After Decades Of Complaints Over His Offensive Jokes About Asians, Jay Leno Is Finally Apologizing

Upon seeing a painting of Simon Cowell surrounded by his dogs while touring the America’s Got Talent set, Jay Leno commented that the canines looked like something one would find “on the menu at a Korean restaurant.” That incident happened in 2019, but the former-late night host has been making offensive jokes about the Asian community, many of them based around lazily racist stereotypes, for over a decade.

Leno finally apologized during a recent Zoom call with the Media Action Network for Asian Americans leader Guy Aoki following an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes, including a white gunman shooting and killing six Asian women last week.

“At the time I did those jokes, I genuinely thought them to be harmless. I was making fun of our enemy North Korea, and like most jokes, there was a ring of truth to them,” Leno told Aoki. “At the time, there was a prevailing attitude that some group is always complaining about something, so don’t worry about it. Whenever we received a complaint, there would be two sides to the discussion. Either ‘we need to deal with this’ or ‘screw ‘em if they can’t take a joke.’ Too many times I sided with the latter even when in my heart I knew it was wrong.” The two-time The Tonight Show host added that he was “issuing this apology. I do not consider this particular case to be another example of cancel culture but a legitimate wrong that was done on my part.”

Leno claims he knew his remarks were “wrong,” but he also says that his jokes have “a ring of truth to them.” It can’t be both. It’s also not the most convincing apology considering the “Korean restaurant” crack — which he made when the cameras weren’t on — happened only two years ago. This Last Week Tonight segment comes to mind.