Jay Leno returns to ‘The Tonight Show,’ takes over monologue for Jimmy Fallon

Even though Jay Leno may be gone from “The Tonight Show,” he does continue to show a tendency to turn up here and there … and the latest example of that comes via the monologue that just took place on the NBC late-night show last night.

After Jimmy Fallon pretended to hurt himself coming out to start the show, Leno took over and proceeded to tell a number of jokes mocking Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and a variety of other things in between when it comes to America. The dichotomy between him and fellow retired late-night host David Letterman is staggering, at least in that while Dave seems to care less about what is going on in late-night, Jay is still at least active enough to do things like “Jay Leno’s Garage” and go on press tours that allow him to come back to his old stomping grounds, even if it is on the other side of the country than where his “Tonight Show” filmed.

Ultimately, we do think Leno is better when he’s not doing this every night, mostly since he is able to take a lot of time crafting his own material. We also like that he is pretty balanced in making fun of people across the board, and given that we think that Fallon’s strong suits are his sketches and games with his celebrities more so than some of his monologues, we think that this was really the right spot for him to come back and do this.

For those of you still with some sort of fear following the Conan O’Brien fiasco, don’t worry: There are no plans for Jay to come and take back “The Tonight Show” once more.