A Brief History of Jay Leno Almost Killing Himself
In the rare headline that Jay Leno wouldn't find amusing, the former Tonight Show host was reportedly in a serious motorcycle accident recently, clotheslined by a wire while test-riding a vintage bike in a parking lot. According to the one-time buddy cop movie star: “I’ve got a broken collarbone. I’ve got two broken ribs. I’ve got two cracked kneecaps. But I’m okay!” Leno was also quick to point out that he’s still “working this weekend.” Hey, it’s not like those re-heated Bill Clinton jokes from 1996 are going to tell themselves to a theater full of seniors.
If news of Leno being in a serious accident seems familiar, it’s not a glitch in the Matrix, as it was only a few months ago that Leno was hospitalized after suffering severe burns from a gasoline fire. Why is Leno suddenly grappling with so many near-calamities? Has Conan O’Brien been dipping his toe into the Dark Arts?
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To be honest, this is nothing new. Leno has had a number of significant vehicular accidents over the years. Back in 2016, while filming an episode of (the recently-canceled) Jay Leno's Garage, Leno rode shotgun with a stunt driver who "lost control" of the car shortly after Leno said: “2,500 horsepower on two wheels. What could go wrong?” The whole thing was captured on camera and is far more entertaining than a decades-worth of lame O.J. jokes.
Years earlier, in 2012, Leno was just feet away from a serious accident on the Los Angeles freeway during an event called the “Love Ride,” which sounds scandalous but was actually just a bunch of dudes riding motorcycles.
And way back in 1991, Leno was involved in yet another motorcycle accident, just a year before he stole took over The Tonight Show. Leno was only “slightly injured” after “making a U-turn to help another motorcyclist,” at which point he was “hit by a third cycle.”
Hopefully, this marks the end of Leno’s accidents, but we won’t rule out it all being some kind of cosmic retribution for those cruel Monica Lewinsky jokes that will follow him around, no matter what, Final Destination-style.
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