We at Miquelon.org have dealt with both comedians and their forays into the world of French Bashing.
Conan O’Brien had been invited to Toronto in early 2004 and aired one of the most vile anti-Quebec and anti-French sketches ever. This comedian’s associate, Robert Smigel and his hand puppet Triumph, caused such a stir the issue was raised in Canada’s parliament.
The very next day, we hand delivered a letter to Conan’s hotel outlining the facts behind French Bashing and seriousness of the issue in the context of Canada’s political and social makeup. We were not the only ones to voice our concerns.
Conan O’Brien apologized.
James Douglas Muir Leno on the other hand has never shown any form of remorse for his insensitive and downright relentless bashing of the French. Having aired tasteless sketches and over 40 anti-French jokes between 2003 and 2006, Leno became the embodiment of French Bashing in American pop culture: from surrender jokes to jabs about our cleanliness, cowardice and duplicity.
In 2006, we drove across the United States to donate a box of books on French history to Jay Leno. We dubbed the operation Educating Jay and a documentary is currently in post-production. Leno never acknowledged our efforts and in a somewhat related story also refused to meet the Consul General of France in Los Angeles despite an open invitation.
One of these two men proved to be a true gentleman, able to accept criticism and apologize for his offences.
The other slandered the memory of the French Resistance and believes the French as a nation and people should be held in perpetual contempt.
Guess who we’re rooting for.
Read more :
- Conan O’Brien
- Jay Leno
I’m not very impressed with either one.
I spent a lot of time watching (monitoring) the entire late night spectrum, and I have to say Conan is probably the most genuine compared to Jay. Hands down.
Patton Oswalt: Jay Leno Is Like Nixon, I Don’t Like Him
O’Brien, Leno: I dislike and despise both of them – equally.
I remember this episode and the dude apologized shortly after. I remember they were talks in the Quebec forums about going there and do VERY unpleasant things to this guy if you know what I mean…
Conan O’Brien will be receiving a 33 million dollar settlement with NBC. That is definitely a heck of a ton of dough to offer an individual to merely disappear. I would confess that I very much favorJay Leno in that slot rather than the prime time slot, but I do believe that Conan demonstrated a whole lot of class in fighting to obtain that massive severence arrangement for his crew. I’m positive that he can land on his feet somewhere else in no time. If he does not, at least the 33 million will soften the landing.
Conan supposedly just got a contract for $45 Million. .. not too shabby. I think that could make up for this whole fiasco..
Genuinely insightful thanks, I’m sure your trusty followers may possibly want a whole lot more stories such as this continue the great work.
[…] Brief sample of the academic work going on at miquelon.org – more Conan versus Leno . They get upset with comedians making jokes. According to them, Jay Leno made over 40 anti-French jokes between 2003 and 2006. Wow! That averages to about 1 joke a month that is ‘anti-French’ on a show that runs probably 200 episodes a year. Maybe math isn’t a strong subject in Canada, but that doesn’t seem like very much, compared to other topics. When the OJ Trial was going on, Jay Leno made hundreds of inappropriate jokes about the murder trial. I found it offensive and so my action was to not watch. […]
[…] Brief sample of the academic work going on at miquelon.org – more Conan versus Leno . They get upset with comedians making jokes. According to them, Jay Leno made over 40 anti-French jokes between 2003 and 2006. Wow! That averages to about 1 joke a month that is ‘anti-French’ on a show that runs probably 200 episodes a year. Maybe math isn’t a strong subject in Canada, but that doesn’t seem like very much, compared to other topics. When the OJ Trial was going on, Jay Leno made hundreds of inappropriate jokes about the murder trial. I found it offensive and so my action was to not watch. […]