Johnny Carson claimed this comedian was his worst Tonight Show guest

Johnny Carson is the gold standard. He did for late night what the Beatles did for rock music, and he will likely never be surpassed. Especially with the current state of the medium, and the fact that late night is ceding more and more ground to the internet.

But we digress. Johnny Carson's reputation is airtight, and he was chummy with a great many of his guests. He was not, however, a fan of every single celebrity who was invited to sit on his couch. There was one comedian who rubbed Carson the wrong way for decades, despite the fact that he appeared on The Tonight Show multiple times.

Johnny Carson felt Bob Hope was too rigid

The comedian in question? Bob Hope. The most decorated man in entertainment history was also a headache for Johnny Carson whenever he stepped out in front of The Tonight Show audience. How do we know? Because Carson's staff said as much in the book Hope: Entertainer of the Century.

Despite being a Hope-centric book, as the title suggests, author Richard Zoglin included testimony from The Tonight Show staffers who experienced the Hope and Carson tension firsthand. Producer Peter Lassally put it succinctly:

""Johnny admired Hope's place in show business, but he was not a great admirer of his work."

Andrew Nicholls, Carson's former head writer, noted that the source of tension came from the fact that Hope and Carson had very different comedic styles. The former relied on written material, and the latter preferred to improvise. Oil and water.

Carson's frustrations with Hope grew over time

"[Hope] was a guy who relied on his writers for every topic," Nicholls asserted. "Johnny was very quick on his feet... He appreciated people who he felt engaged with the real world. There was nothing to talk to Bob about."

It didn't help that Hope's sharpness waned as he got older. He continued to appear on the show, due to his beloved status, but Carson found himself increasingly frustrated by the 1980s. Nicholls recalls one particularly withering comment from Carson after one of Hope's last appearances:

"If I ever end up like that, guys. I want you to shoot me."

Bob Hope's last Tonight Show appearance was in 1992, shortly after Carson handed off hosting duties to Jay Leno. Hope died in 2003, and Carson died two years later.