I just heard that Jay Leno is leaving the Tonight Show. Throughout television history most talk show hosts have been men. And this is a problem because men feel duty-bound to compete. If the guest fires off a cheap shot, a man has to come back with something heavier and better. Male conversation is gladiatorial, argumentative, macho and, most of all, designed to be funny.
I know this from yesterday’s Marriage Show. I asked a honeymooner if he would like to come on stage and take part. He did……..and before I even had chance to ask his name and where he was from, he told me in a frenzied high-pitched squeak. “You need to lose weight.”
And as he said that he patted my stomach. I wanted to tell him that he was ugly……I could lose weight — but he would always look like someone who had been hosed down with the ugly gun. But of course, I didn’t – if I had been Jay or David…….well, that’s another story.
