What are your thoughts on Conan O'Brien?

[Anonymous]

Hi Dartmouth commencement speech says it all.

[Anonymous]

I love that Harvard commencement speech and have reread it before taking career risks.

I have a friend of a friend who is one of his writers. Loves his job and working for Conan. after his Hot Wings episode, so many people posted stories about how he is a great guy.

I just wish he had interviewed his mom for his podcast, what an amazing woman -- six kids and one of the first female partners at a top law firm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love that Harvard commencement speech and have reread it before taking career risks.

I have a friend of a friend who is one of his writers. Loves his job and working for Conan. after his Hot Wings episode, so many people posted stories about how he is a great guy.

I just wish he had interviewed his mom for his podcast, what an amazing woman -- six kids and one of the first female partners at a top law firm.

The Hot Wings episode was hilarious and his follow up to that episode on his Podcast made it even better. Spot welding had me in tears.

[Anonymous]

I have always found him to be grating with a whiney voice.

[Anonymous]

He’s literally my dream man. I think he’s so quick and funny and obviously so so smart.

[Anonymous]

Conan seemed like a breath of fresh air to me amongst all the other white male late night hosts. He's self deprecating and goofy and seems like a kind person. I don't really watch him or others so don't know more than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Witty and charismatic? Grating and cocky? Let's discuss this cerebral comedian, whose parents died three days apart last week (and were well-regarded as attorneys and physicians in Brookline MA).

I love love love Conan.

He is surreal, original, self- deprecating, curious and funny.

I love that he knows who he is but does not take himself too seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Witty and charismatic? Grating and cocky? Let's discuss this cerebral comedian, whose parents died three days apart last week (and were well-regarded as attorneys and physicians in Brookline MA).

Just listened to his podcast with Jordan Schlansky. Modestly funny but often annoying too. Jordan was funnier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t something bad happen to his parents a few years ago? I haven’t read any of the recent articles, but the two-physician thing rings a bell…?

Last week his parents died a few days apart. Mom was alawyer. Dad was a doctor.

Yeah his mother was a YLS grad and the second female partner at Ropes & Gray.

[Anonymous]

His “Harvard education” is his entire brand and why people think he’s soooooooo smart. Reality is he’s just a goofy rich nepo baby who got in because he’s a rich nepo baby from Boston. Trying to muscle a 59 year old Jay Leno into retirement proves he’s an entitled elitist a-hole weasel brat like every other Harvard alum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:His “Harvard education” is his entire brand and why people think he’s soooooooo smart. Reality is he’s just a goofy rich nepo baby who got in because he’s a rich nepo baby from Boston. Trying to muscle a 59 year old Jay Leno into retirement proves he’s an entitled elitist a-hole weasel brat like every other Harvard alum.

How on earth is the child of a doctor and a lawyer in Boston a Hollywood nepo baby? Neither of his parents were in show business.

[Anonymous]

Witty, acerbic, brilliant writer with a dark side. I’ve loved him since high school (late thirties now).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let me try that again (and maybe ask Jeff to delete my messed up post above. I am sorry, Jeff!).

O'Brien gave a commencement speech about 25 years ago that I still refer to now. The speech was about failing and how important it can be, and that it often led to better things.

Major excerpts of the speech are here (https://academyatthelakes.org/wp-content/uplo...vard2000Excerpts.pdf ), but here is the end if you don't want to follow the link:

"And then, an insane, inexplicable opportunity came my way. A chance to audition for host of the new Late Night Show. I took the opportunity seriously but, at the same time, I had the relaxed confidence of someone who knew he had no real shot…a week later I got the job.

"So, this was undeniably it: the truly life-altering break I had always dreamed of. And, I went to work. … We debuted on September 13, 1993 and I was happy with our effort. I felt like I had seized the moment and put my very best foot forward. And this is what the most respected and widely read television critic, Tom Shales, wrote in the Washington Post: “O’Brien is a living collage of annoying nervous habits. He giggles and titters, jiggles about and fiddles with his cuffs. He had dark, beady little eyes like a rabbit. … O’Brien is a switch on the guest who won’t leave: he’s the host who should never have come….

"There’s more but it gets kind of mean.

"Needless to say, I took a lot of criticism, some of it deserved, some of it excessive. And it hurt like you wouldn’t believe. But I’m telling you all this for a reason. I’ve had a lot of success and I’ve had a lot of failure. I’ve looked good and I’ve looked bad. I’ve been praised and I’ve been criticized. But my mistakes have been necessary. [...]

"I’ve dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you’re desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way. I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I’m as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good. So, that’s what I wish for all of you: the bad as well as the good. Fall down, make a mess, break something occasionally. And remember that the story is never over."

So I have always loved him as a comedian and this makes him really like him as a person. A lot of people, not just successful/showbiz people, they don't get this. This is something only someone with a soul would say. And to say it to a grad class at Harvard and not to just say something funny/charming/witty/cool/easy that sounds good - that's someone who actually cares about others. Not sure how you would not like someone who would make a speech like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t find him at all funny, and has a very punchable face. Jimmy Fallon is no better though.

This.

Because I’ve never found a single thing he’s done very funny or even chuckle worthy - he is wooden as hell - I’m convinced he must have been a very funny writer. The pedigree is impressive: lampoon followed by the Simpsons. (But that’s only because he’s lasted so long in the public eye! Only a grand narcissist like this would have endured. I give him backhanded credit for lasting this long on no stage presence.

Lorne Michaels in those years he turned on Jay Leno - needed an alternative. He turned to Conan as the alternative. Probably, Lorne was family friends with one of Conan’s folks. No fault in that - it’s how the biz works but very unfunny Xer.

WTF? You are a weirdo. You obviously have never ever watched any youtube clips with him because that guy is absolutely 100000% not wooden as hell.

[Anonymous]

he is funny