{"id":2689,"date":"2025-12-25T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/25\/this-is-the-most-surprising-comedian-named-in-johnny-carsons-secret-ban-list\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T13:00:00","slug":"this-is-the-most-surprising-comedian-named-in-johnny-carsons-secret-ban-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/25\/this-is-the-most-surprising-comedian-named-in-johnny-carsons-secret-ban-list\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is The Most Surprising Comedian Named In Johnny Carson\u2019s Secret Ban List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>The all-time greatest late-night host had a legendary ability to hold a grudge, even when it came to his own prot\u00e9g\u00e9s.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s younger comedy fans may find it hard to believe that, just a few decades ago, the most powerful man in comedy ran a nightly talk show on broadcast television. Johnny Carson was, in every sense of the phrase, comedy\u2019s greatest kingmaker during his time hosting <i>The Tonight Show<\/i>, and every ambitious stand-up comic in the country desperately wanted to play a spot on the NBC powerhouse show, and, maybe, even land a seat on the couch to talk to Johnny himself.<\/p>\n<section class=\"page-wrapper ck-outstream-wrapper\">\n<section class=\"ck-outstream\" id=\"outstream\"\/>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"module module-in-content-recommended \">\n<header>\n<h2>Don&#8217;t Miss<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<\/section>\n<p>As such, getting on Johnny\u2019s bad side could be a career-altering catastrophe for a comedian. Johnny\u2019s infamous <i>Tonight Show <\/i>naughty list was not a desirable honor for anyone in entertainment, so we were surprised to learn from Mark Malkoff\u2019s recent biography, <a target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/714761\/love-johnny-carson-by-mark-malkoff-with-david-ritz\/\"><span style=\"color:hsl(240,75%,60%);\"><i>Love Johnny Carson<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>, <\/i>that none other than Jay Leno was once temporarily on the show&#8217;s blacklist.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jay Leno&amp;apos;s First Appearance | Carson Tonight Show\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qvmQZ1jQjQk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Upon Leno&#8217;s <i>Tonight Show <\/i>debut in March, 1977, the up-and-comer from Andover, Massachusetts was an immediate hit, and Johnny invited his future successor to return to the show four more times over the following year. However, that fifth <i>Tonight Show <\/i>set in February, 1978 proved to be Leno&#8217;s most disappointing performance, and according to a <i>Tonight Show <\/i>insider, it nearly ended Leno&#8217;s professional relationship with his idol.<\/p>\n<p>Malkoff spoke to former <i>Tonight Show <\/i>stand-up talent scout Jim McCawley for <i>Love Johnny Carson<\/i>, and McCawley recalled a conversation with producer Peter Lassally about Leno&#8217;s future on the show following the bomb. Apparently, Lassally made it clear that, after the uninspiring performance, Johnny had zero interest in ever giving Leno his sixth spot. &#8220;&#8216;Johnny just doesn\u2019t like him. He doesn\u2019t like his jokes,&#8217; said Peter,&#8221; Malkoff wrote in his book. &#8220;&#8216;That\u2019s not going to change\u2026 Once he doesn\u2019t like someone, he doesn\u2019t start liking them later.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tonight Show Johnny Carson with Jay Leno 1987\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MeB81cXU6pY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Thankfully for Leno, Johnny proved to be much more pliable over the following years than his producers anticipated, and, by 1986, Leno was one of <i>The Tonight Show<\/i>&#8216;s go-to guest hosts. Then, when Johnny abdicated as the king of late-night in 1992, Leno beat out David Letterman for the role of Johnny&#8217;s heir, and he would spend the next couple of decades clinging onto the <i>Tonight Show <\/i>gig with such jealousy that you&#8217;d think Johnny came back from the dead in the body of Conan O&#8217;Brien.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cracked.com\/article_49518_this-is-the-most-surprising-comedian-named-in-johnny-carsons-secret-ban-list.html?newsletter-cat=comedy\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The all-time greatest late-night host had a legendary ability to hold a grudge, even when it came to his own prot\u00e9g\u00e9s. Today\u2019s younger comedy fans may find it hard to believe that, just a few decades ago, the most powerful man in comedy ran a nightly talk show on broadcast television. Johnny Carson was, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s3.crackedcdn.com\/phpimages\/article\/5\/5\/5\/1431555.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[5070,5069,2761,3978,79,1675,640,2248],"class_list":["post-2689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theatre_and_comedy","tag-ban","tag-carsons","tag-comedian","tag-johnny","tag-list","tag-named","tag-secret","tag-surprising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehotedit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}