Leno Told The Same Joke As Letterman
June 13th, 2009, 2:07 PM EDT
On September 2, during the presidential campaing, Jay Leno told this joke:
“Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it.” — “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”
This is not much different than the Letterman joke about which the right wing is going crazy:
“One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game,” Letterman said, “during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”
So, why did Jay Leno’s joke go by largely unnoticed, while Sarah Palin is doing a national publicity tour denouncing David Letterman?
Well, I can see how Leno’s joke might be funny, because I know who John Edwards is and how he got himself into trouble.
Alex Rodriguez I don’t know. I don’t follow baseball. So Letterman’s joke I don’t get. And if you don’t get the joke you’re left with somebody’s daughter getting knocked up and nothing to laugh about.
crh3e Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Right on, Leno’s joke was way funnier. Letterman’s jokes bomb most of the time anyway. I’ve never thought he was funny to begin with.
average james Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Letterman is a COMEDIAN.
Leno is a COMEDIAN.
Sykes is a COMEDIAN.
COMEDIANS regularly cross the line.
Palin has taken up the living martyr cross and is wallowing in victimhood.
Makes her look weak to be so hurt and unforgiving. Not very presidential.
Boo hoo.
dankusDLK Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
This was a regular Nixonian trick though. He was always looking for someway to make it look like he was victimized. Of course, Nixon did it with the media and powerful politicians, not late night talk show hosts.
JaredfromTexas Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 12:02 am
JAMES,
Seems to me that you’re the only one crying over this…
Palin has every right to be slighted by this malcontent “comedian” who attempted to make people laugh by suggesting her daughter and A-rod did the nasty at a baseball game.
She also has every right to be hurt and unforgiving when the “apology” was an obvious failed attempt at another joke.
Until Letterman grows a pair, admits his mistake and offers an apology…in a mature and adult manner…then she continues to have every right to remain upset.
Try her shoes on, my liberal friend…and see how it feels to have a comedian suggest your daughter was “knocked up” by a stranger.
June 13th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Once again, Sarah Palin is using her family as a prop to try to gain popularity in the Republican Party. She is trying to become the Leader in a Political Party that needs one real bad. The joke may have been in poor taste but the Palin’s reaction is from the sewer. A short statement asking to keep her children out of the limelight and a joke about being a Leno fan would have looked like a class act for a change. The only one talking about Statatory Rape are the Palins and Right Wing Talk Radio. The only thing Letterman is guilty of now was giving Palin all this press.
That’a How I See It.
flap Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I think Letterman went overboard a bit with the joke and his apology was appropriate. I think everyone, Palin included, need to let it drop.
average james Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Robert,
Good summary, I think you are spot on.
June 13th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Few things:
1. Leno is probably a little more balanced in his jokes of the left and the right.
2. It was during the campaign…should be a little more leeway for jokes I’d say.
3. Bristol was mentioned as the “17-year-old.” Letterman implied that it was Willow since he said “during the 7th inning stretch” and Willow was the only one at the game with Palin. The excuse that Alan used is “the writers didn’t know.” They need to be aware. That’s an important detail.
4. Leno made the joke about the pregnancy itself, which was already established.
I’m being nitpicky, yes. But I feel it’s my job to defend Sarah Palin, one of my idols. I worship her, you know.
4moreyears Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Maybe I haven’t been paying enuf attention lately but this seems like a more mellow flap than I have observed in the past?
I worship Sarah Palin also as YOUR 2012 candidate >;~)>
flap Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I’m a mellow guy…except when it comes to certain issues such as abortion. Everyone has passion about certain issues, right?
I also worship Sarah Palin as everything I want and desire in a woman. You like that? ;)
June 13th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
There are enough differences between the jokes to see that Letterman crossed the line and Leno did not. Who one sides with now is going to be defined along party and ideological lines. We’re in a big gray center now and won’t analyze our way out. Both sides should step back. I think Letterman made a mistake and the sharks on the right smell blood in the water, but they’ll go elsewhere soon enough. Dave is just big enough to swim away.
June 13th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
During the election, when Leno told the joke, Palin was making the news anyway because she was a candidate. Now, she needs to keep her profile in the headlines at any cost. I don’t know why. Maybe she thinks this kind of publicity is good? Maybe she is a narcissist? Maybe she just doesn’t understand politics on the national level.
One thing I know is that if she wants to be taken serisouly, she should be doing it on the issues. Making herself a sparring partner with Letterman is a bad move. She should be trying to figure out how to get Obama, Pelosi or Reid to address things she says. If she can make herself the sparring partner to one of them the same way Nixon forced LBJ to respond- then she will have proven herself a savvy politician.
June 13th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
David has made the same joke about “a Rod Maddonna”
many times.
When are the right wing radio nuts going to defend Madonna?
Is she not a woman enough to be defended? Hello!
sbj Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Madonna rocks and I’d be glad to defend her.
pierre Reply:
June 13th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Yes, Madonna rocks and she can take a joke.
JaredfromTexas Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 12:05 am
PIERRE,
If you cannot honestly identify the differences between Palin and Madonna, then there’s no hope for you…
One made her living as an entertainer…often using her body as a prop…the other as a public servant.
Do the math and get back to me.
pierre Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 12:18 am
A woman is a woman!!
Remember what Jesus did to the woman that
everybody was calling a prostitute.
Now do think that Jesus would defend all
women?
JaredfromTexas Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 12:39 am
PIERRE,
For someone who so abhorrently excoriates conservatism and christianity on a regular basis…I find it very odd you would invoke christian principles to try to prove your position.
Yes, a woman is a woman…
Refresh my memory…where were you when the left-wing constantly berated Palin during the campaign? Or even on this website? eerily silent…if memory serves…
If a woman is to be treated equally as the next…where is your outrage for those people on this site (AVERAGE JAMES, SARAH, SOUTHERNGIRL, ERICG, ROCKY, et al) who denigrate Palin on a regular basis?
wait…I’ll hold my breath…
pierre Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Where was your outrage when:- your leader-Rush
keept calling Michelle Obama “ma belle”?
-your great American-Hannity kept calling Obama’s mother a “White trash”.
Again, analyse to understand “in the context”.
Hey , Christianity is not your monopoly—-It’s
universal for so many groups.
Defend all women, not just Sarah…….
JaredfromTexas Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 2:02 am
PIERRE,
YOU are the one feigning outrage over the unequal treatment of women…Hence your Madonna injection…
I’ll ask again…where was YOUR outrage during the campaign? Or do you reserve your outrage for the conservatives? Hmm?
Surely you’re smart enought to realize that calling someone a name does NOT equate to a joke about getting “knocked up” by a stranger…aren’t you?
Rush is NOT my leader, dittohead…
Again, analyse to understand “in the context”.
Again…Ditto…enlighten us with your congnitive prowess please…because you’ve done an excellent job thusfar!
Defend all women, not just Sarah…….
How ’bout you “Defend all women”…including Sarah…
jake Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 2:06 am
“One made her living as an entertainer…often using her body as a prop…the other as a public servant.”
I agree completely – Madonna is a fabulous public servant.
JaredfromTexas Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 2:37 am
JAKE,
Madonna is a fabulous public servant
Only for those who dare to venture forth into charted…and charted…and charted…and charted territory…
By the way…I think we’ve finally found the point at which cleverness is replaced by absolute dumbness…
You’re a hoot at parties, aren’t ya?
jake Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Madonna has done a lot more for America than Sarah Palin has ever done – in fact Sarah just loves spending all those tax dollars that Madonna sends to Alaska – the Welfare State.
JaredfromTexas Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 3:30 am
JAKE,
Madonna has done a lot more for America than Sarah Palin has ever done
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! You’re joking, right?
If, by more, you mean propogating a bra-phenomenon…then, yes…Madonna has done more.
HOWEVER, I’d hardly say that constitutes public service.
Alaska is the Welfare State, huh? newsflash…the majority of states in the Union can now be called welfare states…considering most states in the Union just got a boatload of stimulus money from the Fed Gov’t.
Didn’t you get the memo?
Facts are your friend, amigo…
June 13th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Alan, c’mon – the jokes are not comparable.
Palin went to NY with Willow, her 14 year old. A real event – and Letterman intentionally dragged the kid into his perverse joke. Do you really think he didn’t ‘know’ that Bristol wasn’t there? What he did is just sick, and he should apologize. Leno just made fun of Bristol’s pregnancy and that is fair game because she did do it. Not Willow.
June 13th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
For all the women out there:
If somebody call you ” a White trash”, should he be off the air?
If so, should the authors(Hannity, Savage) who called Obama’s mother ” a White trash”, be off the air?
JFA Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 12:19 am
the “Comunnity Organizer-in Chiefs” mother is white trash! She abondoned him when he was a child and went to another country and remarried and left him to his grandparents to raise. That’s white trash.
JFA Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Well, maybe it could be any color you want to paint it.
pierre Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 1:57 am
So why does Palin want David Letterman to aplogize to all 18-yo ladies?
Any 18 yo can have a baby out of wedlock and becomes the ” a Rod joke” of the nation.
So if you can direspect any woman as white-trash,David can do the same.
What happens to your so called christian principles?
June 13th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Conan 10/08:
“Some lighter campaign news – Saturday night, Sarah Palin is going to
drop the 1st puck at the Philadelphia Flyers’ hockey game. Then Palin
will spend the rest of the game trying to keep the hockey players out of
her daughter’s penalty box.”
http://www.nt2099.com/J-ENT/news/american-entertainment/quotables-from-nbcs-late-night-with-conan-obrien-october-6/
June 13th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
hey Allen and the other liberal kooks out there!
Maybe during the Leno joke, Sean and Sarah’s supporters where busy trying to fend off your attempts to try to say that baby Trig was somehow Bristol’s son. You idiots remember that. You freaks have been attacking Palin’s family for about a year now.
OldLefty Reply:
June 14th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Hey tonytexas and the other CONSERVATIVE kooks out there!
About the same number of people said that as those who said the the Clintons had V1nce Foster killed.
June 14th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
None of you right wing arseholes gave a rat’s patootie when Tammy Bruce referred to Michelle as “trash in the white house.”
And I believe Letterman when he says he was referring to Bristol. I know Sarah thinks the sun rises and sets in here but not everyone follows her on twitter –
David did not know which daughter was there.
It’s pretty clear poor persecuted sarah forgot to pack her big girl panties for the trip to new york.
June 14th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
There’s a great new video clip that exposes the factually-deficient Hannity and Huckabee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqUqaTXB6v4
June 14th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
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