Santa Maria, Calif. ? So how bad was it for Michael Jackson on Friday?

First, a judge gave his blessing for Jay Leno to make almost any jokes he wants about the beleaguered pop star.

Then a prosecutor announced to the world’s media that Jackson is “on the precipice of bankruptcy,” with debts of more than $300 million threatening to snuff his tottering financial empire by year’s end.

So, overall, it wasn’t a bad day — at least compared with Thursday, when Jackson had to sit through court in his pajama bottoms after being ordered in from a hospital emergency room by Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville.

Neither the pop star nor jurors were present at Jackson’s child-molestation trial Friday when attorneys argued over a number of motions before Melville.

The flap over Leno, a potential witness for the defense, was settled without much fuss.

Melville said the “Tonight Show” host will not violate a gag order in the case as long as his jokes stay away from the one narrow area on which he may be called to testify — a telephone call he allegedly received from Jackson’s teen accuser.

“It’s not the court’s intention to stop him from telling jokes,” Melville said.

In his ruling on Friday, the judge defended Leno’s right to make jokes that even suggest Jackson is guilty — as long as the comic doesn’t joke about his possible testimony.

Melville sided with Theodore A. Boutrous Jr., a Los Angeles media attorney representing Leno, who claimed the gag order unfairly hobbled Leno in his craft’s time-honored and constitutionally protected pursuit of shtick.

In their court filings, Jackson’s attorneys disagreed, contending that Leno’s quips were barely worth a constitutional argument.