Remember when, as all the late-night shows came back during last year's writers' strike, Jay Leno mentioned on the air that he was writing his own monologue jokes? As you might expect, that didn't sit well with the rank-and-file of the WGA, but the guild decided to ruminate on it because a) he was very supportive of the union at the beginning of the strike and b) it's Jay Leno.

Apparently, though, the union has had a change of heart. The Tonight Show's outgoing host has been called to testify to the union's trial committee on charges that he violated the terms of the strike by writing for himself. Both Leno and NBC claim that there was language in the strike terms that said performers could write for themselves, even if they were guild members like Leno. The union, however, disagrees.

Of course, this might just be a matter of semantics. Because Leno admitted that he actually wrote jokes on paper instead of saying them off the top of his head, the guild feels he's violating the rules. But what about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert? Did they improvise everything they said on their shows during the strike? Did they not even write down an outline, keeping everything lodged in their heads? My guess is that if Leno didn't admit to writing down jokes on the air, the union wouldn't be hauling him in for questioning right now.

Maybe Jay just should have done what Conan did, which was spin his wedding ring on his desk, fly across his studio on a wire, or get in a fake fight with Colbert and Stewart. Believe me, the jokes he told during that period weren't worth losing his union membership.

[via TV Week]