“I don’t mean to be a bummer. This is a comedy show. I’m a comedian, but my house burned down yesterday,” Lee said while appearing on The Tonight Show Thursday.
Comedian Pete Lee is turning to laughter to cope with the devastating fires in California.
While appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Thursday, Lee shared that he lost his home in the Pacific Palisades fire.
A regular on the NBC late night show, Lee started his appearance by saying “I don’t mean to be a bummer. This is a comedy show. I’m a comedian, but my house burned down yesterday.”
Fallon then displayed a before and after picture of Lee’s oceanfront home, which was lost in the fire. And while Lee said he was somewhat unsure about going on the show amid the tragedy, he felt bringing levity and laughter to the situation would do everyone some good.
“The producers asked me, they’re like, ‘Are you sure you even want to do the show?” And I was like, ‘Yeah. I want to do this. This feels therapeutic,'” Lee explained. “It also gave me something to focus on … I go Jimmy, I might cry. Like it’s totally possible that I might cry. By the way, there’s a take that comedians have been doing like, ‘Hey, don’t feel sorry for these people in the Palisades. They’re all rich.’ I’m not rich. Okay?”
Lee shared a closer look at the devastation his home suffered on Instagram and talked about how he was crying so hard while writing the post that he sounded like “pulling a straw in and out of a fast food cup.”
After the fire, however, Lee told Fallon, he immediately started writing down jokes.
“I learned something Jimmy, that when your house burns down, dry January is over,” he quipped. “I got so drunk. I was drinking like prohibition is going to start up again tomorrow.”
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He also made a crack about watching his home in flames on CBS News while he was at a friend’s home.
“My friend goes, ‘Which one is your house?’ And I go, the orange one. I used to be white but now it’s blaze orange. Dude, my house looked like the logo for a Guy Fieri restaurant. That’s my house: Flavortown.”
Fallon, for his part, encouraged both Lee and the people of Los Angeles Thursday night, telling viewers, “I think it shows everyone how strong everyone is during these times. L.A. is going to come back and they’re going to come back stronger.”
When it comes to those criticizing Lee for making jokes about the fires “too soon,” the funny man shot back: “My house burnt down, I can make jokes about this.”
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As of Friday morning, per CNN, multiple active wildfires — including the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire, the Hurst fire, and the Lidia fire — have led to the evacuation of over 100,000 residents, as hundreds of thousands are without power. It’s been reported that at least 10 people have been killed, and nearly 10,000 structures have been destroyed. According to CNN, citing CalFire, the Palisades and Eaton fires are among the five most destructive in California history.
Stars such as Ricki Lake, Paris Hilton, Ricki Lake, Cameron Mathison, Billy Crystal, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester, Anna Farris, and more have lost their homes, while others have taken to social media to reveal they’ve evacuated their neighborhoods.
