Never really got the appeal of this guy. Back in '93, he seemed mediocre, not funny. I was in the demo, but nada for me. Now it’s like, “Why not give someone else a chance?” I mean, do 20-somethings find this guy edgy, still (as if he ever was)?
For that matter, Letterman jumped the ol’ shark in '85 or so. Hell, Leno was never a megatalent, you know?
Late night TV sucks, pretty much.
Your thoughts?
When I was a teenager, I was a pretty huge Letterman fan but that sort of passed for whatever reason. I have always found Leno a little whorish for some reason so I’ve never been a huge fan of his. Conan stuck around a little longer for me; probably the first four or five seasons he was on television but I just sort of got tired of him. The whole self deprecating thing works for a while, but eventually it just gets old for me, I guess. That pretty much takes me to my early 20’s and since then I haven’t really watched anything in the way of late night talk shows.
I really am a bit of a stand up aficionado and to be frank, it just boils down to the fact that I find that most, if not all, of the talk show hosts really are bad at stand up comedy. I suppose it doesn’t help that they need new material every night but that really isn’t my fault now is it. It’s also hard to have any sort of edge on broadcast TV but it is midnight for crying out loud so take a chance every once in a while. Yes…haha…Paris Hilton isn’t exactly a paragon of virtue…I get it.
I guess Jon Stewart/Colbert are late night talk show hosts so I do watch and enjoy them. Of the three Network hosts, Letterman has held up the best for me. I find him better at the interview part.
…I’m pretty sure a recurring mastrubating bear character is considered EDGY by anyone’s standards on a network show.
I like him but not enough to watch him on any sort of regular basis.
Meh…it isn’t exactly taking a lot of chances to have a person dressed in a bear costume, run around on stage wearing a diaper and pretend to masturbate. It’s completely random, I give it that, just not funny or particularly edgy.
What I was referring to though was the actual stand up they do at the beginning of the show.
I really like Conan. Sure, some of the sketches are a bit tired, but Conan is amazing at improv.
His best bits, by far, are when he goes out on the field and is just recording whatever he does. Also, contrary to some other’s opinions, I love his interviews. Sure, he often talks about thing not related to the interviewer at all, but it’s often for hilarity’s sake, plus it’s a nice change of pace from the standard forced feeling of most interviews.
And come on? Who can hate on a show that has a masturbating bear, and a sketch called “Frankenstein wastes a minute of our time?”
How often do you see masturbation discussed, let alone depicted on network television? Let alone years ago when the bear was introduced.
I like him. He’s hip and entertaining without being particularly threatening. And while a late-night talk show sounds like an easy gig, look at all the otherwise competent comics who couldn’t go the distance.
When O’Brien was early into the show, an NBC exec told him that, in all honesty, if the ratings ever dipped below a certain point, the show was canceled. But after a while, they noticed that nothing anyone else put in that time slot did anywhere near as well. That’s how he lasted. And even when he couldn’t get first pick of guests, his staff had an unusually good knack for spotting up-and-coming musical guests, which locked in that desirable college demographic (Common sense says that Carson Daly should have duplicated this success on his music connections alone; incredibly, it never happened).
I’m looking forward to his tenure on the Tonight Show.
Agreed. I just find him annoying. His facial contortions and other stuff make him seem odd, not funny. I always refer to him as the dork who made good. And I keep hearing that he is the heir apparent when the chin retires. I think Stewart is much better.
They make references to it on network TV. I’m tired right now but I can think of at least a dozen on That 70’s Show (most of which are Fez). It’s also a bear. The randomness factor is high but the fact that it’s a person in a bear costume rather than a person takes some edge off, I think.
I’m sorry I just don’t find it, or him in general, funny.
I remember watching his first episode way back in the early 90s and thinking, “This guy is weird, annoying, and not funny at all. He laughs at his own jokes, and his hair is frightening. His show will be cancelled in three months.”
Shows what I know!
Now, all these years later . . . I still think he’s weird, annoying, and unfunny. Although I think it’s still the hair that pushes him over the limit to unwatchability. I mean really, look at it some time – it’s like some pompadour rockabilly nightmare.
Conan is better at interviews than the other two but still, he’s pretty unwatchable. I find myself sneering at those lame sketches like Raymond the Preparation H guy, Masturbating Bear, that circa 20s fast-talking salesman, etc. I often wonder if this is what typical Americans like. Here on Dope, I don’t expect to find many people who appreciate that kind of humor.
Odd, I find Conan the funniest of the three, and I think Leno and Letterman are pretty funny themselves. No accounting for taste, I guess.
Or, you could have said, “Funny, I find Conan the oddest of the three”.
Actually, that too, which is also why I find him funny. 
I find him really funny, but I hate his show. I’m not sure how that can be, but there it is.
I don’t know how to put it into words any other way, so I’ll just repeat what my friend Peter said: “Conan knows funny.”
And also, Brian Stack, among whose hilarious comic creations include Hannigan the Salesman and Artie Kendall, is one of the most consistently funny performers on television.
That’s why I prefer Leno. He never laughs at his own jokes.
Strange, I felt precisely the opposite–although I haven’t seen the program in years, when I used to watch it I always found Conan himself to be highly annoying, and felt that the strength of the show was in the writing for their sketch bits.
I guess between us, the entire show is appealing.
Artie Kendall is genius.
You can watch him here. (Click on Late Nite -> Conan -> Characters -> Ghost Crooner).
Unfortunately I can’t seem to link directly to it.
I’m a generation Xer so I remember the Late Night Wars fairly well.
I was never ever a fan of Carson and I could never figure out the idolization of him. His mugging for the camera and completely unfunny skits seemed to be straight out of the Laugh-In generation. I couldn’t stand him.
Letterman was my King of Late Night. Edgy, funny, creative, innovative. I still have his Season 1-4 Anniversary specials on video tape. Classics.
Once the Late Night Wars happened everything changed. Letterman on CBS was just a watered down version of himself as he tried to be the “new” Carson to appeal to the earlier time slot.
Leno stepped in smoothly giving a consistant performance night after night without making waves and taking little chances.
I remember Conan’s premiere and everyone wondering how a no-name newby could ever fill the void Letterman left behind. He did well. He did great. And he’s consistant. However, after 10+ years that consistancy has become boring for me.
I still have a hard time watching Letterman with the constant “APPLAUD” and “LAUGH” cues given to the studio audience without end. He’s become such a one-trick pony I can’t figure out if he’s lost his edge or if he’s just bored.
I now prefer Leno. His jokes are always current, his skits focus on jokes (not making Leno the center of the joke), and his various co-host roving reporters are always funny.
I only catch Conan about once a month as of late and I’m always suprised he’s still running the same old gags.