So...
There's just something about Conan O'Brien that bugs me. Yes, I know I'm in the minority, but give me a chance to explain. First of all, I think he is VERY funny. As a comedian, he's genius. As a person, I'm not so sure. I used to really love this guy and even met him once at The Tonight Show when I worked over there. But there's a couple of things he has done since NBC announced his reign as host of that show was ending that made me question him. I think, one, he is a little less classy than people give him credit for. I think he thinks very highly of himself (fine, maybe he's earned it), but what I don't like is that he operates under the pretense of doing things because it is the right thing to do (such as, stepping down as host of The Tonight Show because he didn't want it to be damaged as an institution by moving back a half hour to accommodate Jay Leno's show), when in fact I think it was done for more personal reasons. He was hurt and angry and sort of bitter about being pushed back. Fine... that's fine... just be honest about it, don't fire off some letter about the morality of moving the Tonight Show back.
Also, his anti-NBC tirade was funny... and still is. But I have to question how hurt he really is considering he is still in big business with NBC and is, in fact, still developing shows at the network. One, Outlaws, is even coming out this fall. There's something dishonest and a bit tacky about taking shots at your business partner. And for taking shots at rival host Jay Leno, who went back to his old spot as Tonight Show host after Conan departed. Conan, if people tuned in to watch your show, then this wouldn't have been a problem. And, yes, Jay got more of a chance initially than you did, but it was a different television landscape back then and your style is way more outside the mainstream than Leno's. You know this. So if anyone is to blame, blame NBC for first putting you in the spot, blame yourself for insisting on it and waiting (never trust Hollywood, dude) and blame America and your fans for not tuning in soon enough. Truth be told, what NBC did to you did more for your career than hosting the show did in the first place. Look at your ratings after the announcement came. Look at how the fans rallied.
And then what did you do to those fans? You went ahead and ripped them off. That's right. This is the thing that truly bugs me about Conan; the way he took advantage of his fans following the demise of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Legally, he was banned from going on TV for a short while following the end of his hosting run. So he decided to do a multi-city comedy tour. GREAT idea... a chance to reconnect with his fans in person, build some buzz for his inevitable return to TV, and work on some new material. The problem is that he knows that his loyal fan base will turn out en masse and support him. It would have been a great way to thank them for all of their support, too. Even though they aren't a large enough group to keep him as host of a network late night show, they are big enough to ensure that he will have no problem finding work again. So what does he do? He proceeds to rip them off! That's right, the big Conan fan fleecing. And how does he do this? He charges some $40 dollars and UP for tickets to his act. Kind in mind that $40 is for the cheap, back row seats of rather large venues. Front row seats... well, you can imagine. And then, on top of that, he is charging $45 bucks and upwards for t-shirts, $25 for a poster, even $30 bucks for a hat that says, simply, "Conan." That's just tacky. I mean, not even NBC charged that much for Conan merchandise at his show -- and I would know, since I worked on it.
It's not like Conan didn't get himself some 40 million dollars to walk away from NBC. It's not like his staff and producers didn't get millions and millions and millions of dollars when he walked away. So where is all this money from the tickets and merch going to? What Conan should have done is made the prices reasonable as a thank you to his fans, not as a "poor me, I'm out of a job, now give me your money" kind of thing. True, he has to raise money for putting on his shows, but this is ridiculous. It's not like he has a band and road crew the size of a Bruce Springsteen concert. He's a comedian. All he needs is a stage to stand on and a microphone to speak into. And as far as paying his crew is concerned, they are all going with him to his new show when it starts up in November on TBS, so they just got a huge pile of money to take a 7 month vacation. Awesome.
Of course, the media is all on Conan's side during the late night feud, so you would never hear them question this. But there it is.
Oh, finally, the reason I'm writing this today is because Conan just put out a Youtube video showcasing his favorite Youtube videos. I went to the website hoping to see something special, but all he did was link 5 already popular and widely-viewed videos to his page. Really? That's not exactly being on the cutting edge of comedy. It's almost like, wow, welcome to the bandwagon on those ones.
Anyway, I'll probably check out his new show, but he's got to work to win me back over with a few good jokes and, more pressingly, a few classy moves. And get off the pity-party train already, man!
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