comments_image -

Jay Leno Confuses Homophobia with Humor Yet Again

WTF is wrong with the Tonight Show host? Has he so little creativity that he has to stoop to lame humor like this over and over?
March 26, 2008  |  
 
Advertisement
 

WTF is wrong with the Tonight Show host? Has he so little creativity that he has to stoop to lame humor like this over and over? Melissa:

Last night, Ryan Phillippe was on The Tonight Show, which gave Jay Leno the opportunity to do one of his favorite things: Laugh at gay men!

Now, Phillippe isn't gay, but he played Billy Douglas on One Life to Live, which was the first out gay teen character on American daytime television-and Phillippe was once naked in a jeans commercial, so that's good enough for Jay.  Says Andy (who's got the video): "[T]he first topic Leno brought up was Phillippe's first acting role as a gay teen on One Life to Live. No matter that the role was a serious one in which a gay son came out to his father. Leno had to squeeze as much of a joke out of the fact that his first acting role was a gay part, even asking Phillippe to look into the camera and give his 'gayest look'."

Avenue Q scribe Jeff Whitty actually wrote an infamous missive to Leno to clue him in that the late-night host's homo-humor is, well, not amusing in the least. A snippet is below the fold.

Jeff Whitty in 2006:

I know you know gay people, Mr. Leno. Are they just jokes to you, to be snickered at behind their backs? Despite the angry tenor of my letter, I suspect you're a better man than that. I don't bother writing letters to the "God Hates Fags" people, or Donald Wildmon, or the pope. But I think you can do better. I know it's The Tonight Show, not a White House press conference, but you reach a lot of people.
I caught your show when you had a tired mockery of Brokeback Mountain, involving something about a horse done up in what you consider a "gay" way. Man, that's dated. I turned the television off and felt pretty fucking depressed. And now I understand your gay-baiting jokes have continued.

Yes it has, even after Whitty had a phone chat with Jay and was convinced the TV night owl wasn't a homophobe back in 2006.

The other night Ryan Philippe was so appalled by Jay's lame Brokeback appeal to give his gayest look, that he said "Wow. That is so something I don't want to do."

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.
submit to reddit

-
Email
Print
Share
LIKED THIS ARTICLE? JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST
Stay up to date with the latest AlterNet headlines via email
See more stories tagged with: television, homophobia, leno, phillippe, the tonight show
Advertisement
Most Read
Most Emailed
Most Discussed
On REDDIT
On DIGG
 
loading most read content ..
Advertisement
Pro-Coal Group Pays People to Wear Its Shirts at EPA Hearing

By Heather Moyer | Sierra Club

 
 
Kids Inundate NY Governor With Concerns About Fracking

By Seth Gladstone | Food and Water Watch

 
 
Shareholders, Top Doctors Demand McDonald's Assess its Health Impacts

By Sara Deon | Civil Eats

 
 
Republicans Block NY Minimum Wage Increase That Would Give 880,000 Workers a Raise

By Laura Clawson | Daily Kos

 
 
Why Don't TV Meteorologists Believe in Climate Change?

By Katherine Bagley, | Inside Climate News

 
 
New Book Says Teenage Obama Was a Huge Pot Head -- So Why Won't He Legalize It for the Rest of Us?!

By Kristen Gwynne | AlterNet

 
 
Pew Poll Finds Clean Energy Is A Political Wedge Issue for Republicans

By Stephen Lacey | Climate Progress

 
 
Mitt 'Not Concerned with the Very Poor' Romney Visits West Philly, Gets Lesson in Keeping it Real

By Kristen Gwynne | AlterNet

 
 
Corporate Media Stokes Racial Angst in Election Coverage

By Adele M. Stan | AlterNet

 
 
5 Things to Know About the Paycheck Fairness Act (The Next Big Legislative Battle for Women)

By Annie-Rose Strasser | Think Progress

 
 
 
 
 
loading ...
POWERED BY DIGG'S USERS
 
[ page served from web 1 ]