TV people keep groping for a way to use all those funny little things on the Internet.
Some have even tried to turn them into an entire show; one such venture, on the CW, drew an audience of approximately zero. But now it looks like "The Jay Leno Show" may be the ideal setting.
For the second time, the show has turned Internet clips into a funny bit. The one tonight, presented by Adam Carolla, worked especially well. Carolla's comments were clever, but let's face it: Almost anyone (girlfriends-of-jerks excluded) will be amused by the driver who tried to flee the police by jumping from his moving car ... leaving his girlfriend alone to crash in the ditch. That's entertainment.
Leno has been looking for different ways to get laughs. Tonight he:
-- Succeeded with Carolla.
-- Failed with "celebrity pets." The idea was OK, but the pacing was all wrong.
-- Did OK with Steve Carell as a guest.
-- And scored as usual with his opening monolog.
Leno won't give up easily on his jokes about the terrorist who hid dynamite in his buttocks. If this trend continues, he said, we'll fondly remember the days when our shoes were all we had to remove at the airport. And the military is so worried about the trend that it's currently parachuting bran muffins all over Iraq.
Still, Leno's best lines came from the unexpected. Like when he intercut the news report on mother-daughter prostitutes with a photo of Joan and Melissa Rivers. (Joan loudly criticized Leno before the show was launched; I don't see an armistice soon.)
Or this observation: "California was discovered by the Portuguese, settled by the Spanish and has a governor from Austria. And we wonder why no one speaks English."
Just a few other observations; please add yours:
1) Carell is a fun guy, but I still don't see the entertainment value of Leno's race track.
2) Many of the music duets have been contrived and so-so, but the one tonight -- with Emmylou Harris and Vince Gill -- was first-rate.
3) Physically, when did Gill start transforming into Roy Orbison?
4) My apologies to Steve Martin and the late Andy Warhol, but Emmylou Harris may be the best-looking white-haired person in the history of the planet Earth.
5) After Leno finished, I had my local news on, because it told about the budget impasse in state government. The anchorman explained that the two party leaders are deadlocked and "they're not on the same page." I should hope not; that would break rules banning employers' sexual harassment.