Jay Leno went after his former late night rival on Friday using some of his opening monologue to poke fun at David Letterman's recently disclosed sexual escapades with staffers.

As Friday's program began, Leno quipped, "If you came here tonight for sex with a talk-show host, you’ve got the wrong studio."

But that was only the beginning (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Mediaite):

It's not too often where both a prominent conservative and a prominent liberal would deviate from their ideological consensus on a particular issue.

However, the news of the day - Chicago being beaten out by Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games is one such instance. MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough, who identifies himself as a conservative, said he was glad President Barack Obama gave it shot in an Oct. 2 post on the Huffington Post.

Ironically, the editor of the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, who is identified as a progressive, said on NBC's Oct. 2 "The Jay Leno Show" that Obama shouldn't have gone to Copenhagen - but not for the reason a lot of critics are suggesting.

As NewsBusters' Brent Baker previously reported, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh had fun with Jay Leno Thursday evening actually driving an electric car over a cardboard cut-out of Al Gore.

Prior to that hilarious scene, Limbaugh sat down with Leno and discussed politics, President Obama, Medicare, and even weight loss.

For those that missed it, the entire first segment is embedded below the fold with the transcript (videos in two parts):

Taking the “Green Car Challenge” on Thursday night's Jay Leno Show, a svelte Rush Limbaugh -- declining to don a helmet -- hopped into the electric Ford Focus on Leno's track behind his NBC studio in Burbank, but instead of driving around the hanging cut outs of Al Gore and Ed Begley Jr., Limbaugh ran right into them.

Then, to Leno's cries of “Oh, c'mon!”, a delighted Limbaugh accepted the penalty against his time score and stopped, backed up and smashed into them again. Limbaugh's maneuvering ensured a lower score (greater time) than the three previous contestants since Leno's show debuted last week: Drew Barrymore, Al Michaels and Bob Costas.

But that didn't bother Limbaugh who afterward pumped his fists as he boasted: “It was worth it! It was worth it!”

Rush Limbaugh will make a rare comedy show appearance tonight (Thursday) as a guest on The Jay Leno Show.

It airs on NBC at 10 PM EDT/PDT, 9 PM CDT.

He should appear in the second half of the hour-long program.

On Friday, RushLimbaugh.com will likely have video, but watch tonight on TV to see it sooner.

UPDATE: Just saw a promo. Limbaugh will also take part in the "Green Car Challenge," so tune in earlier than the mid-way mark.

Pivoting off of Christopher Anderson's new book, 'Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage,' Jay Leno delivered this monologue joke, with MSNBC's Chris Matthews as the punch line, on Wednesday night's prime time Jay Leno Show on NBC:

There's a new book out about Barack and Michelle Obama's marriage and in it they say Michelle Obama was very upset by all these drooling blondes who would push up to her husband and rub themselves up against him. They said this one blonde was especially suggestive and kept rubbing up against the President. Finally, Michelle said, “Look, Chris Matthews, get away from my husband.”

Rush Limbaugh will be Leno's guest on Thursday night.

Critics love David Letterman. They love him because he’s mean and liberal and does everything they demand: further the leftist agenda through the brutal use of humiliation to target any public figure (or their child) who might derail Leftist causes.

And contrary to conventional wisdom, Letterman’s not edgy. In fact, he’s just the opposite. Doing exactly what those who can criticize you want you to do is not edgy. Kissing the big Manhattan/Los Angeles bi-coastal [rear] of the elite is not edgy. He’s their jester; their puppet. Worse, he’s about as funny as watching your old, half-deaf Uncle intimidate, humiliate and demean your Aunt and then smile at the rest of the family as though he’s just reaffirmed his manhood. Letterman reminds me of the Jason Robards character in “Parenthood” in more ways than you can imagine. In other words, he’s a jerk, but in a sad end-of-his-life kind of way.

Oh, and how the elite critics resented nice ole’ Jay Leno for cleaning Letterman’s ratings’ clock all those years. And now that Jay’s back eating up primetime, they couldn’t wait to jump all over him with sniffing disapproval fed through a filter of wrist-flicking dismissal.

After exactly one show the knives came out:

Michael Moore, the man of many hats - documentary filmmaker, political scientist and now, singer.

Moore has been making the rounds to promote his new movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story." On NBC's Sept. 15 "Jay Leno Show," Moore appeared and was asked what was wrong with capitalism.

"Capitalism is actually legalized greed," Moore said. "There's nothing wrong with people earning money, starting a business, selling shoes. That's not what I'm talking about. We're at a point now Jay, in this country, where the richest 1 percent, the very top 1 percent have more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined."

I have had it with Letterman! I used to defend this guy to all of my friends who liked Leno better. I would say from a comic stand point that Jay was a great comic but Letterman was more original and had more style and class than Leno. Two recent events have changed my mind: Jay’s classy departure from the “Tonight Show” and Letterman’s classless left-wing attacks on the kids of politicians.

A comic needs to be an equal opportunity offender. We can’t pick sides in politics. We can have a point of view and a favorite but being a comic means when our guy drops the ball, you have to pick it up and smash it in his face. My friend and political opposite, Will Durst, said this a few years back about Mort Saul (I am paraphrasing here), “You can’t sit down to dinner with the Reagans and then pretend you’re still willing to sling mud at them.”

That is what is wrong with comedians like Letterman, Garofalo, and Stewart. They only see one side. Why do none of them at least give love taps to Obama? Why didn’t at least one of them make some comedic hay out of Obama gaffs like “57 states” and a reference to speaking “Austrian?”

The guy is the President and he can’t shake his mother-in-law and you can’t find a joke in that?

On Monday’s Tonight Show on NBC, Jay Leno incorrectly called New York’s former Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer a Republican during the show’s monologue as he joked about Republican sex scandals. Inspired by John McCain’s daughter Meghan’s recent declaration that she is a "pro-sex Republican," Leno used her comment to poke fun at Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, as well as Democrat Spitzer, who were both revealed to have hired prostitutes. But Leno’s joke assumed both disgraced politicians were Republicans: "Don’t confuse that with other Republicans like Senator Vitter and Eliot Spitzer. They like to get their sex from a pro."

If Leno was confused about Spitzer's party affiliation, it is hardly surprising, as the MRC’s Brent Baker previously documented the mainstream media’s reluctance to label Spitzer as a Democrat, and Rich Noyes documented the media’s greater willingness to label Republicans involved in sex scandals.

Below is the complete text of Leno’s joke from the Monday, May 25, Tonight Show on NBC:

Did you hear the one about Barack Obama?

You didn't?

Well, that's because jokes about him are still forbidden to America's comedians.

As the Los Angeles Times' Greg Braxton wrote Monday, this breaks a long-standing tradition of comics jabbing at the White House resident as often as possible (h/t Big Hollywood):

The 41-year-old Oscar winner Jamie Foxx dished out some disgusting advice for Disney teen sensation Miley Cyrus, telling her to, among other things, “make a sex tape and grow up.” This tasteless “advice” coming from the father of a teen to a sixteen year-old girl didn’t seem to outrage anyone at ABC, CBS, or NBC.

“The Foxxhole,” Jamie Foxx’s weekend radio show was the forum for a discussion of what makes an artist respectable. Foxx and his co hosts suggested that famous pop idol Miley Cyrus could gain respect as an artist if she would “make a sex tape and grow up... get like Britney Spears and do some heroin... do like Lindsay Lohan and get some crack in your pipe... catch Chlamydia on a bicycle seat.”

As if the “advice” wasn’t enough, Foxx also made fun of Cyrus’ appearance. To assure himself that he had identified the correct Cyrus, Foxx asked his co host, “The one with all the gums? She gotta get a gum transplant… s**t. Uh, uh, let me get an order of mouth, light on teeth, uh heavy on the gum.”

In the wake of President Barack Obama's insensitive gaffe on Thursday's "Tonight Show," a Special Olympics bowler, with a staggering 266 average, has marvelously challenged the current White House resident to a match.

Such was first briefly reported by TMZ Friday, with an elaboration by the Detroit Free Press Saturday:

On Friday, a Special Olympian from Ann Arbor fired back: "I can beat the president."

Kolan McConiughey has rolled five perfect games in his life -- including a 300 last fall in Lansing while competing in the Special Olympics.

Below the fold is a truly heart-warming video about McConiughey:

All day Friday the newspapers, TV stations, radio, and the Internet were abuzz with Barack Obama's failed joke about the Special Olympics Thursday night on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. In shades of John Kerry's failed joke about the unschooled being "stuck in Iraq," the president's apologists said he was merely joking and didn't mean to say anything disparaging about people with developmental challenges. Still, the incident stirred passionate discussion all day Friday. At least it did for everyone but The New York Times's Helene Cooper. Cooper seemed not to even realize it happened if her review of the show is any indication.

One has to wonder, with the entire country talking about Obama's Special Olympics quip, how did Cooper miss that part of the story? Why would she not even make a passing notation of the controversy the joke caused?

Pres. Obama and Jay Leno share a laugh on the Tonight Show, March 19, 2009. Photo Reuters/Larry Downing

This morning, MSNBC’s Alex Witt was in full damage control mode, working whatever apologist explanations she could find into her reluctant coverage of last night's teleprompter-free “Tonight Show” appearance by the president. [audio available here]

Obama was doing quite well at staying on message, when he made the following comment in reaction to Jay Leno's question about his infamous lack of bowling ability:

JAY LENO: I imagine the bowling alley has been burned and closed down.

President BARACK OBAMA: No, I've been practicing.

LENO: Really?

OBAMA: I bowled a 129. I had –

LENO: Oh, no, that's very good. Yeah. That's very good, Mr. President.

OBAMA: This is sort of like Special Olympics or something.

During his appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show," President Obama made a joke that may come back to haunt him, degrading the physical abilities of participants in the Special Olympics.

Obama's joke came after host Jay Leno asked him whether he had torn out the White House bowling alley given the president's past difficulties with the sport.

(h/t NB reader J.H. Blair, video courtesy Ms Underestimated):

Did you know that AIG, aka American International Group, is an American company?

Well, on NBC's "Tonight Show" Wednesday, Jay Leno didn't, and the supposedly brilliant Keith Olbermann wasn't sure.

Imagine that.

A company that has been a hot topic in the news for at least the past six months, and these guys not only didn't know it was American, but also thought its initials stood for American "Insurance" Group (video embedded below the fold, relevant section at 3:50):

In a nice stroke of NBC corporate synergy, radical-left MSNBC host Rachel Maddow appeared Tuesday night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and when the topic turned to Rush Limbaugh, Maddow insisted that it’s one thing for Rush to oppose Obama’s socialist agenda before it passes, but once it becomes law, he should salute and get behind it:

"It is one thing to say, ‘I hope that this guy's proposed policies don't pass. I hope those don't become the policies of our country.’ But once they become the policies of the country, and they are designed to save us from this economic collapse, you ought to hope they succeed, unless you are hoping for your country to suffer worse in an economic collapse. I mean, actually rooting for the failure of your own federal government is pretty creepy."

This was not Maddow's approach to the Iraq war. After discussing the Obama recovery plans and the ongoing outrage over Bernard Madoff, Leno turned to Limbaugh:

LENO: Okay. Now, Rush Limbaugh is in the news. This whole thing. And this, publicity, he's got to be loving this.

MADDOW: Oh, yeah.

During this week, NBC’s Tonight Show host Jay Leno took a couple of noteworthy jabs at the anti-Bush mainstream media in America, on Monday joking that the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush was "offered his own show on MSNBC," and on Tuesday quipping that "he was so anti-Bush, at first people just assumed he was an American journalist."

By contrast, CBS’s Late Show host David Letterman used the episode to jab Fox News as he cracked on Tuesday that the "hot head" Iraqi journalist with "poor journalistic skills" was "offered his own show on Fox News." Below are transcripts of the relevant comments from this week’s Tonight Show on NBC and the Late Show on CBS: