Don’t worry, be funny: Comedy and Magic Club resident comedian Jay Leno offers perspective on Hermosa Beach resident comedian Jimmy Kimmel controversy

by Kevin Cody

Hermosa Beach became an improbable confluence for the national skirmish in the Cancel Culture Wars last week. Or the Consequence Culture Wars, as the conflict has been reframed by the Right.

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who recently built a home in Hermosa, was suspended last Wednesday, September 17, after 23 years as host of  “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC.

ABC did not give a reason for the suspension. But both the right and the left attributed it to Kimmel’s relentless mockery of President Trump.

Trump denied involvement in ABC’s decision, dredging up historical precedents, dating back to the murder of Thomas  Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. Becket was slain by knights loyal to King Henry II, after the King asked of his followers, “What miserable drones and traitors … let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?”

The comparison falters because Henry II, unlike Trump, expressed remorse for his henchmen’s actions.

ABC canceled Kimmel hours after FCC (Federal Communications Commission) Chair Brendan Carr said of Kimmel’s show, “Frankly, when you see stuff like this — I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” 

“The subsequent suspension of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ almost immediately morphed into a flashpoint for free speech in America,” the New York Times reported.

On Sunday, Jay Leno performed at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa, as he has almost every Sunday night since the club opened in 1978. The dean emeritus of late night television hosted the top rated  “Late Night Show with Jay Leno” on NBC from 1992 until 2014. 

During his NBC reign he’d come on the Comedy and Magic stage on Sundays holding a stack of joke cards. If people didn’t laugh after he read a card, he’d throw it over his shoulder. If they did, he’d put the card on the stage stool, which he never sat on. He’s a pacer. The following week, during his Tonight Show monologues, he’d repeat the jokes that had gotten laughs.

Leno didn’t return media calls for comment on Kimmel’s suspension. 

But his position on political humor is well known.

“People come to a comedy show to get away from things…. I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture. Just be funny” he said last summer on a podcast with David Trulio, president of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. 

He gave a professional reason for being non-partisan. 

“Why shoot for just half an audience. Why not try to get the whole audience,” he explained

There is also a risk in political humor that has nothing to do with retribution, Leno explained.

“What happens is people wind up cozying up to one side or the other,” he said on the podcast.

Leno was drawn into the Kimmel fray the day after Kimmel’s suspension while attending former Fox News reporter Chris Wallace’s Hollywood Walk of Fame Star unveiling.

“I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side on this one,” Leno told the reporters who ambushed him at the unveiling.

“Could you imagine anything like this happening to you when you were on the air?” a reporter asked.

Leno laughed. “These kinds of things happen all the time,” he said. 

A reporter asked if he was concerned about the future of comedy.

“It will be alright. It’s like tariffs. One day they’re on, one day they’re off,” he quipped.

A reporter asked if he were still on the air, how he would respond to Kimmel’s firing.

“I’m on the air with you guys right now,” he pointed out.

Then he put the Kimmel controversy in perspective.

“Patrick Henry said it best. ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ That was the first go around in this argument. It’s been going on for 250 years. In a free society, it will go on for another 250 years.”

He added, “You don’t get canceled for saying popular things. Usually, it’s the truth that winds up being canceled.”

Leno ended the sidewalk interview confident of a positive outcome.

“Jimmy will land on his feet. He’s a talented guy. He’s funny. He might be back in just a couple of weeks.”

On Monday, five days after Disney-owned ABC suspended Kimmel, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced “Jimmy Kimmel Live” would return to the air on Tuesday, September 30.

Sunday night, Leno drove from his Beverly Hills home to the Comedy and Magic Club in a midnight blue, 815 horse power 2025 Mustang GTD “Porsche killer.” He has 200 exotic cars, and treats them all like daily drivers. Hermosans know if there is an exotic car in front of Comedy and Magic, Leno is on stage.

Leno delivers his observational humor at a pace that gives the audience whiplash. Before the crescendo of laughter from one joke ends, he delivers another one, funnier than the first. By the end of the evening, audiences are exhausted. 

But when finally, Leno looks at his watch, and realizes its closing time, he’ll propose just one more round for the road. He’ll stand middle stage, and deliver a joke like you’d hear at Toastmasters. Except the jokes will punchlines out of left field. Those are the jokes the audience tells around the water cooler Monday morning because the blizzard of jokes that preceded them will have maddingly melted away.

Sunday’s show followed form.

He opened with jokes about prescription drugs whose side effects are worse than the diseases they are meant to cure. He asked why [Manhattan Beach-based) Skechers advertises its ‘Slip-in’  shoes for “active people.” “If you’re active, can’t you just bend over and tie your laces?” 

Then Leno  offhandedly mentioned he was on tour to entertain the troops.

The audience nodded approvingly until he added, “It’s easier than in the past because I didn’t have to leave Los Angeles.” 

Everyone laughed.

After two raunchy jokes about old people having sex, he referenced research that found President Trump speaks at a fifth grade level. 

“Doo doo heads,” was Trump’s reply to the news, according to Leno.

He questioned the claim of a newly released book that Abraham Lincoln was gay.

“Why?” Leno asked. “Because he went to the theater one time.” 

Before the laughs subsided, he plowed deeper into woke territory. 

“A recent study found the best city in the country for gays is Salt Lake City. What has happened to San Francisco? Maybe it’s because Salt Lake has ‘more men,’” he said.

The audience groaned.

After more rapid fire jokes, he feigned seriousness.

“Texas wants to arm teachers.” He paused.

“Does that mean librarians will get silencers?”

The audience reaction was equally divided between laughter and groans. 

He recalled how Trump made an issue during the last presidential campaign about whether his opponent, Kamala Harris, was Black or Indian.

“Now Trump has to answer whether he’s white or orange.”

Again the audience reaction was divided, between laughter and groans.

After Leno’s shows, the club is slow to open the exit doors to give Leno time to get away. The policy is not to protect Leno from fans. It’s to protect Leno from Leno. He is incapable of refusing requests for autographs and selfies.

A TMZ reporter and camera crew were waiting next to his Mustang GTD.

“How dangerous are the FCC threats?’ the TMZ reporter asked.

“Well, a flat tire can happen with any kind of car if you run over a nail,” Leno said.

Undeterred, the reporter asked, “Should Kimmel take ABC’s offer or walk away?”

“It’s up to Jimmy,” Leno answered.

“Were you ever threatened when you were on the air,” the reporter asked.

“Just by TMZ,” Leno said, in his unfailingly patient way. 

After thanking the reporter, he roared off down Hermosa Avenue. 

Kimmel’s opening monologue on his return to ABC Tuesday night was a heartfelt balance between appreciation and humor. He praised the murdered Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, for forgiving her husband’s killer, and thanked people for their support, in particular his fellow late night talk show hosts, “even Jay Leno.” 

His comments about Trump were equally heartfelt.

“You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired ‘bigly,’” he said, appropriating one of the President’s favorite manglings of the English language. 

Then he threw out a punchline that, in finest Leno fashion, united the left and right in laughter.

“He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this,” Kimmel said. ER