Allow Me to Quote...Myself?

I've never done this is 1,196 posts here on Rubinville, but I with all this late night TV madness, and suddenly everyone jumping on the anti-Jay Leno bandwagon, I have to quote myself and link you guys to an interview I did for The Gothamist back in 2005. Just click here.

For those of you with ADD (I assume most of you), who don't have the patience to read the whole article, allow me to clip out the key part...

What famous comedian is least deserving of his success?

The easy answer would be Carrot Top. Everyone will say Carrot Top. You ask nine out of ten comedians, "Who's the biggest hack in the world?," they'll say Carrot Top. I don't think that's the true answer. In some respects, Leno is the answer. Leno took a great television institution that was hosted by legends -- Jack Parr and Steve Allen and Carson --and Leno made it an embarrassment. All it is is part of the Hollywood machine. Leno has twenty writers to be that funny? I've got one writer to be this funny. Comedy has something to do with integrity. A real standup comic has integrity, and Leno has none. Bill Hicks did a great bit 15 years ago about Leno and how he's just owned by NBC: One day he'll be interviewing Joey from Blossom -- this a while back -- and Joey's going to say something and Leno's going to take out a gun and shoot himself in the head, and when his brains explode, it's going to form the NBC peacock because he's a company man to the end. Leno is everything that's wrong with entertainment. And I know Leno can crush me if he reads this, but you've got to have some sort of integrity. Being a comedian is not about promoting bullshit. But the Tonight Show has now become just a platform to promote movies. There's no truth to it. And that's fine if that's what the show is, but it wasn't always that. Carson nurtured great young comics. Leno's nurtured nobody. They're too insecure now to bring on anyone talented. And this is probably ensuring that I'll never be on Leno.

Not bad considering I said that 5 years ago and finally everyone is on board now. Oh, and for the record, I met Conan on the street about a year ago on the Upper West Side and even though it was raining he stopped, we chatted and he even gave me the show bookers name.

So yes, Conan, Ben and I will gladly follow you to Fox...