Jay Leno under fire for Sikh joke

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NBC late night mainstay Jay Leno was joking about the homes of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and it ended up with the suggestion that the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India is a Romney summer home. Members of the Sikh religion hold the Golden Temple sacred and are not taking kindly to the reference.


It doesn’t help that back in 2007, another Leno attempt at Sikh humor resulted in his calling them “diaper heads.”

According to the BBC, the joke has set up the possibility that India foreign affairs officials will be contacting US State Department officials to discuss the incident.

Further, he is the subject of an online petition.

Even further, a suit has been filed against him in Los Angeles. According to The Wrap, “Dr. Randeep Dhillon, who does business as Bol Punjabi All Regions Community Organization,” charging Leno with libel. Dhillon is looking for damages and court costs.

RBR-TVBR observation: We love humor, but we do not advocate the use of insult to achieve humor. But it really does seem that if you get enough airtime, you will almost invariably insult somebody, sometime, somewhere.