We have to ask, any thoughts on Leno leaving NBC?
I’ll say I’m happy doing my thing. No one says no comment anymore. People should say no comment more often. No comment! I love no comment. Let’s have more no comment.
Is there anything you still haven’t done on television that you want to?
There’s a lot. I’m always surprised how much stuff since we came to Turner, there’s so much stuff we found that I wouldn’t have found if I hadn’t. For example, I got so involved with social media, and then I had all these young people around me and they said, “You should review video games.” And I said, “But I know nothing about video games.” So I did it anyway and that became a thing. The gaming world is huge and now all these gaming companies are desperate to have me review their game, when I made it quite clear I’m terrible at them.
I play with a younger guy on my staff who’s really good at it and we call it Clueless Gamer. Now I get all the scoops. All the gaming companies come to me and they give me the premiere of their new game. I play it, screw it up, sometimes make way too many comments about how attractive the woman is in the video game and lose my way, then give a nonsensical review of the game that means nothing and it goes viral. The gaming companies are like, “Thank you.” Thank you for what?
My review of the new Lara Croft Tomb Raider makes no sense, but I get 13-year-old boys coming up to me now. They see stuff on the internet so there’s this world now that is actually keeping me youthful. When I’m being silly, when I’m being in the moment and something’s making me laugh and I’m enjoying myself, I feel like I’m 15 years old and I act like I’m 15 years old. People seem to almost think, “He’s 15 years old.” It’s this weird thing that happens.
Those 13-year-olds may have only watched a clip online the next day.
Yeah, and what’s interesting about it, what’s nice is the good stuff gets out there so it’s this nice natural selection process. People don’t see, “Okay, that went nowhere” because that doesn’t get out there. What happens is people see this really good stuff, these great moments, and I do think I have the best web team in television. While a show’s happening they’re grabbing little bits and pieces and then they know how to get them out there and how to disseminate them into the universe. We make some comedy that’s exclusive just for the internet where I do video responses to a Taylor Swift video and it’s not even on the show. I’ll have people coming up to me on the street and saying, “Oh, I love that Taylor Swift thing.” And I’m trying to think, was that on the show, was that on the internet or am I dating Taylor Swift?
Do young viewers even distinguish what they’re watching on TV and what they’re watching online?
They don’t see a distinction. Younger people, a lot of the fans of my show, they don’t care when I’m on or how I’m on or what I’m doing. It’s the great lesson that I have to learn and keep relearning. Like a lot of you, I grew up in one world. I’m watching these Carson clips, I’m very much of that world. I grew up watching him so I was aspirational in that way. That is what the mission is. Then a million crazy things happen and you realize no, the mission is just be funny, be honest with your audience, follow my instincts, come in every day and try to make something funny happen and then it’ll get out. It’ll get out whether someone sees it at 11 o’clock on TBS or whether they see it on the internet or whether their Google glasses show it to them or whether it appears in a drink that they’re having in Taiwan, it doesn’t matter.
Do you watch everything on TV because they might be a guest on your show?
You do the best you can. I try to educate myself about what’s out there, and then every now and then, I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve occasionally said, “You know, the film’s great” and I haven’t seen the film. I try not to do that, but occasionally, you can’t see everything, or I try to watch as much of it as I can. There’s so much out there.
How much down time do you get?
You always want more. Talk about Johnny Carson, I’m very envious sometimes of the legendary vacations and the guest hosts. We don’t live in that kind of world anymore.
