The Current Al Gore

Al Gore's new cable channel, Current, debuted Monday.

Monday night, Gore appeared on The Tonight Show to hawk his new venture.

He made a brief appearance during Leno's monologue, holding a cue card. Funny? Not really.

After Leno did his "Headlines" bit, Gore returned as the first guest.

Gore has undergone ANOTHER image makeover.

He was dressed in black--black slacks, black t-shirt, black jacket (with distractingly bright gold buttons), and shiny black boots. He obviously has come to the conclusion that earth tones don't work for him.

His hair looked quite a bit grayer since I last saw him.

This was obviously the Hollywood "dressed for success" TV mogul Gore, not the Washington raving maniac political Gore.

Generally, he seemed relaxed, like he'd been drinking. Not drunk, just a little loose.

It appeared that Leno was offering some prearranged straight lines to set Gore up to deliver some lame punch lines.

For instance, Leno aked what Gore likes to be called. Gore's response: "Your Adequacy." He went on to say that the twenty-somethings at Current call him "Al."

Leno asked about Gore's family.

They're fine, yada, yada, yada.

When Leno brought up politics and they started discussing Gore's political future, Gore commented, "You win some. You lose some, and then there's that little known third category...."

I wish Gore and the rest of the Dems would let that go, once and for all. I think it would be much better if Gore didn't bring up the 2000 election fiasco when HE went to court and tried to overturn Florida's certified results.

Gore said, "I’m a recovering politician." He considers himself to be at Step 9, an awkward reference to 12-Step programs for conquering addictions.

Leno then turned to the recent report that Gore had received comedy tips from Johnny Carson.

Gore claimed that he called up Johnny “a couple times.”

"Johnny gave me advice on timing. It was fun to work with him," Gore said.

After the break, Leno talked about the "misquote" about Gore inventing the Internet.

Not long ago, Gore received a Webby award for lifetime achievement. Gore said that they have a rule that acceptance speeches are limited to five words. So, Gore accepted the Webby with the words, "Please don’t recount this vote."

Again, five years of recount jokes have been more than enough. Although Gore made references to the 2000 election all in good fun, it made me think that he still hasn't come to terms with the fact that HE LOST. It was like some therapist told him that he should laugh at himself in order to heal, but the technique wasn't working.

The rest of Gore's segment was spent on promoting his new channel, Current. It's a network based on viewer contributed content. Gore said that he’s a cofounder of the channel and he does a little bit of everything, whatever that means.

Gore talked about Google's tie in with the the network. Apparently, there are hourly reports detailing the most popular searches.

Gore took that opportunity to do some weird Viagra jokes, saying there are twice as many searches for the drug as there are for Jay Leno.

After digressing a bit, Leno and Gore returned to Current. Gore said that the channel is generating "a lot of excitement." That's news to me.

Gore insisted that it's not a political or partisan network. Sure.

He said, "I really think it’s important to open up television."

Then came a sample of Gore TV. It was a quick clip of a guy with a parachute jumping off a cliff. Exciting.

Leno thanked Gore for being on the show, and off he went.

Gore was definitely much more relaxed than usual. He seemed pleasant and mild-mannered.

That guy is a real Jekyll and Hyde.

Who can forget his frighteningly unhinged speech to Democrats at a rally in Tennessee?

"He [George Bush] betrayed this country! He played on our fears. He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure dangerous to our troops, an adventure preordained and planned before 9/11 ever took place!"

It is almost incomprehensible to me that the Gore screaming about Bush betraying America was the same Gore that appeared with Leno on Monday.

I definitely prefer the kinder, gentler Gore; but it creeps me out to know that the crazed Gore is still lurking somewhere beneath the black wardrobe.