Word: leno
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Hall's one concession to talk-show tradition is to perform an opening monologue. His topical jokes are lame compared with Carson's or Jay Leno's, but he exposes himself in a way those cool satirists never do. Talking about Ralph Abernathy's book, in which the former civil rights leader made allegations about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s sexual escapades, Hall barely disguised his anger. "He's just jealous," said Hall. "Probably hasn't been with three women in his life . . . Martin's still my hero. Right...
...Carson, who slides easily from Doc's wardrobe to Noriega's goon squads in his Tonight show monologues, has long been TV's most reliable barometer of what Middle America thinks about the issues of the day. But now Johnny is just one of a late-night crowd. Jay Leno, Carson's regular fill-in as Tonight host, has added a sharp political edge to his stand-up material. David Letterman, camp counselor on NBC's irreverent Late Night, seems to have boosted his political consciousness as well -- not just in his brief monologues but in such regular bits...
Their one-liners not only reflect but can even help define the national mood. "When you see Jay Leno consistently making fun of a politician and getting laughs, you know the politician's probably finished," says Torie Clarke, press secretary to Republican Senator John McCain and a well-known Washington joke broker. The onslaught of one-liners about John Tower's reported drinking and womanizing helped scuttle his nomination for Secretary of Defense. Relentless gags about the Exxon oil spill undoubtedly aggravated the company's public relations disaster and spurred pressure for White House action. Deposed Speaker Jim Wright...
...political gibes are drawing more than just laughs. In Washington the TV jokes are repeated in Capitol cloakrooms and quoted widely in the news media. The Center for Media and Public Affairs, a conservative watchdog group, tapes Carson, Leno and Letterman each night and catalogs their jokes by subject. During the Bush Administration's first 100 days, the most joked-about political figure was Tower (61 jokes), followed by President Bush (52) and Vice President Quayle...
What does America think of Jim Wright? Dan Quayle? The Exxon oil spill? Find out by turning to the comedy monologues of Carson, Leno, Letterman and Sajak...