- The comedian
Jay Leno has apologized for some of his jokes made at the expense of Asians. - The apology came in a statement with the activist group Media Action Network for Asian Americans.
- He said he believed the jokes to be "harmless" at the time.
The comedian and former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno has apologized for a series of jokes he made at the expense of Asian communities over the years, particularly jokes that perpetuated racist stereotypes about Korean food.
Leno released the apology, which comes after a recent spike in reports of hate crimes against the Asian communities, in a joint statement with the advocacy group Media Action Network for Asian Americans on Wednesday. Leno also apologized during a Zoom call with MANAA earlier this month.
"At the time I did those jokes, I genuinely thought them to be harmless," he said. "I was making fun of our enemy North Korea, and like most jokes, there was a ring of truth to them.
"At the time, there was a prevailing attitude that some group is always complaining about something, so don't worry about it. Whenever we received a complaint, there would be two sides to the discussion: Either 'We need to deal with this' or 'Screw 'em if they can't take a joke.'
"Too many times I sided with the latter even when in my heart I knew it was wrong. That is why I am issuing this apology."
Leno said he did not consider his apology to be "another example of cancel culture" but was instead an apology for a "legitimate wrong" that he committed.
"MANAA has been very gracious in accepting my apology," he said. "I hope that the Asian American community will be able to accept it as well, and I hope I can live up to their expectations in the future."
Further in the statement, MANAA outlined a list of several racist jokes about Asian that Leno made from 2002 to 2012 as well as a joke he reportedly made on the set of "America's Got Talent" in 2019 about Korean people eating dogs.
"I'm happy that Jay came around, and that we will be working together in the future," the MANAA board member Rob Chan said. "We look forward to supporting Jay's efforts to do a better job at using his public platform to stamp out systemic