Jimmy Kimmel, left, and Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show...

Jimmy Kimmel, left, and Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Credit: NBC Photo

 

 

  Oh you must read this. I'll get a clip up in a minute.

  Jimmy Kimmel explains Leno's "sucker punch" remark on "O" yesterday. 

  Bottom line: He says the producer wanted to ask dumb questions about his favorite "junk food."

  Jimmy wanted to talk about late night.

  (BTW, I'm with Kimmel on this one - he didn't sucker punch Leno; he simply starred in most memorable "10 @ 10" in  "The Jay Leno Show's" blessedly short tenure.)



“Excuse me if I look like I’ve been crying – it’s been an Oprah-whelming day for me.

 

Jay Leno today sat down for a very serious talk with Oprah. There was no studio audience, just Jay and Oprah speaking titan to titan.

 

It’s kind-of funny, you know, celebrities usually go on Oprah with these intense, serious interviews to get support from the public after they had sex with their father or married Bobby Brown or something, Jay Leno went on because they gave him the Tonight Show back. So please, keep him in your prayers.

 

Oprah was pretty forthright with Jay. She told him she thought a joke he made about David Letterman was ‘beneath him’ and acknowledged that 95% of her audience they polled was on Conan’s side.

 

And then Oprah asked Jay about me.

 

{showed clip of interview with Jay Leno saying he felt ‘sucker punched’ by Jimmy Kimmel}

 

I don’t know that I would characterize going on someone’s comedy show and making jokes qualifies as a sucker-punch, but as long as Jay is talking about me, you want to know what the real story is?

 

{audience responds ‘YES’}

 

It would be funnier if you said ‘no.’ ‘Nah, I’m king of sick of that, let’s make fun of the Gosselins.’

 

Here’s the story. A couple of weeks ago, I did a show where I dressed up like Jay Leno and impersonated him. And Cleto dressed like his cackling bandleader and impersonated him and we had a lot of fun at their expense.

 

So the next morning, Jay calls me. I was in a meeting and they said ‘Jay Leno’s on the phone,’ and I was like great, this will be comfortable.

 

But he gets on the phone and says he thought it was funny. Now, I’m almost positive that this is a lie, but I take his word for it.

 

So then, about an hour later, “The Tonight Show” calls and they ask me to do the 10 @ 10 - this is the thing where Jay interviews someone via satellite and asks 10 questions.

 

So I say yes, assuming that we are going to talk about what’s going on in late-night.

 

Now, before they do these 10 @ 10 interviews, a producer calls to go over all the questions. And then you’re supposed to go on the show and act like you’re surprised by the questions. So I get on the phone and the producer goes through about 30 questions and none of them are about what’s going on in late night. The questions were like, ‘What’s your junk food weakness?’

 

So I say to the guy, ‘You know a little of this is fine, but I really think we have to talk about what’s going on with Jay and Conan because that’s what people want to hear about – not about my junk food weakness. I weigh more than 200 hundred pounds, all junk foods are my weakness.’

 

He says ‘yeah I know, but there’s been a lot of talk about that stuff and we don’t want to beat it to death.’

 

But what he did not understand was I did want to beat it to death. I like beating things to death. And so I did.

 

Because, if I go on that show and answer ten questions about junk food, I’m the one that looks like a jerk. ‘Hi Jay, oh I love Raisinettes!’

 

If I made any mistake, the mistake I made was thinking Jay would have anything other to say than what was written on the cue cards. I figured he’d get into it and mix it up. You know, at one time he was a comedian. But he just stood there, kind-of reading through the questions like a robot and then goes off and rats me out to Oprah.

 

That’s a sucker punch right there, he’s a tattle tale. Oprah and I had a wonderful relationship and now it’s ruined because of Jay.

 

And by the way, watch out Oprah, don’t think he won’t take your show next.

 

Anyway, I don’t know whether this attempt he made at damage control will work, but it is fair to listen to what he has to say.

 

By the way, I’m not answering the phone tomorrow.”

 

 

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