Video of Kanye's Apology on Jay Leno

I like Kanye West when he's an asshole. Most of you do too. You won't admit it outright, but Kanye running around kissing babies and shaking hands is not what you want to see. We like Kanye throwing temper tantrums. Kanye with swagger. Kanye ready to put his foot up somebody's ass (paparazzi take note) if they look at him wrong. It gives us something to talk about. Somebody to hate. This is America, and we like villains. But watching Kanye all sullen and sorrowful and damn near on the verge of tears because he's sooooo sorry for what he did, not so much.

In theory, it's good that he went on the Jay Leno Show last night to apologize for his actions yesterday but he definitely looked defeated and pitiful in the process. That's not a good look. Of course, having President Obama call you a jackass isn't a good look either. Check out the full video of Kanye's apology plus his performance with Jay-Z and Rihanna immediately afterward below.

Now, a couple of things stand out to me about the video above:
1) Kanye is genuinely shaken up about all of this, and that's evident when Jay Leno asked Kanye what his mom would have said to him if she was still alive. (Actually, that was a low blow, and Kanye having to fight back tears is exactly what NBC and Leno wanted). Maybe I was wrong about all of this being staged. But my original blame went toward MTV for allowing it to happen. They know Kanye is an impulsive jackass, so I'm not convinced MTV didn't have a hand in the whole fiasco, even if Kanye feels terrible about it a day later.

2) Jay Leno got pretty lucky with this interview. From what I hear, his monologue was weak and his new prime-time television show can only benefit from putting Kanye on the hot seat on the same day that the entire country (President included) was talking about the young rapper. Having Rihanna on didn't hurt either. These television executives know exactly what they are doing.

3) From one victorious Jay to another. I like how Jay-Z uses the entire fiasco to promote his new album, Blueprint 3. Everybody else on the stage seemed battered and bruised on the inside, but there's Jay-Z, like, "Buy my album, buy my album." The pimping never stops.