Gag on Jackson Gags Is Loosened

So how bad was it for Michael Jackson on Friday?

First, a judge gave his blessing for Jay Leno to make almost any jokes he wants about the beleaguered pop star.

Then a prosecutor announced to the world’s media that Jackson is “on the precipice of bankruptcy,” with debts of more than $300 million threatening to snuff his tottering financial empire by year’s end.

So, overall, it wasn’t a bad day -- at least compared with Thursday, when Jackson had to sit through court in his pajama bottoms after being ordered in from a hospital emergency room by Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville.

Neither the pop star nor jurors were present at Jackson’s child-molestation trial Friday when attorneys argued over a number of motions before Melville. The flap over Leno, a potential witness for the defense, was settled without much fuss.

The “Tonight Show” host was so happy that he told 25 Jackson jokes in his Friday night monologue, including a litany of bankruptcy gags such as: “Michael is so broke ... for plastic surgery he went to ‘Nose Crafters!’ ”

Melville said Leno would not violate a gag order in the case as long as his jokes stayed away from the one narrow area on which he may be called to testify: a telephone call he allegedly received from Jackson’s teenage accuser.

Defense attorneys said the alleged victim and his family had a history of trying to wring money from celebrities, including Leno.

“It’s not the court’s intention to stop him from telling jokes,” Melville said.

Clearly, it wasn’t Leno’s intention to stop, judging from all the fun he’s had over the last week in sticking to the letter of the gag order while sticking it to Jackson.

Explaining during his nightly monologue that he wasn’t allowed to tell his Jackson jokes, Leno had other comics tell them.

On Thursday night, comedian Drew Carey did the honors. “Michael Jackson showed up to court late today wearing his pajama bottoms,” Carey told the audience. “You know what? You find the kid wearing the pajama top and we have another court case on our hands!”

Carey sympathized with the back pain that landed Jackson in the emergency room: “Michael arrived at court looking stiff and awkward and had difficulty moving,” he said. “Hey, maybe he really is white.”

When the show started, Leno was filmed arriving at the NBC parking lot a la Jackson at the Santa Maria courthouse -- descending from a chauffeured black SUV, with burly bodyguards and an aide shading him under an umbrella.

Wearing SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas and floppy house slippers, he declined to comment when asked for one by a breathless “reporter” -- again staying within the strictest interpretation of Melville’s gag order.

The night before, the orange-haired comic Carrot Top was Leno’s surrogate.

“You know when it’s bedtime at Michael Jackson’s house?” he asked. “When the big hand’s on the little hand.”

On Tuesday, Roseanne Barr delved into the possibility that defense lawyers would have Jackson testify.

“They don’t really want him to,” she said, “but doctors believe it’s the only way they can get his nose to grow back.”

Over the years, Leno has required no substitutes to take swipes at Jackson over the singer’s marriages, his apparent affection for cosmetic surgery, his complexion and such controversial actions as dangling his infant son from a hotel balcony.

But accusations of child molesting in 1993 and in the current criminal case have offered Leno and other comics the most fertile field yet.

“I guess they got Michael Jackson on that new law,” Leno told his audience last year. “Three tykes and you’re out.”

In his ruling Friday, the judge defended Leno’s right to make jokes that even suggest Jackson is guilty -- as long as the comic doesn’t joke about his possible testimony.

Melville sided with Theodore A. Boutrous Jr., a Los Angeles media attorney representing Leno, who said the gag order unfairly hobbled Leno in his craft’s time-honored and constitutionally protected pursuit of shtick.

In their court filings, Jackson’s attorneys disagreed, contending that Leno’s quips were barely worth a constitutional argument.

“Heaven forbid that for a few weeks Mr. Leno will not be able to make cruel jokes at Mr. Jackson’s expense,” a defense motion stated. “One is reminded of the depression that overtook the comedy community when Richard Nixon stepped down from the presidency and no longer provided daily material.”

That view was shared even by a comic or two.

Brian McKim, a New Jersey-based stand-up comedian who runs sheckymagazine.com, a trade website, said Jackson’s right to a fair trial trumped Leno’s right to poke fun at it.

“If people are going to pick a fight about freedom of speech and the 1st Amendment, they should pick a better fight than this,” McKim said.

“When it’s all said and done, all we’re talking about here is some jokes.”