MovieChat Forums > Conan (2010) Discussion > Frustrated with Conan!

Frustrated with Conan!


I’m kinda frustrated with Conan O'brien, and the Conan show. All the rules and regulation of doing a talkshow, and the talkshow-form itself, seem to hold back Conan’s gift as a comedian, which is being completely free and riffing on stuff around him.

When Conan is at his funniest and most original is when he does his remotes. And they are in fact the reason he is still on the air, because they get so much views on the internet. He has even stated, himself, in various interviews, that he is very proud of all the remotes he has produced thru the years. And I have to agree, they are very very funny, sometimes genius. But to me, the talk show seems to be holding him back, for some reason. I think Conan, a long time ago, was spellbound by Johnny Carson and Letterman and got this idea that “the talkshow form” is the golden ticket to comedy, and that it was going to suit him well, when in fact, it completely holds him back.

Why he is not trying to create his own ”form” and make a completely new show, is beyond me. What if he just did the remotes, as a show, a 30 minute remote every week. That would be so awesome, and something completely different then all the other talk shows that’s around nowadays. It's so tiresome!

Having Andy as a “Sidekick”, only proves he’s brainwashed by the Carson Tonight Show era.

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[deleted]

I agree, and the current crop of writers are the worst he's ever had (of course he's had so may great ones in the past that's not too much of an insult). The writing has actually gotten very politically correct and overly coddling leftist views when in the past it was always very absurdist and even handed making fun of everyone (I'm never a fan of being told how to think). When you look at the bits where Conan gets to be free or even the Scraps bits, and all the good to amazing projects his writers have done after leaving the show (Delocated, Review, the Heart She Holler, Nathan for You, Eagleheart, Moonbeam City, Mr. Show, Jon Benjamin Has a Van, Important Things with Demitri Martin, The Eric Andre Show, Wonder Showzen, South Park, Metalocalypse, Pretend Time, Triumph stuff, Louie, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Portlandia, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, New Girl, etc.), and you see the format holds everyone back. I'm sure if they did 1-2 shows a week and only interviewed one really good guest it'd be amazing.

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The writing has actually gotten very politically correct and overly coddling leftist views when in the past it was always very absurdist and even handed making fun of everyone (I'm never a fan of being told how to think).

In a nutshell that's largely the difference between the Hollywood entertainment world...and New York. Conan's writing has gone down hill ever since they left New York because of that difference and with each writer they lose and each new writer they bring in it seems to get worse.

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[deleted]

I definitely think the writing has gotten a bit too PC. I believe Andy has a lot to do with that. I said this in another post, but he was better without Andy and with Joel and Max as his comic foils. NY is a better place for him. When you go to Hollywood, you lose your sense of self and the politics of the majority of the celebrities just seeps in. I know Conan leans left, but he did a decent job of hiding that. But Andy leans way left, so it's only natural that he has affected him.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/75wpoz/jimmi_fallon_on_its_way_to_3rd_place_in_the/do9wx7d/

The problem is that Conan's show has a much smaller crew of sketch actors.
Late Night would have about 5 to 6 actors appear throughout the week. And sometimes additional people used in skits. And these were fairly high quality sketch actors that would make excellent B-tier SNL performers: Brian McCann, Jon Glaser, Brian Stack, Andy Blitz, Robert Smigel. And sporadic performers like Jack McBrayer, Amy Poehler, and some Upright Citizens Brigade people. And behind that sketch crew was a pretty formidable writing staff.
So the TBS show started, and you had Brian Stack and McCann in greatly diminished roles. Then you had Deon Cole, which was never really effective. It also seemed like his writing staff was trimmed down. So now Conan had to appear in most of the skits, but they could no longer be extravagant skits because Conan wouldn't be able to devote the time. They seemed to have focused it more on just having the writing staff deliver more jokes for the monologue.
So that is disappointing. Especially considering that Brian Stack left the show and went back to New York, and Stephen Colbert immediately snatched him up and uses him almost every single night.
It may be budget related, who knows. TBS can't possibly devote the same budget as the other guys if they know their ratings are significantly lower. And Conan is probably getting the biggest paycheck out of all the traditional late night hosts.

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