Sure, Leno would make jokes at the expense of George W. Bush or Barack Obama, but they were the same kinds of fill-in-the-punchline gags that Bob Hope might have made about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Taxes are too high, Congress can’t get anything done, what about those campaign promises, hey fellas? If either Bush or Obama would have been in the audience for one of Jay’s monologues, they likely would have chuckled politely if they hadn’t fallen asleep.
Jimmy Fallon picked up the banal baton, taking over The Tonight Show with an enthusiastic emphasis on goofy games and silly song parodies, an offend-no-one approach that initially put him on top of the late-night rating heap.