David Letterman’s Peers Take Aim; Well, Mainly His Rival Jay Leno

The David Letterman extortion/sex with staffers revelation is the kind of story the media loves – as do the late night shows.

But how would they handle ragging on one of their own? Some steered clear, while others, like long-time rival Jay Leno, took his green car and went full-speed ahead.

“If you came here tonight for sex with a talk-show host, you’re in the wrong studio,” he said before the opening applause could even die down. It seemed like maybe he was done – a quick, somewhat vague reference to the story. Instead, he was just getting warmed up. “What is going on? First, Conan hit his head, then somebody tried to extort money from Letterman. I’m so glad I’m out of late night,” he said.

Then, to the self-deprecating: “I want to say I myself was once the victim of an extortion plot. How do you think NBC got me to do a 10:00 show?” And with a shot at the extortionist: “This guy was a producer for the show 48 Hours. It could have been worse; at least he wasn’t a producer of To Catch a Predator.” (Wait, who would the ‘predator’ be in that joke?)

There was also an element of sketch: “I am happy to say I have never had a sexual relationship with any of my staff members,” said Leno, as the drummer in the band threw down his sticks and stormed off. “What happened?” asked bandleader Kevin Eubanks. Leno: “It’s nothing, Kev I’ll deal with it later.”

The entire Letterman portion of the monologue has been made embeddable by NBC, the only part of last night’s monologue that’s embeddable. Give the people what they want, I suppose. (It’s at the end of the post.)

Although most of the jokes had some tie to NBC, poking fun at his own network while ragging on the CBS late night host, the decision too joke about some serious trouble for Letterman, PR and otherwise, was an interesting one. The two have a lengthy rivalry, ever since Leno got the Tonight Show gig over Letterman. And time hasn’t exactly healed old wounds. As Letterman ragged on Leno’s 10pm move when it was announced, now Leno is returning fire when Letterman is in the news cycle. Although he told GQ “I hope” things “come around” between the two hosts, this doesn’t seem like a step in the reconciliatory direction.

Still, it’s Leno, so none of the jokes were particularly biting or offensive. There was a focus, sure, but he stayed far away from going over the line.

>>>>NEXT: Jimmy Fallon and Bill Maher make fun.