Tonight & Tomorrow

Turning over the books of The Tonight Show cannot be an easy thing.

Just ask Jay Leno, he’s doing it for the second time tomorrow night.

At least, so we think. (I kid, Jay!…But seriously, this is it, right?)

If we can be serious about comedy for a moment, giving up the chair, the curtain and the monologue of the most widely-known television brand in history must be difficult.

It should be even more challenging for a guy like Leno, who if he cared about such things, might realize what an awful waste of his time and ours the past 22 years have been.

I cannot help but wonder if that will be what runs through Leno’s mind when Jimmy Fallon takes the keys to the show from him tomorrow night. Maybe that thought has been crisscrossing Leno’s brain for some time, dating back to when he butchered Conan O’Brien’s takeover of the show several years ago.

Regardless, it’s happening again: Leno, the current king of late night ratings, is leaving The Tonight Show and is being replaced by Fallon, who is quite possibly the most compelling choice for the role since Johnny Carson.

And quite possibly, you could care less.

We have Jay Leno to thank and blame for that.

Oh sure, that does not fall just at Jay’s feet. There is a whole list of factors – like the fact that since Carson left in May of 1992, only roughly 9 million more options exist for your viewing pleasure between 11:30-12:30 each night. And even if there isn’t anything good to watch that particular night, your DVR has most likely been piling up and you have better things to catch up on than watching Jay make roughly 4,600 Bill Clinton jokes over the past 20-plus years.

So we can write off some of the fall of The Tonight Show – and late night in general – to the expanding options, shifting demographics and generational shifts of the past decade.

The only problem with that is Leno would have you think that is the full story, or that he is being pushed aside (again) for a younger, hipper model.

It’s just that Jay was never that hip to begin with – not even for our parents. So this logic that some seminal passing of the torch has a hint of melancholy to it is slightly overblown and distracts from the greater narrative thread.

I get the point of the well-done piece on Grantland, which angles in on Jay and the Baby Boomer generation being pushed aside, just as their parents’ generation was before them, and how careful my generation must be to readily take the reins in all things that matter: sports, politics and of course, late night TV. After all, our heads will be the next to roll for positions of power, prestige and authority by our own kids in 20-25 years.

But that’s doing a massive disservice to the analysis of just how badly Jay Leno did in this job.

For those who pay attention to such things, there was a slow build-up of comedians and performers who wanted to be “The One” to succeed Carson. Leno beat out Letterman, for reasons that mostly had to do with network preference, not because he was necessarily hand-picked by Carson.

And Leno proceeded to stick to the format – monologue, guests, house band, music act, good night – for 22 years.

He tried little new, which essentially means two things:

His contemporaries in age watched because it was familiar, comfortable and the least bit surprising or shocking. It was part of the routine, something they remembered to do, but largely forgot what happened.
This means anyone outside of the Boomer demographic did not really watch. Which works well enough and keeps you at the top of Neilsen charts – until all those youngsters start staying up late enough to take a look and find out you are not very funny.

Though Leno constantly points to his place at the top of the ratings, it is indeed misleading, the same way a 60 Minutes report of Leno ranking as one of the five most popular people on television is misleading. Baby Boomers watch more network television, one would suppose, than say 18-34 year olds, who, one can assume, will find the content they want from any number of sources or stations. As for recognition, well, Carson had to be perhaps one of the most recognizable people, period.

It cannot be easy to follow that, just reinforcing you never want to be the guy to follow the legend, but the guy who replaces the guy who followed the legend.

But Leno did not really help himself out with his act, which became outdated because he would not – and perhaps could not – change with the times. You could argue Leno missed his real window, based on his humor, and would have fared much better in a different time period, say the 1950s or 1960s. Leno’s routine is like your uncle’s or your grandpa’s – the jokes are low-hanging fruit found in everyday life. This is neither overly creative or created. It’s just kind of there.

And that’s just it. We don’t want to consume comedy because it is there. We want to laugh. We laugh with our friends, not at them. We have a whole generation or two hell-bent on making memories, capturing them and talking about it later. This is why Instagram exists, #tbt and a host of other social “things”.

But really, it comes down to this: You have to give us a reason to watch.

While Carson certainly had the blessing of only facing opposition from major networks, as opposed to hundreds of cable channels, 24-hour news and technology that have us on social networks and playing games about angry and flippy birds in our beds, well, he also gave us memories by creating them.

Fallon can do that, which is something Leno must not grasp. Or maybe he does not stay up to watch Late Night.

If he did, he should be able to see what the rest of us do. Jimmy Fallon was made to host The Tonight Show. His bits are simply spectacular. He incorporates technology, You Tube and Twitter into the show on a consistent and regular basis. Fallon’s house band is The Roots, not the guy who played trumpet for The Stones on one album in 1975.

Fallon’s creative partnership with Justin Timberlake is equally parts amazing, fun and very, very creative. I mean, have you watched the History of Rap? They have formed some kind of on-air chemistry that allows you to believe they are best friends – whether that assumption is correct or not really does not matter. In a way, it reminds us of the ease and casual nature of Carson with Ed McMahon. The laughs from co-workers and house band members are not forced with Jimmy. With Jay, well, let’s just say you were never quite sure if there was a bonus check for boisterous laughing.

It is a truly magical thing to feel a connection with a TV talk show host, even more so if they come off as genuine and natural. You have to connect with people in their most private of moments – in their beds at 11:30pm, after who knows what went on during their day. We are tired and stressed and you need to now entertain us.

Fallon has you talking about his bits in the office the next day, re-Tweeting links to his You Tube clips, like when he did a rendition of “Blurred Lines” with Robin Thicke using school-room instruments. Or when he had Miley Cyrus on during the peak of her crazy last fall to sing a likeable a cappella rendition of her unlikeable song, “We Can’t Stop.” Both have had over 16 million views. A piece.

One of Leno’s biggest YouTube hits? Well, he got 2 million views for the replay of Michael Jordan asking if he was stupid in response to Leno asking Jordan if he could still dunk. So there’s that.

In a way, that itself is metaphorical for Jay Leno. He was kind of the butt of the joke – the one we were laughing at and not with. Popularity can be judged in a variety of ways – namely recognition – but we have had a lot of popular things in America that just were not very good.

You do not become celebrated simply because you are there. Leno’s biggest problem was and is that he is constantly seeking approval. He spends so much time making sure you know he’s funny and entertaining you that he does not actually do it. Fallon just seems to want to have fun. He enjoys his job, the creative process and if something bombs, he’ll probably laugh at it before you do. And he’ll try something different again with the same pure intention.

Do you see the difference yet?

Leno lives to hear your laugh as a sign of approval for him. Fallon just wants to laugh with you because it feels good for everyone. It is why his constant breaking on SNL skits isn’t annoying; Jimmy actually cannot keep his stuff together because it is funny to him, not just to you. He hasn’t rehearsed the punch line, because he’s not quite sure if there is one. He wants to be a part of the moment with you.

Leno would prefer to keep his distance and point at highlighted sections of the newspaper. It’s what he planned to do and therefore, it will work. Hence, how he actually has made over 4,600 Clinton jokes since 1992. No really, someone counted and everything.

Sticking to the pre-determined act leaves little room for improv – a.k.a. life. You can tell Fallon does not plan on how Blake Shelton will react when he tries to get him to sing a Rupert Holmes song on the couch in the middle of an interview. He’s making it up as he goes along.

This is why Fallon works so well with us: we’re making it up too. We do things that just don’t work sometimes and all we can do is laugh at the fact we thought it would.

When Leno passive-aggressively cries wolf about age discrimination – and he has been, and he rest assured, he will again – just know that while true, that is not the entire story. He is just not very good at this particular job.

That is why, despite leading the ratings, Leno’s lease on The Tonight Show is up.

Every generation has the moment when they just won’t let go of the baton. It is more than understandable.

It is just that Jay Leno took that baton from the king 22 years ago, stood still and hoped you’d just keep laughing.

Some of us did.

But most of us are still waiting to start, waiting for a new act.

Waiting for a reason to come back tomorrow night.

American culture, Jimmy Fallon, Miley Cyrus, music, Society, We Can't Stop

We Can’t Stop – But We Should

Last night, I was faced with a most troubling decision.

As I thumbed through my Twitter feed, I came across a tweet from one of my favorite entertainers, Jimmy Fallon.

But it was a video featuring Miley Cyrus. For reasons that should be obvious, I cringed.

Oh, the dilemma.

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See, on the one hand, everything that Jimmy Fallon does is amazing. But on the other, pretty much everything that Miley does make me want to lock my daughter in our house until she’s 30.

Convinced Fallon is the next Johnny Carson, I finally clicked on the link to his A capella version of “We Can’t Stop” with Miley Cyrus and The Roots, despite an aforementioned aversion to Cyrus and her recent antics.

I loved it.

I think (and desperately hope) this probably speaks more to Fallon being great at everything than this does the song or artist itself. Yet it was so well done, I couldn’t stop listening to it. I hit replay probably 10 times. There was harmony, tenderness and sadness – you forget that in between the music video weirdness, tongue sticking out weirdness and a variety of other weirdities, Miley Cyrus can indeed sing.

I was moved by the little video – and that was without really listening to the words.

And then I did listen to the words.

The more I listened to the song – then Googled the original version of the song and listened to it, too – I noticed that the lyrics were not just completely out of my realm, but wondered what segment of society they were relatable to? A much segmented part of our youth population I am guessing.

Hey, I get it; the song is catchy, has a good beat and sounds fun. It could be every major pop hit we’ve had for the past few years. Lyrics do matter, regardless of what anyone tells you. What a song says is as important and influential as its sound.

Yet I am not that old. I’ve listened to tons of pop, rock and alternate music and grew up in a pretty good era for it.

That said, what the recent stream of young artists say in these tunes has a whole lot more to do with us than it does them, since we buy it, play it on repeat and call it “my jam.”

I think we get the message: Miley Cyrus has matured from that little Hanna Montana girl she used to be. But it is a farce, from the outsider perspective, to say Miley knows who she is right now. She’s 20. She has no clue who she is. Most everyone I’ve ever known would agree. “Twenty?” they answer. “Oh, I was a disaster.”

And everyone between the ages of roughly 28 and 100 is nodding in agreement. You just can’t know, but the problem is you think you do. At that age, you are stuck between adolescence and adult, emerging rebellion and responsibility.

Is Miley Cyrus tormented and struggling? Maybe. Certainly to her, she is. To the vast majority of 20, 21, 22-year-olds, what they see as a struggle varies greatly from what Miley Cyrus sees as a struggle.

They can’t afford to dance with “Molly” and wave their arms in clubs like they don’t have a care. They can on weekends, I suppose, between jobs and/or classes, then reality hits on Monday morning when they wake up in a dorm with a presentation due that afternoon, or they are late for their job.

For Miley, she’s missing a key component to this dichotomy: the earlier you begin entertaining the rest of us, the less you are like us. Likewise, we can’t relate to you, even if we grew up with you. You live in your own box long enough, when you speak, the words that come out won’t make sense to us. Just ask Britney Spears.

The conventional vanity of our pop-culture driven world cannot be afforded – monetarily or morally – by really anyone outside the very circle that creates it in the first place.

Us “normal folk” watch it all and are either horrified or entertained – and sometimes both. But we watch. We watch because it’s there, and because 25 percent of it looks fun, and because we’re pretty sure the singers, actors and athletes we watch are going to implode in a variety of sadly predictable ways: drugs, bankruptcy or because they are actually just bad people.

Yet it remains a cycle we have been unable to stop for at least the past 40-50 years: we gorge ourselves on what they do, their accomplishments and products, which makes them rich and bored, in turn causing them to gorge on things like drugs, mansions or any number of material items that the rest of us aren’t addicted to, in part because we can’t afford them and our version of reality kept the need for self-control.

In this song, “We Can’t Stop”, Miley sings of not stopping and doing what she wants. This is both an idea that we can totally relate to, yet at the same time have no concept of the specific meaning she has in her mind when the lyrics pass her lips. Because we haven’t experienced what it is Miley won’t stop.

And this is exactly the point where our worlds differ: she means what she sings, while we’re listening to it and enjoying it in a generalized, passive sort of way. It’s not necessarily the lyrics don’t have meaning, but they don’t really mean anything to her audience.

Where she can’t stop (though I do wonder if even Miley knows what exactly she won’t stop or if it’s just the idea of being a rebellious figure that’s so appealing to her), the rest of us must. We must stop because we have wages to earn, classes to attend and families to start.

Simultaneously, I’d like to believe there is a majority of us between the ages of 16 to 35 (assuming that’s her new demographic) that would prefer to not disrespect everyone that cares about us.

In some ways, it’s true; you can say and do whatever you want. It’s called free will and it’s a beautiful gift. But it’s what you do with that gift, or the others given to you that define who you are. And when you live in a world that most exclusively defines people by who you are, then it matters.

You can’t say you won’t stop and will do whatever you want, and then bemoan the media attention paid to your every breakdown, break-up and drug bust. Or, as Miley said earlier this week, that you don’t have a plan and just want to be popular. Talk about vanity.

It’s the same as saying you don’t like drama – but then you fill your life, your newsfeed and timeline with it and then actively seek ways to confirm that, again, you don’t like drama. In reality, you are a drama addict. We get it: important things are happening to you and it’s a bummer sometimes. But it’s only important to you because it’s happening to you.

To be fair, we’re all a little self-centered; naturally, this is because we are us. I inherently care way more about what’s going on in my life than you do because it’s, well, my life. But our society is shifting that line of demarcation – the line that holds the balance in order. We’re losing our civility on these matters.

Now, we’re mostly just self-involved. The only reason everyone else usually cares to listen is because they care about you. Fail to return the favor and ask about them or listen to them, and they will most definitely start checking out on your life and all its drama.

As Mr. Miyagi once said, we must learn balance.

Self-control is not lame, it does not say anything about you other than that you have it and respect yourself and others enough to show it. But too many are taking Miley’s approach, where expressing one’s desires or partying habits is a way of showing individual freedom. This is a free country, so by all means, enjoy.

Just know that not being able to stop yourself is a sure sign of gluttony and greed. Doing whatever you want, no matter the consequences or repercussions, for yourself or others is the epitome of being not just self-involved, but a full-fledged megalomaniac. Needing credit, needing constant attention, demanding your voice be heard for no reason other than hearing yourself talk.

It’s ours, we constantly say. This country is now ours, this generation, this time. But we really mean that it’s mine. And we want everyone else to know it.

However, I’m reminded of a great passage I read recently, that speaks of how every precious thing in the world is hidden. From pearls, gold and metal to corn and nuts – all hidden somewhere. The same can be said of kindness, knowledge, self-awareness, perseverance and love. They are not easy to find in the world, or within others. But if you work hard enough to find them or cultivate them yourself, you will be rewarded.

What does all that have to do with Miley Cyrus, popular culture, and Jimmy Fallon?

I honestly don’t know, but repeatedly watching that video they made caused me to pull this narrative together and come to this conclusion: I am disappointed in the laziness of a culture that demands they can’t stop doing all the things that speak of greed and gluttony, while refusing to do anything redeeming, good or kind.

If we’re going to grab the mic and demand to be heard, we better have a message worth hearing.

Maybe Miley is right about something grander than what she sings, because she is actually spot on: we can’t stop. As a nation, we like to “par-dy”, do whatever we want. Our Molly is what it’s been for many years and decades: unquenchable, unrelenting, power – at home and abroad.

And chasing that power had led us to this point, where a former cute and cuddly child-star is now a wannabe grown-up at 20, being provocative solely for the sake of attention and being famous – not even because she’s actually provocative.

We can’t even be sincere anymore about being insincere.

But hey, at least I know my decision to click on the video was worth it.

Jimmy Fallon never disappoints.

Read. Think. Act Different.

Category Archives: Jimmy Fallon

Tonight & Tomorrow

We Can’t Stop – But We Should

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