Elvis ‘Turned Against’ Johnny Carson After He Made a Joke About Him
Elvis Presley was a longtime fan of Johnny Carson until 1975. That year, Elvis turned 40 and the public perception of him had shifted greatly. He was once one of the world’s biggest stars, but he had become the butt of many a joke. One joke that Carson made about Elvis during his monologue hurt the musician so deeply that he could no longer watch the show.
Elvis Presley turned against Johnny Carson after a monologue
As Elvis’ 40th birthday loomed, he grew despondent. He was growing tired of his career and had isolated himself from the world around him.
“[He was] like the boy in the bubble,” his girlfriend Sheila Ryan said, per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “I mean who cares? Who wants to live? He would say, ‘Who the hell am I anyway? I’m a living legend!’ Sometimes he lived it, but once in a while he’d just go, ‘Oh, boy, what the f*** is going on? I’m just who I am. I’m just this little person.'”
It didn’t help that he was the subject of much humor and speculation. The National Enquirer ran the headline, “Elvis at 40: Paunchy, Depressed, and Living in Fear” before his birthday. Even Carson, one of his favorite hosts, made jokes at his expense. During his monologue, he referred to Elvis as “fat and 40.” Elvis found it difficult to watch the show following this insult.
“Elvis was always crazy about Johnny Carson,” his cousin Billy Smith said, per the book Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia. “But then a few years later, Johnny was doing his monologue one night, and Elvis was watching him, and Johnny said something about Elvis being ‘fat and forty.’ And, boy, Elvis turned against him after that. He wouldn’t hardly watch him anymore. Elvis took stuff like that hard. That’s why we kept the bad reviews from him. Joe would cut that page out of the paper. If Elvis saw it anyway, he’d stay mad the whole damn day.”
Johnny Carson later joked about Elvis’ generosity
Unaware of Elvis’ anger, Carson continued to make jokes about him. Elvis was notorious for his generosity — his father once even had to beg him to stop spending money. He reportedly gave away well over 100 Cadillacs in his lifetime, which Carson joked about in a monologue.
“Well, let’s go to the news and see if Elvis Presley gave his parakeet a new Cadillac,” Carson said on The Tonight Show. “Did you notice that? Presley’s giving everybody Cadillacs. You say hello and Elvis gives you a Cadillac.”
The musician did not like to feel embarrassed
Elvis took Carson’s joke to heart because he did not like hearing negative feedback. The people who worked with him could not even offer constructive criticism; Elvis only wanted to hear praise from them.
“One of the guys actually told Elvis he was beginning to look more like a Liberace act in the hope that Elvis would take the hint and come to his senses and rely on just his talent,” Priscilla Presley wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “But from the beginning, Elvis had insisted: ‘I just want to read positive reviews. I don’t want to hear any negativity.'”
Given his temperament, it’s not surprising that Elvis struggled to watch The Tonight Show once Carson began joking about him.
