Jay Leno axes politics from stand-up as comedians struggle against ‘snowflakes’ and ‘weaponized censorship’

Some comics are struggling to navigate the tense U.S. political climate and test the boundaries of comedic expression, with "The Tonight Show" icon Jay Leno recently admitting he has axed political jokes from his stand-up routine to avoid angering his audience.

"I just stopped doing politics in my act altogether because—you know, when I did 'The Tonight Show,' the idea was you make fun of both sides equally," he said on the Fox Nation show "Piers Morgan Uncensored."

Leno said he thought the jokes were good because both Republicans and Democrats got angry and believed he was supporting the opposing party.

"Now you've gotta take a side and people are angry if you don't, and I find that when I start to tell a political joke, they want to know the punch line before, is this for or against, you know," he added. "So, I just stopped doing it because I just want people to come and laugh and have a good time. That's the idea of doing a comedy show."

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Jay Leno told Piers Morgan he has cut political jokes from comedy act to avoid angering Democrats and Republicans.  (Fox Nation)

But Leno is not the only comedian who has suggested the audience is becoming less tolerant and more demanding of performers who tackle politically charged topics.

Fox News host Jimmy Failla, whose book "Cancel Culture Dictionary," hits stores on Tuesday, recently told Fox News Digital that people don't know the difference between a joke and a hate crime these days.

"People go to comedy shows, many to laugh, but there's also just as many… who are showing up to find something to rebel against, something to take offense to, something to get offended on behalf of," Failla said.

"As a comedian, as I've watched the lanes of speech narrow over the course of my career," he continued. "The people behind cancel culture are basically deploying weaponized censorship. And they're not censoring things because they're offended. They're censoring things because there's a currency that comes with saying you're offended."

Failla also said it was absurd that people have spent nearly a decade "trying to ruin fun" by finding something offensive about every aspect of life.

"If you die tomorrow, you're going to wish you had more fun," he said.

The expectation that comedians should conform to a specific political ideology appears to have impacted the current late night talk show space, an arena that Leno previously dominated.

A new study from the Media Research Center found that 81% of all political jokes told on major late-night comedy shows in 2023 targeted conservatives.

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"FOX Across America" host Jimmy Failla believes the people behind cancel culture are "deploying weaponized censorship," but he hopes his new book can help make America fun again.  (Fox News)

The media watchdog analyzed each of the 9,518 political jokes told between six major daily late-night shows from January 3 through December 22, 2023, and found that 7,729 of them took aim at "someone or something on the right side of the political spectrum."

Breaking down the data further, the watchdog found that some shows were more aggressive towards right-wing subjects than others. ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" had the highest rate of anti-conservative jokes for the six late-night shows they observed. 

Second place for jokes hammering right-wingers belonged to Stephen Colbert's show: 1,655 out of the total 1,918 jokes targeted conservatives, which comes to 86%.

Comedian Jon Lovitz took aim at the politicization of late night comedy in November, calling out liberal hosts Colbert, Kimmel and Seth Meyers during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

"They just hammer it to death… they've become, 'Here's my political agenda.' They're very open about it," Lovitz said. "And I'm like, well, all right. I have no say in that. It's their show, you know. But I don't particularly- I don't like that they've become that because where's the comedians and the stand-up and the bits, you know, like Letterman. It was comedy."

While comedians who espouse left-leaning viewpoints have largely avoided getting canceled, those who have touted conservative values or expressed opinions counter to mainstream media narratives have come under the microscope.

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Dave Chappelle performs during a midnight pop-up show at Radio City Music Hall on October 16, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for ABA) ( (Photo by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for ABA))

Most recently, Dave Chappelle has found himself in the crosshairs of people calling for him to be canceled and for Netflix to make some kind of amends for giving him a platform to espouse comments that some deemed transphobic on his latest specials, "The Closer" and "The Dreamer."

Several famous comedians, including Jamie Kennedy, Donald Glover, Chris Rock and Katt Williams have taken issue with the sensitivity of audience members to boundary-pushing material and suggested attacks on performers have no place in the industry.

Some comedians, including Bill Burr and Joe Machi, have labeled those who take issue with their politics "snowflakes," a term used to describe viewers who have overly emotional or negative reactions to content they deem offensive.

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Leno candidly said in 2021 that the landscape of comedy today is such that if you don't "change" for the audience, then you "die."

"In football, you have certain rules," Leno said at the time. "And when the rules change, if you don't conform to them, you're out of the game."

Fox News' Gabriel Hays, Tyler McCarthy and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.