Peter Grossman,
who treated Leno, said Leno "had significant burns to face and hands"
Doctors scraped away
layers of his burned skin, this is a painful procedure. Leno refused pain
medication because he said the pain is a good indicator of the magnitude of
healing.
Grossman said that
Leno is a “very stoic individual" and "not one who wants to complain”
adding that Leno was “very gracious” and “very friendly.”
Most celebrities in
Leno’s place would use the interview to wallow in self-pity and exaggerate
their sufferings for personal self-aggrandizement.
There would have been
copious tears and a choked voice. There would have been a pause during the
interview and the voiceover would reveal “reliving the pain was a harrowing
experience for Leno, we took a break and he returned in better
spirits’.
There would have been an air of self-importance implying that his pain is more important than that of
regular people.
But Leno is from the
old school for whom the only way to handle a tough situation is to deal
devoid of any fuss. When it is over remember it with self-deprecating humor.
Despite his sufferings,
Leno underplayed the accident, reminding his interviewer that anybody who works
with their hands on a regular basis is going to have an accident at some point
and that accidents such as his occur every day. It is refreshing to see a
Hollywood celebrity equate himself with the working class.
He explained the
rationale by saying that “there’s nothing worse than whiny celebrities. If you
joke about it, people laugh along with you."
When the interviewer
began by saying the whole country was concerned when the news of the accident
broke, Leno politely brushed that claim aside.
When asked about
concerns about his appearance, Leno joked “When you look like me, you don’t
really worry about what you look like.”
“Look if I’m George
Clooney, it’s going to be a huge problem. …... My attitude is I trust people
who are the best to do what they have to do.”
Leno quipped, “The
fact that I have smooth skin, pouty lips, and a tighter butt has nothing to do
with the accident. That was all secondary.”
Leno also took a jab
at high gas prices in California joking it was ‘the most expensive part of the
whole operation was the gasoline.”
During the treatment,
Leno revealed he spend eight hours a day in a hyperbaric chamber, which he
joked was like a “glass coffin” and that he had to tap on the glass to get attention from the medical staff.
Leno also joked that
on his first night performing after the accident, his audience had seemed
disappointed that he wasn't more visibly scarred.
“We got two shows
tonight," Leno told his audiences "Regular and extra crispy."
When asked if he’s
nervous to work on cars now, Leno replied, “Did I learn from this? Of course
not!”
Leno received cards
and well wishes from celebrities but was most touched, by the notes he received
from random people he helped with car trouble.
Compare Leno’s
attitude to that of Alec Baldwin
Baldwin accidentally
killed his cinematographer on his movie set. He had orphaned a child and
destroyed a family. Yet when was interviewed after the incident Baldwin used
all his acting skills to depict himself as the bigger victim than the departed.
He shirked off any responsibility and there was no apology. He just didn’t care
about anyone but himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOKpiWrUPUI
Leno isn’t just old
school in his attitude toward life but also in his comedy.
For him, the goal was
laughter.
In his Tonight Show
monologues, Leno joked about both liberals and conservatives in equal measure.
These were jokes and not vicious personal attacks, which is why politicians on
both sides were eager to chat with Leno.
Leno was particularly
effective during the Obama era when slobbering was the norm.
Jon Stewart of The
Daily Show lavished blandishments at Obama, despite his misgovernance, and the
worst Letterman could say about Obama’s blunders was ‘Is Obama Bushing is up a
bit?”
But Leno joked about
Obama the same way he joked about previous Presidents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7lP-Y2Q5oo
Leno did great
interviews with Obama, holding him accountable, unlike journalists of those
days who were openly sycophantic.
This explains why
Leno was the leader in the ratings of Late Comedy Shows, his goal was
entertainment.
Despite leading the
rating, in 2004, NBC signed Conan O’Brien to be the next host of Tonight Show.
The transition from Leno to O’Brien was to take place in 2008.
The calculation was that Leno’s rating would fall by 2008 while O’Brien’s would rise. Hence O’Brien
would be the natural successor. But in 2008, Leno was still dominating the late
show while O'Brien still had a relatively small audience.
Left with no option,
NBC who was eager to retain Leno gave Leno a primetime comedy show in the
format of the late-night show with Conan's Tonight Show following Leno.
They were attempting
to fix what wasn’t broken and the results were catastrophic.
O’Brien’s quirky
humor failed to connect and for the first time since Leno’s departure, the
Tonight show fell to Number 2.
NBC attempted to fix
things, by giving Leno 30 minute show in his former Tonight Show slot with
O’Brien’s Tonight show following it. O’Brien rejected the idea.
Hence after around seven months, the shortest-running iteration in the sixty-year history of The Tonight Show, NBC let go of Conan and returned this show back to Leno.
This is how the business works if you cannot deliver ratings and you are out. O'Brien wasn't exactly left in the rain, he signed a $45 million exit deal with NBC.
But instead of taking
responsibility for the show's failure, O’Brien chose to wallow in self-pity and
somehow characterize Leno as the villain.
Late-night hosts Jimmy
Kimmel and David Letterman, probably envious of Leno’s ratings, also attacked
Leno, and so did a few others.
Next, Conan did a ‘comedy’ Tour where he whined about losing the Tonight. Conan’s fans even held protests.
Leno was portrayed as the ogre who destroyed Conan’s dream.
But Leno didn’t attack
Conan or any of the rest, instead, he focused on his job and brought The Tonight
Show back to the number 1 position where it remained as long as Leno hosted it
till February 6, 2014.
Months back when asked why he remained
dignified in his silence during the time, Leno said he said, what he said
recently on the Today show, that he didn’t want to be the privileged rich
celebrity who was whining about issues that would seem like petty matters to regular
people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Dq3KHaMmg
The late Queen Elizabeth II once said that her mother advised her to "Never complain, never explain, and speak rarely in public."
It seems Jay Leno also followed that principle.
Also appears on American Thinker
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