Conan was great in his day. Easily my favorite late night show. His writing ability is far better than his peers, and I used to love the skits. Much of his humor, however, was based to some extent on being a low budget, get-away-with-anything show, and being able to make fun of himself.
Even before moving to the Tonight Show, he had taken a turn for the worse. Maybe it was because he knew it was coming. Once he got to the Tonight Show, he was absolutely dreadful and awkward. I’ve watched a couple episodes on TBS, and he is still bad.
I also don’t think the majority of people feel the need to be sexually attracted to their late night comedy host. It’s just something that would never occur to me to even consider as to the enjoyability of a late night host.
I mean, Letterman’s the goofiest looking guy on earth, and I don’t think people really care. Why would you? You tune in for the laughs. If they make you laugh, you watch. They don’t, you don’t.
I also posted on that group (circa 1994) and I was not a teenage girl at the time.
I was a fan of Late Night with Conan O’Brien in its first few years; they tried some pretty weird, funny stuff. Then I moved to a different time zone (where it was on later) and stopped watching the show for a long time. Recently I’ve tried watching the occasional episode of his new show and he’s not funny at all.
Basically the same thing that happened with David Letterman: he started out with lots of creative energy and now he’s just coasting on fumes.
Different strokes. Hetero guy here, so Conan himself, I just appreciate fo the humor.
But opposite sex wise, for me:
Ginger > Brunette > Blond
So why is this even an issue, as someone upthread says, I’m thinking being a little bit unique looking is a good thing, and Conan is that. Of course anything can be taken too damn far.
I always give the same answer when people ask “Am I the only one who…”
NO!
Look at Conan’s ratings. They’re mediocre. He’s NOT a huge star, and he doesn’t get a huge audience. He appeals to a select, enthusiastic group of people. The vast majority of Americans don’t watch his show now, didn’t watch him on ***Tonight, ***and didn’t watch him befre that.
You just get an exaggerated impression of how popular he is because either
Conan appeals largely to people like you and your circle of friends, or
You hang out on web sites (like this one) or chat rooms that are frequented by the type of people who love Conan.
The vast majority of Americans don’t watch any TV show and never have. However, the fact is Conan’s ratings on The Tonight Show were excellent, and demographically superior to both Jay Leno’s and David Letterman’s, while somewhat smaller in absolute numbers. (Cite: The War for Late Night by Bill Carter. It’s a fascinating read.)
His show on TBS pulls less than a network spot but is comfortably profitable for them.
I don’t think he’s very funny, but my stepdaughter likes him, so he’s ok in my book.
Plus, he has Louis CK on fairly often. Have you seen Louis’ punching a dog in the face bit? (Yes, Conan and his sidekick do what they can to ruin the Louis comedy momentum, but he’s a pro…)
The days when “everybody” watched the same shows are long gone. There’s no modern equivalent to Ed Sullivan. There’s no sitcom that can ever get the ratings of “The Beverly Hillbillied.” ALL programming today is aimed at niche markets.
Your point was that Conan’s ratings were “mediocre” which is not true. They were not mediocre on Tonight and they are not mediocre on his TBS show. Both enterprises were profitable and have had excellent demographics. Both were competitive with similar shows in the same timeslot.
Obviously, comparing any current late night host to Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson is absurd.
