What Rove told Jay

Rove’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was a bright and bubbly segment, much like the popular guy himself.

Rove followed a slightly difficult chat spot in which Dr. Phil was discussing the Virginia Tech tragedy with Jay. It was certainly time for the mood to lift when he was introduced as the host of “the most popular chat show in Australia.”

Then after a friendly greeting, Rove proceeded to answer Jay’s questions about Australia. After admitting his real name was John, he joked that it has a population of about two, “me and the other guy.” And that Perth’s 2 skyscrapers didn’t so much skrape the sky as lean “pathetically towards it.” Jay was also sniggering about the fact that Rove only presented his show once a week (Leno is nightly).

But Leno talked up some of the cheeky segments from Rove including the “flick the switch” stunt, showing footage of Sydney Harbour residences turning their lights on and off (it’s a stunt that was actually first used in Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush). The kicker was the shot of a Kirribilli House* light flick, even though the PM and his wife were out.

Rove also explained some of the differences with Aussie TV, where nudity and profanity was acceptable. “But we can only use the F bomb twice in one show”, he said. And he explained that network personalities could not appear on rival networks.

Which is kind of ironic given the Leno appearance made it onto both Today Tonight and A Current Affair.

But Rove did good. Methinks he’s gonna have himself a pretty good week.

* I also seem to remember this was actually Admiralty House for the GG and not Kirribilli. Anybody else recall?