A brief history of late-night hosts apologizing

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – MAY 5: Comedian Jay Leno participates in a rally to protest draconian punishment of women and gay people announced by the Sultan of Brunei outside the Beverly Hills Hotel, which is owned by the Sultan, on May 5, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. The Sultan of Brunei is planning to implement a brand of Sharia Penal Code which calls for the stoning of people for various offenses including homosexual acts, adultery, sodomy and extramarital sexual relations, a move that has been criticized by The United Nations. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Jay Leno earns GLAAD’s ire

Jay Leno made a career out of softball interviews, toothless jokes, and generally avoiding anything remotely controversial. No wonder he was king of the aging baby boomer demographic. So imagine the public’s surprise when the vanilla host of The Tonight Show made a comment so obviously dumb and tone deaf, even his guest called him out on it.

During an interview with Ryan Phillippe in 2008, Leno discussed the actor’s early experiences portraying gay characters. “Can you give me, like – say that camera is your gay lover … Can you give me your ‘gayest look?’” he said to an instantly mortified Phillippe. Visibly uncomfortable, he responded, “Wow…that is so something I don’t want to do.”

Condemned by GLAAD and with commentators divided over whether he was homophobic, Leno apologized. “In talking about Ryan’s first role, I realize that what I said came out wrong…I certainly didn’t mean any malice. I agree it was a dumb thing to say, and I apologize.”

Seeing as Leno has a long history of being an outspoken supporter of gay rights and marriage and grilling prominent conservative politicians like Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, I think we can safely chalk this up to a slip-up by someone who should know better. However, it should be noted that most of these incidents happened after the Phillippe incident.