Why do people like conan

I cannot tell you how I will feel on that last night. But I think the overriding emotion is going to be gratitude that all of this happened. When I got started in comedy in , someone asked me what I dreamed about, and I said I dreamed about having a body of work. I love making stuff. I think, for many years, that was thrilling, and I was addicted to it. Really addicted to it. What happens is, over time as you get older, you start craving different experiences.

Those travel shows made me feel like, This is fantastic. And it felt like we were able to craft them a little more and really work on them and think about them. I became, in a weird way, almost like when I was working on The Simpsons and we would really craft an episode and think about it.

With the travel shows, even though we only shoot them over a period of a couple of days, we were able to do a lot of research beforehand and put a lot of thought into it, and I felt like I was 30 years old again, having a new experience.

The other thing was the podcast. So this just felt like the right time. You seemed reinvigorated by the new format, and there was good critical reaction. But then, barely a year later, the pandemic blew things up again. But the lack of that energy, that audience, and also the restrictions of Zoom and things like that, over time I think it took some of the fun out of doing this.

But there is a certain energy that these shows thrive on, and I think the pandemic made it a lot harder to get that energy flowing at times. But you were headed to this decision anyway. I remember, before the pandemic, feeling that we needed to keep trying to innovate and change in order to freshen things up and to keep it exciting. How do you view the time from the start of Late Night in until now? Is it one long continuum of shows, just with different formats? Or are there more distinct eras in your late-night career?

The first three years of Late Night was one experience, which felt like being in a street fight just to stay alive. Then you switch into this other era, the last 16 years of Late Night. Then you get to the Tonight Show period, which is brief — shockingly brief. And then you get into the tour that we took, which was very intense, and then into the TBS show. What is interesting is that, all along, there are different feelings as you go and different looks.

But the approach and the comedy philosophy are always the same, which is trying to make things that are silly.

The comedy I really like is evergreen. I appreciate that comedy, and I think it can be very brilliantly done.

It is a year journey to find silly things that we hope amuse other people. You probably could have done a show for Fox or maybe syndication.

It was a little surprising when you chose TBS. What made you choose it? I think more than civilians, the media likes a late-night war. I was caught up in all that. We were on at at night, and once we got to the point where we were stable and doing well, we were allowed to play, and we had a lot of freedom. And then I went through the whole Tonight Show craziness. After all of that, I remembered feeling, Okay, what are we going to do now? He was wearing a raincoat that Columbo would wear.

It was raining in L. And here we are, 11 years later. Steve always kept his word, and everyone since Steve did the same thing. Should we take him seriously? How Fox News gave birth to a false narrative. John King opens up on why he shared his multiple sclerosis diagnosis. Fox News anchor credits Covid vaccination for saving his life.

Conservative radio host says he wanted to catch Covid WarnerMedia is CNN's parent company. Whatever it is, Conan will surely be funny; because, when all the Sturm und Drang of his late-night career is put to one side and there was surely a lot of that , what stands out is how original and truly off-the wall his comedic style — and mind — has been.

If you got him, that is. I have had numerous experiences with people who asked me why Conan was such a big deal because they found him odd and off-putting, not funny in the least. My response always acknowledged that humor is personal, and few comedians have been universally celebrated as hilarious; but that I could only tell them that I personally found much of his show brilliantly inventive and funny, and that I had been in the presence of many people who considered Conan a rare and perhaps unmatched comic genius.

I had seen some of those people line up in the heat of a Manhattan summer to get inside the Beacon Theatre to see one of Conan's anniversary shows while he worked at NBC's "Late Night. In Eugene, Oregon, where Conan did the first show on his national tour while on his hiatus from TV, I watched a screaming horde of fans, still soaked from standing for hours outside in the rain, crawl over each other to try to touch him when he walked through the aisles of the arena playing his guitar.

And then I saw many of those same fans swarm the concession stands to buy "Team Coco" merchandise — hats, T-shirts, posters. Read More. Photos: Conan O'Brien's late-night career. Conan O'Brien is seen backstage on the set of his show "Conan" in He's been a late-night host for nearly 30 years.

Hide Caption. O'Brien does a skit with his longtime show sidekick, comedian Andy Richter, in Richter has been a part of O'Brien's show for much of his late-night run. O'Brien delivers a monologue as he hosts an episode of "Saturday Night Live" in Before he became famous, O'Brien was a writer for the show.

O'Brien warms up the crowd at one of his "Late Night" tapings. O'Brien's resemblance to Halonen became a recurring bit on his show, and he eventually traveled to meet her and do a special episode from Finland. O'Brien is joined by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, one of his show's most iconic characters, in O'Brien's last episode of "The Tonight Show" aired on January 22, , less than a year after he started. O'Brien refused the time change and left. But it was one of my favorite ones because I got to be as insane as I wanted to be.

We were really straining, where every segment had to be this brilliant, groundbreaking piece of art. If you overthink, you overstink. Art is primal. Art has to pander to the caveman and cavewoman within us. I really came to comedy late. My comedy is a little off the beaten path sometimes for some people, and it was nice to be able to turn on television and be like, Yes, people do want things that are a little weird.

I remember being incredibly nervous my first time on [his show] because I was trying to promote my show that was on MTV. He was so kind to me. He came to the dressing room and talked to me like I was a normal person. It instantly made me feel okay. He really elevated me in a way. He lets you do anything you fucking want. Late night is going to be a little more boring without him.

A fun little weirdo is leaving! I like being weird. You spoke the same language. The first few years were magic to me. I remember feeling, I cannot believe that this is on television. He straddled the line between buttoned-up late-night hosts and young punk dum-dums. He was so goofy and silly and whimsical and absurd.

It was so stupid, truly, that it really felt like he was getting away with something. I remember being on vacation with my family, 12 of us in two hotel rooms, cots everywhere, sleeping on the couch. Everybody in my room was asleep, and I was quietly watching Conan. LaBamba from his band singing in that high-pitched voice was the funniest thing. It was so stupid. And I absolutely loved it. That really hooked me in early. It defined what the show was, that they were going to march to the beat of their own drum.

That gave me and so many other comedians the freedom and the confidence to trust our own voices, too. I remember having the thought, Yeah, Conan does love to destroy a guest. He loves to destroy the audience. He loves to destroy Andy, but the person he loves to destroy more than anyone else is himself.

No one kills Conan more than Conan kills himself. Now, Conan is a great friend. He will reach out, be the one to extend the hand. I felt really seen by it, and I felt really special that I understood it, even though it was sometimes completely insane. From there, I got my friends into it, and we became obsessed. The Masturbating Bear.

The Walker, Texas Ranger lever. The string dance. Preparation H Raymond. Their announcer, Joel , and the things he used to do with him. My dad bought me the In the Year book for Christmas. That was my first time being able to look at jokes in written form and study them and see which ones were funny. I can see that I was taking a course in joke writing. I admit I never wanted to go on Conan because it was just too much. The reason I do this is because of you.

I started watching Conan in , when I was 15 years old. Conan and The Simpsons were really the first thing in comedy that I felt was mine. Conan took what you found funny, which was crazy, conceptual comedy, and there was kind of a geekiness to it that I appreciated.

You could tell it was him and his writers trying to make themselves laugh. There was nothing pandering about it. He set up his guests incredibly well, and people always seemed really loose and funny on his show. Or when Tom Selleck had to say good-bye to his mustache because the mustache was dying. That was the danger with him. Whereas Conan could be sarcastic, but he always was trying to help guests out. You could feel that they responded to that.

What he talks about in terms of anxiety and fear of failure, I definitely relate. How could we not be a little crazy, doing this for a living? When I was at SNL , after a while the idea of trying to make something like a sketch work or a character work, I just got exhausted. The last thing I wanted to watch or think about was comedy for eight years — and then years after that, to be honest.

Own that. Actually, that could be a source of a lot of funny stuff. A lot of that goes into Barry. Watching Conan over the years kind of accept this aspect of himself and be open about it, I respect that.

To have a chance to talk to someone honestly about it is wonderful and makes you feel a little less alone. I was right at that age. I grew up religious. I wanted to do comedy. I was deeply ashamed of my sexuality, and sexuality as a whole. His job is to have fun and be silly, and he really excels with that.