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Published: August 21 2012

Buzz Fleischman - Columnist Page.  Jay Leno has taken a pay cut to save the jobs of staff writers working on The Tonight Show. 20 of his staff lost their jobs on Friday, as broadcaster NBC reduced the show's costs by about 25%.

"This doesn’t mean that the show will be 25% less funny” said Bruce Bobbins, a spokesman for Leno. “Jay's foremost concern is for the wonderful people who work with him at The Tonight Show. “I’m not trying to be being funny, because that would put me in the category of a staff writer which would incur an ‘expense’ according to the writer’s union contract. At this time we’re trimming expenses. It’s gotten so bad that we don’t even make jokes at the water cooler”.

As a result, in a new twist to the old comedic standard of adding the ‘punch line’ to complete the joke, Leno will ask the audience to ‘fill in their own’ punch lines which would save his remaining gag writers some effort and time. It will be a new ongoing sketch called ‘Whose show is it anyway?’

They will also experiment with importing some ‘less expensive’ content from comedy writers abroad. The Association of Chinese Comedians (ACC) has stepped up to provide material on an interim basis or until the government eliminates them as members of the Falun Gong movement. “We hope be to as popular in the west as Sudoku and writing for Jay will help do that” said a comedian who identified himself as an out of work Kim Jong Un impersonator.

Leno volunteered to take a pay cut if it would save some jobs. Otherwise, as one anonymous staffer put it, “Whoever was left just might not feel as ‘witty’ when it came time to write the monologue. You can’t keep flashing the ‘applause’ sign all night”.

Leno, when reached for comment, said “I’ll get back to you”.

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