This Legendary Comedian Was Johnny Carson’s Least Favorite ‘Tonight Show’ Guest

Johnny Carson might have been furious with Don Rickles for busting his cigarette box, but Rickles wasn’t the comedian Carson most hated having on The Tonight Show. That honor went to a comic who’d been entertaining U.S. presidents since Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Bob Hope. “Johnny admired Hope’s place in show business, but he was not a great admirer of his work,” said Tonight Show producer Peter Lasselly in the book Hope: Entertainer of the Century (via Last Night On). 

The difference between the two comics? Carson preferred off-the-cuff improvisation while Hope relied on scripted punchlines, according to Andrew Nicholls, Carson's former head writer. Hope “was a guy who relied on his writers for every topic,” explained Nicholls. “Johnny was very quick on his feet. He appreciated people who he felt engaged with the real world. There was nothing to talk to Bob about.”

Carson grew increasingly frustrated with Hope’s Tonight Show appearances. The elder comic was only capable of answering a list of pre-determined questions. If Carson asked something out of order, Hope might give the wrong answer. After one sleepy interview in the 1980s, Carson reportedly told staffers, “If I ever end up like that, guys, I want you to shoot me.”

The relationship wasn’t any better off The Tonight Show set. It was a classic Old Guard versus Young Buck situation, with Hope believing he’d earned his place as Carson’s superior. Frank Sinatra enlisted both Carson and Hope to perform at a gala in honor of Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration. Even though Carson was one of the night’s headliners while Hope was further down the bill, he thought he’d give Carson some pointers, according to the biography Johnny Carson.

When Hope arrived, he hunted down Carson and handed him a few pages. “Here,” Hope said, “I’ve written some lines that you might like to use.” 

“Aw, thanks, Bob, that’s really sweet of you,” Carson replied. “The material is all set, but thanks anyway.” 

As soon as Hope walked away, though, Carson seethed. “Can you imagine the nerve of the man to think that I need jokes from him?”

But even as Hope aged, he was a ratings powerhouse for NBC. When Carson moved The Tonight Show to California from New York, he took over the studio that the network had built for Hope. It was Carson’s to use, but Hope’s whenever he decided he needed it. NBC also gave Hope the power to book himself on Carson’s show whenever he wanted to promote one of his network specials. (There were a lot of them.)

“We’d get a request,” explained Lassally, “and Johnny would go, ‘Again?’ And I’d say, ‘Do you want to tell him no?’”

Carson knew he didn’t have a choice. “No. You can’t turn down Bob Hope.”

Those appearances were deadly to Carson. His team would ask Hope to bring in a two-minute clip but instead got five-minute excerpts from Hope’s lethargic specials. 

The last straw? On one of Hope’s later Tonight Show appearances, Carson delivered a monologue that killed. Impressed with the big response, Hope asked Carson if he could use the recorded laughs to sweeten his own special. 

Carson was flabbergasted by the request but reluctantly gave the okay.