Jay Leno Gets It: Stephen Colbert and Late Night Died Because of Blatantly Partisan Politics

Back in the 1990s, the late-night wars were a pretty big deal in American television. With everyone wondering who would be the next Johnny Carson, things got pretty intense. David Letterman was the edgy comedian, popular with younger viewers and 'the critics,' while Jay Leno was considered the 'safer' choice who would appeal to all of middle America (and keep network executives out of trouble with the FCC).

HBO even made a movie about all of the drama, called The Late Shift.

In the end, Leno got Carson's slot on NBC's The Tonight Show, while Letterman went to CBS to form The Late Show, which has now been ruined by Stephen Colbert.

You would think that Letterman would be mad at Colbert for destroying his legacy, but no. Letterman fell into the same category as Colbert in his latter years, where politics superseded comedy. Recently, he joined the chorus of leftists screeching that Colbert's firing was an outrage, even hilariously claiming, in Sunny Hostin's case, that it 'threatens the Constitution'.

Meanwhile, Leno is happily enjoying his retirement and seems to be the ONLY current or former late-show host who understands that you don't get to angrily insult half of America and get to keep your job.

When Trulio asked if Leno had any advice for comedians today, the 'Jay Leno’s Garage' host referred to his longtime friendship with late comedy legend Rodney Dangerfield.
'I knew Rodney 40 years,' he said. 'I have no idea if he was Democrat or Republican. We never discussed [it], we just discussed jokes.'
'And to me, I like to think that people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, you know, the pressures of life, whatever it might be,' Leno continued. 'And I love political humor, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just what happens when people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.'

'I just find getting out — I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture,' he continued. 'When I was with Rodney, it was always in the economy of words — get to the joke as quickly as possible.'

Imagine that. After a long day of work, people don't want to be scolded about who they voted for before they go to bed?

That's just crazy talk.

Leno -- whose show consistently beat Letterman and other rivals in the ratings, by the way -- ended his critique with a simple directive: 'Just do what's funny.'

And that is why he was successful for so many years, while Colbert will be looking for a job soon, with Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and others not far behind him.

Turns out ridiculing half of their audience nightly instead of trying to make them laugh was a bad business decision. What a shock. https://t.co/JoxXzEkC5u
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) July 27, 2025

While David letterman chastises the network, Leno gets it. https://t.co/5oG73mNQZy
— GAgirl1967❤️🖤 (@SavvyTamz_57) July 27, 2025

It's not exactly rocket surgery.

Leno also noted in his interview that he would consistently get hate mail (or fan letters) from both sides of the political aisle. That should be a great sign for a comedian that he is approaching his job the right way.

But Colbert wasn't interested in being funny. He was interested in getting applause from people who agreed with him.

Joe Rogan has called such people 'clapter comedians' and has noted that they always end up failing.

Leno was the last late night show I watched on a regular basis. Colbert’s a propagandist and believes that’s his job. https://t.co/lRYI9pn8l5
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) July 27, 2025

I miss when Jay Leno dominated late night TV back in the 1990’s. https://t.co/1c3H9StjGm
— David M -דוד (@runningstrong8) July 27, 2025

In fairness, Letterman was also very funny in his day. But as he grew older, you could see the comedian start to fade away and the cranky old man yelling at clouds start to seep in. That transition is now complete.

Like Colbert's TDS, Letterman also suffered from a similar ailment. In his case, it was BDS, 'Bush Derangement Syndrome.' He was never truly very funny after George W. Bush was inaugurated 25 years ago. He just wanted to rant at the President all the time.

But the real problem isn't so much that they hated the Republican Presidents, it's that they could ONLY mock them, usually in a bitter way and not a funny one, and never find humor in their own side's failings.

One thing about purely partisan, nightly, comedy over a *long* (decades) is that it elevates the difficulty and makes it more likely to fall into a boring rut.

You had an incredibly vain, unpopular, president in obvious physical and mental collapse and they couldn't mine it. https://t.co/zRCjuvZqi5
— Peter Spiliakos (@petespiliakos) July 27, 2025

If Colbert were an actual comedian -- like Leno is (and Letterman once was) -- there is simply no way we could have gone through four years of Joe Biden without his show having a field day with the 46th President's constant screw-ups, verbally and physically.

Not writing any jokes or skits about that, EVER, was even more of a dead giveaway than how Colbert used to go on profanity-laden rants about Trump.

The ironic part is that Colbert is almost certainly taking some solace in the fact that other media figures are sticking up for him right now, and that there are (tiny) protests in the street outside his studio.

But the joke's on him. Those people don't actually care about him, or love him, or think he is funny. They are pretending to care because they don't want the same thing to happen to them. And deep down, they know it will because they are as broken as he is..

In the end, after he is off the air, the left will forget about him just as quickly as they forget every other 'current thing' they embrace.

On the other hand, Leno is still pretty much a beloved public figure by most of America, left, right, and center. He's no Johnny Carson, but, of course, he knows that and never pretended that he was. On the contrary, he has always been grateful for what he is, what he has been, and for the fans who made him rich and famous.

Mostly, though, Jay Leno understands what it means to be a comedian.

And that's something Stephen Colbert forgot a long, long time ago, if he ever knew it at all.