Leno Kills Kanye Softly

Look, I know that Kanye West is the most epic of epic douchebags, ever. I know that he deserves to be strung and quartered or whatever is the appropriate pop cultural corollary of stringing and quartering. But his little chat with Jay Leno last night? In which Leno invokes his dead mother and asks what would your dead mother have thought about what you did? and basically makes Kanye cry?

That kind of made me feel a little bit sorry for him. Not a lot - say, a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the tiniest smidge, the kind of wee tinge of sympathy that you feel for schoolyard bullies who you know probably just want to be loved even though you also think that they should just be smacked, hard - but a little. A very little. I mean, seriously: his dead mother. Disappointed in him.

That's worse than being called a toolbox (by Pink) or a kitten-stomper (by Katy Perry) any day.

Video after the jump...

MTV Shows

Comments

[makyo]

i'm having trouble believing this whole kanye thing wasn't a gigantic setup. pretty much nothing that happens on MTV isn't scripted, and nobody would be talking about the VMAs at all if it weren't for kanye's outburst. but then he just so HAPPENS to be scheduled on leno's first prime time show, and leno just so HAPPENS to have a spare 5-10 minutes in said show for an impromptu interview? i don't know, it just smacks of publicity to me.

[Karen]

The most douchebaggery thing he said was, "I'm sorry my pain caused somebody else pain". Basically, "I only acted like a douche because i haven't had any time off from my busy schedule of Twittering and acting like a douche."

It makes me sick when people get up on a public platform and say, "I acted badly BUT..." No, you acted badly. Own it. Stop making excuses.

[AmyC65]

I keep wondering the same thing since I saw a promo for Leno right after I saw a piece about the VMAs. But I'm trying to have enough faith in Jay Leno that HE'S not such a douche as to do this to Taylor. AND? I think Kanye really shot himself in the ass on this one, I don't think he'd go along with a publicity stunt that resulted in this much backlash. In short, I believe it was really just Kanye douching it up.

[jodifur]

I think the mother question got him. Like made him finally realize what an idiot he was. Even the audience was silent.

And when Jay patted his knee? That moment was priceless.

[Jocelyn]

He screwed up SO BADLY (again, for the bajillionth time) he needed to be scorned by his mother, dead or alive. Leno just smacked him with what he deserved.

[tonya]

The mother question was harsh, but seemed like what finally hit home with Kanye. What Kanye did was unexcusable. He acted like a spoiled little brat who didn't get what he wanted. Had he waited long enough, he would have saw that he was getting what he wanted all along (Beyonce winning Video of the Year).

[Candice]

When you act like that much of a jackass, you deserve to be reminded that your deceased mother would be upset with you.

[K8]

Kudos to Jay for turning the tables on him. I don't have any doubt that Kanye will change his ways for maybe one whole week before running his mouth on something else, but its about time someone reminded him what an embarrassment he is to his mother's legacy. She worked hard to make him into something great and now he's doing everything he can to ruin it.

Also, vacay isn't going to fix him. That's just silly.

[Shannon]

Wouldn't his mother be disappointed in him if she were still alive?

[Rachel]

THANK YOU. Yes. Its not an apology if "but" is in it. It should be "I'm sorry" PERIOD.

[Jessi]

He brought up his mother first when he invoked her in his blog. He said, in his "apology" ranty blog entry about being at home watching the rest of the VMA's that his mother would be disappointed. I think it's an obvious question for Jay to ask, therefore.

[Alyssa]

Am I the only one who just... doesn't believe him in this clip? I feel like it's a really convenient opportunity for him to feign some emotion for the first time when someone brings his mom up, right? Like... it's the only time we MIGHT believe he really cares what a douche he is for any reason other than that it didn't come off well. And he knows that. I don't think Kanye West is the kind of guy who is capable of believing anyone thinks badly of him, including his own mother. But he knows the only way he is going to make up for it is by pretending he genuinely feels bad. And in the rest of the clip he continues to suck at it. So, yeah... maybe I'm just overly cynical but I don't really feel like the mother question was harsh. Kanye probably appreciated the opportunity to look troubled for a minute before making yet another excuse.

[AmyC65]

Alyssa, yeah - I totally felt like his whole "I haven't taken time to process the pain..." bit was something a handler had fed to him before his appearance on Jay. I don't think he spent the day in deep instrospection, coming up with that on his own.

[Her Bad Mother]

I think that 'deep introspection' and 'Kanye West' together in a sentence borders on oxymoronic.

[Her Bad Mother]

"I only acted like a douche because i haven't had any time off from my busy schedule of Twittering and acting like a douche."

Laughing out loud.

[Suzy Q]

Kanye was bullshit last night on Jay. He never even answered the mother question, and just rambled on and on about himself. AGAIN.

He is incapable of deep introspection. But, "as a celebrity," he has to, ya know, think of these things. Douchebag.

[DianaCLT]

I think Kanye now has a better chance of winning the DoucheOlympics than Gosselin. Wow. That's a whole lot of douchiness.

And yet, I still feel so unclean.

[Katie Kat]

I do think the question about his mom got to him, but only because he uses the sadness of losing her to further stroke his ego (get sympathy for it). It's funny though, because I told a friend(right after we saw the clip) that if I were Taylor Swift, I would have taken the mike back and said "Wow, your mom must be SO proud of you right now."

Still a douche in my book.

[Sweetney]

AARRRRGGGGH.

uhh, nevermind.

[Kiki]

Thank you! Every time someone invokes Kanye's mom, I cringe!

I was all over the "Kanye is a tool" bandwagon, too, but that's just not cool.

[Karina in T.O]

If we toss in Spencer Pratt we could have a real battle for the gold/silver and bronze of the DoucheOlympics. You down?

[Katya]

OK, I can't stand this jerk and I think he's a douche, too. So much so that I hate when people even buy his lousy music.

But seriously? Some starlet singer didn't get her 30-second famegasm, and that's worth slapping someone in the face with a dead family member? What's wrong with people?

Is celebrity worship and fame-whoring so important to our culture that we've forgotten empathy?