Before They Were Stars: Judd Apatow Impersonates Jay Leno on “The Ben Stiller Show”

Seeing as how it’s his birthday today, I felt that Judd Apatow deserved the “Before They Were Stars” treatment and even though he’s primarily a writer-director-producer, I was able to dig up some rare footage of him as a performer. This is from The Ben Stiller Show, a sketch comedy show that ran on MTV and FOX in the early nineties, but despite postive reviews, it was cancelled fairly quickly because of low ratings (probably because no one had any idea who Ben Stiller was back then). Anyway, Judd Apatow was a writer and producer on the show and this particular sketch took place around the time that Johnny Carson was leaving The Tonight Show and they were looking for a replacment. Apatow plays Jay Leno in the sketch and does a BANG-ON impression of him, and considering the nonsense that took place involving Leno and Conan O’Brien this year, this material is still pretty relevant today! You also get to see a fairly unknown Janeane Garofalo do an hilarious impersonation of Sinead O’Connor, and a surprise cameos from Todd Bridges and Norman Fell!