I'll Still Watch the Daily Show

I suppose this is good news...

NBC "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno can lampoon Michael Jackson's legal woes in his nightly monologue, so long as he doesn't talk about his own personal knowledge of the case, the judge in Jackson's child molestation trial said Friday.

Over the objections of Jackson's defense attorneys, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville said that a gag order imposed on Leno and other witnesses "would not stop him from comment or telling jokes."

The judge went on to add, "I'd like him to tell good jokes, rather than bad."

Yeah, but we've been waiting for that for about a decade-plus, Your Honor.

Seriously, the monologue's not so bad, but neither Leno nor Letterman have a fastball anywhere close to Carson's. Somebody cue up Conan and get him started early.