You ever see that bit on Jay Leno's show called Jay-walking? He cruises L.A. asking random people easy questions about geography, history, current affairs, and then plays the stupidest answers on tv. (For example, Q: Where is Paris? A: London.)
Well, I just stumbled across an especially hilarious example of Leno himself doing a bit of Jay-walking.
You might remember that earlier this year, comedian George Lopez took a swipe at Leno, calling him "two-faced" and "the worst interviewer on TV." Then this happened:
Leno hadn't forgotten Lopez's attack when he walked into the recent Laugh Factory memorial for comic Richard Jeni. Spotting comedian Paul Rodriguez, Leno brought up the dig.
"He said, 'Listen, maybe you and I should sit down and work this out,'" Rodriguez recalled when we phoned him yesterday. "He said, 'We shouldn't be airing this stuff in public.' He was going on like that. At first, I thought he was putting me on. Finally, I said, 'Jay, It's Paul! I'm not George! I'm the other Beatle.'
"Jay apologized. He said, 'I'm sorry. I don't have my contacts in.' I said, 'Hey, it's understandable. We Mexicans all look alike."
Kinda' sheds light on Leno's propensity towards making offensive jokes about Mexicans, doesn't it?
© Jed Lewison