Comedic firebrand Jay Leno, who fearlessly treads the razor’s edge between satire and sedition, has sparked an international incident with his latest monologue/rant, angering India’s Sikh community after a joke that identified a photo of Amritsar’s Golden Temple as “Mitt Romney’s summer home”—a typical example of Leno speaking parodic truth to power, but one which caught unintentional targets in the crosshairs. And while Romney must weather alone the implication that he is a rich guy, India says it will contact the U.S. State Department to discuss the joke, which India’s Minister of Overseas Affairs described to the BBC as “quite unfortunate and quite objectionable”—owing to the fact that the Temple is considered to be the spiritual center of the Sikh religion, and that Mitt Romney has stated on numerous occasions that he’s just a regular guy like you. Stateside, the Indian Embassy’s comments were echoed in an online petition launched by American Sikhs who have accused Leno of a long history of racist defamation of their religion, all in the name of Leno’s restless zeal for subversion. Neither Leno nor representatives from The Tonight Show have commented on the matter, as they are still crafting the ideal way to compare this whole situation to Monica Lewinsky. [via Washington Post]
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