John Oliver blasts criticism of late night jokes: ‘Go f— yourself Jay Leno’

HBO’s John Oliver on Sunday blasted Jay Leno, the former longtime host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” for calling for more “civility” from late night hosts.

Oliver pointed to Leno’s coverage of the relationship between Monica Lewinsky and then-President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Oliver said the media was “obsessed” with the scandal and that Leno was among the most relentless in the co

{mosads}”Many comedians have since publicly expressed regret about things they said, although one who hasn’t, and who’s among the most relentless, was Jay Leno,” said Oliver, who noted that his “hands are not clean here either” in the coverage.

Oliver brought up one of Leno’s jokes in which he revealed a Dr. Seuss spoof titled, “The Sl– in the Hat,” in reference to Lewinsky.

Oliver then introduced his own fake Dr. Seuss book, titled, “Oh, the Places You Can Go F— Yourself, Jay Leno!”

Oliver’s comments come after Leno was critical last week of current late night hosts during an interview with NBC’s “Today.”

“When people see you as one-sided, it just makes it tough,” Leno said. “Now it’s all very serious. I’d just like to see a little civility come back to it.”