The Fearless Blogger

click image to get your own Conan Hair portrait via Buzzfeed.com

The recent NBC “Tonight Show” battle has provided a wealth of video clips as each host and their supporters take on-air jabs at each other.

Of all the clips making the rounds this one may be the least current, but (in my opinion) it’s the most successful at making Leno look like a jerk.  Proving that no one does a better job of making Jay look like an a-hole than Jay, it’s a clip of Leno’s 2004 announcement of his plans to hand the Tonight Show over to Conan in 2009.

Some classic quotes:

When I took this show over, boy there was a lot of animosity between me and Dave and who’s going to get it, and quite frankly a lot of good friendships were permanently damaged and I don’t want to see anybody have to go through that again.

You know, this show is like a dynasty. You hold it and then you hand it off to the next person and I don’t want to see all the fighting and all the who’s better and nasty things back and forth in the press so right now, here it is:

Conan it’s yours. See you in five years, buddy.

As James Poniewozik points out in his post about the video

. . .the biggest danger to Leno among the audience is not his money, or sympathy for Conan, or the notion that he was somehow pulling the strings behind NBC’s decision. It’s being seen as a phony. Or, more to the point, actually being a phony.

People will forgive a lot of comedians they love. They’ll forgive affairs, offensive remarks, arrests, jokes that crossed a line. But they rely on guys like Leno to puncture other people’s phoniness and to have an impeccable B.S. detector. . .

My guess is Leno’s B.S. detector finally broke down from the stress of Leno setting it off himself so frequently.

Update: I found this clip of Conan’s 2004 announcement on Funny or Die & I thought it was worth including

I'm with Coco! (image courtesy of sirmikeofmitchell.com)

For months I’ve been perplexed, trying to figure out what is was that made the Leno show suck so very, painfully badly.

Confession: I used to enjoy Leno on the Tonight Show. I’ll even admit to being a bit of a fan.  One that even followed Kevin Eubanks on Twitter. I actually was excited to watch the premiere of his prime time show.

I didn’t make it past the first half hour.  Leno’s performance in his new time slot was so bad that I couldn’t even tolerate it as background noise.  I found it to suck to such a degree that its extreme suckiness was a distraction. It’s douche chill bad.

Did he lose his writers? Is it the lack of a couch?  Did taking so much time off impact Jay’s confidence? How could a show be THAT bad? What happened?! These were the questions that buzzed around my brain each night at 1opm since September 14, 2009.

Mystery Solved
Based on recent events, I finally have a theory. Sucking that badly was no accident: Leno’s been sucking intentionally!

It’s all part of his master plan to get his old spot back hosting the “Tonight Show” and NBC execs were in on it too.

How else do you explain the chain of events that boils down to NBC rewarding Leno’s abysmal ratings by giving him exactly what he wanted all along? read more

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year marks a first for the Fearless Blogger – preparing Thanksgiving dinner!

Since I can’t work my tofurky magic sitting here blogging, I’m relying on my muppet friends to host my online holiday celebration.

Can’t Make Pumpkin Pie Without Pumpkins!

How Not to Roast a Turkey

Thanksgiving is About Family – The Swedish Chef & His Uncle

A Turkey that Likes Thanksgiving?

Ode to Joy

Sarah extolls the virtues of running (from runnersworld.com)

Here’s the deal: I want to share this video with you, but it’s late and I’m tired.

Frankly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay awake long enough to provide some example to substantiate this post’s title.

I know, I know – people can’t just go around making bold assertions – blanket generalizations – without providing evidence to back them up. It’s just not done! No one’s going to buy into empty cliches.

No amount of winks and catch-phrases can distract people from the absence of verifiable facts.

I get it – generic and vague isn’t good enough. People need specifics. I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring them to you.

In the meantime, check out this video of Sarah Palin fans sharing the reasons they support her.

What’s that?

Without a single example to support my accusation, do I actually expect people to take this post seriously?

You betcha.

On November 20, 2009, at a Borders bookstore in Columbus, Ohio, Sarah Palin held a book signing event in support of “Going Rogue”. Palin’s supporters wanted her to run for the presidency, but they weren’t exactly sure what she’d do as president. Short on specifics, most of them were uncertain what her policy positions are. They just felt that they liked her. She’s “real”. And that the solution to all of our country’s problems—health care, energy, the deficit, unemployment, and the economy—was to cut taxes and lower spending, and Palin, they said, would solve them by doing just that.

This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviews) and Erick Stoll (camera).

"Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is." - Yoda

I was trying to think of a blog post topic that would give me a good excuse to share this photo of little Jazz (my nephew).

It occurred to me that whenever I find something that puts a smile on my face, I like to include it here, so I can share the smile with you.

Well, looking at this picture, I can’t help but smile ear-to-ear. I hope it puts a grin on your face too!

(I think that’s as good enough of an excuse for a blog post as any – don’t you?)

Happy belated Halloween!  May the force be with you!!