Outgoing “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno poked fun at former President and Punch-Line-in-Chief Bill Clinton more than any other public figure, according to new study.
Leno, who on Thursday signs off for good from “The Tonight Show,” has told 4,607 opening-monologue jokes about Clinton, according to research by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University.
The comical Bubba-bashing accounted for more than 10 percent of the 43,792 jabs Leno has launched at politicians since he took over “Tonight” from Johnny Carson in 1992, according to George Mason.
“Leno’s monologues focused on power and scandal, and Bill Clinton was the top twofer,” said center director Robert Lichter.
Runner-up to Clinton as Leno’s No. 1 punching bag is President George W. Bush at 3,239 barbs through Jan. 24.
“Most of them [Clinton jokes] were about his womanizing and his relationship with [wife] Hillary [Clinton] — that was its own whole sub-category,” Lichter said.
“But early on, it was more about his weight and eating junk food. But there were other womanizing jokes, too, Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones and the like. It was the gift that kept on giving.”
Politicians dominated Leno’s list of comic targets.
Following Clinton and Bush in the top 10 were Al Gore, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, O.J. Simpson, Dick Cheney, Michael Jackson, Monica Lewinsky and Bob Dole.
Leno targeted Democrats a little more than the GOP, with 10,885 jokes directed at Dems and 9,465 against Republicans.
Lichter is publishing a book this spring, “Politics is a Joke: How TV Comedians are Remaking Political Life.”
The author said Leno’s 11:35 p.m. rival, David Letterman at CBS, has a joke bias in favor of Democrats at about the same ratio as Leno’s slight lean toward Republicans.
“The thing about comedians, unlike journalists, they’re not supposed to evenhanded,” Lichter said.
The George Mason research showed that Leno believes Americans can laugh at anything — including a murder suspect like [O.J.] Simpson and an accused child molester like [Michael] Jackson, Lichter said.
“These kinds of things [the criminal trials of O.J. and Jacko] become public events, even if — or especially if — it’s of a distasteful circumstance.
“You’re talking about infotainment, and Americans are willing to laugh at anything, even up to child molestation and murder.”