Comedy always appreciates the underdog, and Conan O’Brien has always been, and always will be, an underdog of late-night comedy. Even when he helmed The Tonight Show for seven months, mass audiences never quite found themselves hooked to his absurdist ways, his old-timey sensibilities, or his Masturbating Bear. He’s a cult icon, one who amassed a horde of Coco worshippers and who managed to sell out thirty cities-worth of variety show tickets in mere minutes with a single Tweet. His dreams of hosting the gig Carson once held were crushed by NBC’s head honchos, yet he still managed to look like the best man without people feeling sorry for him by holding his fat Irish head high.
Now he’s back with a much-publicized new show on TBS called, simply, Conan. His first week was met with great expectations, with hilarious, awkward and hilariously awkward sight gags and self-deprecating humor.
The cold opening which preceded the first show was one of the funniest sketches I had ever seen, rife with references to the demise of Sonny Corleone, a cameo appearance by Don Draper and Conan’s sorry attempts at life outside of late-night hosting jobs. A picture-in-picture of a Kanye West press conference highlighted Thursday night’s opening monologue, with Conan occasionally checking back in to see if West was still talking about himself. And frequent-guest Tom Hanks is always up for some sort of mutilation, whether it’s getting hit with a boulder on The Tonight Show or being drenched by a whale’s breaching on last Tuesday’s episode.
However, besides the absence of Max on the drums and the addition of a depression beard, not much seems fresher and newer than it was on NBC. The jokes are the same (albeit more scathing towards his former network lifestyle), the layout of the show is unchanged, and even the first week’s guests are regulars on the show. Sidekick Andy Richter seems underused already. While a visit from Tom Hanks is never unnecessary (seriously, why isn’t this guy in more comedies?), wasn’t the Nicest Guy in Hollywood Conan’s second-day guest on his last show too?
And while I understand that Conan is excited to be back on the air, can he stop kissing TBS’s ass already? I understand his elation, but he’s mentioning his ordeal with NBC nearly every night. Wouldn’t he want to put it behind him in an attempt to start fresh with his new show? I don’t want to see a still-bitter Conan on TV. I want to see the joyous, eccentric Conan I grew to love on Late Night.
But I’m being too blunt. I still love Coco dearly. I love his awkward spontaneity, the way that he’s not afraid to seem creepy and that he wasn’t afraid to defend an institution he loved and desired, even if it meant losing its hosting job after years of fighting for it.
Maybe I just expected more from Conan, especially with all of the hype and promotions that has been circulating the media for the past few months (such as commercials with Conan driving an explosive-packed car off a cliff or traveling to India for the perfect silk for his studio’s curtains). I wanted crazy stunts like shooting bad wax figures of Tom Cruise and Henry Winkler out of circus cannons or making Andy drink a shot of bacon-flavored vodka.
I know I’m being too impatient – there’s still time for Conan to start going places. With no late-night figure preceding Conan now, he is in no worry of getting bumped back to any frustrating timeslots (unless TBS suddenly gets a craving for more George Lopez on their weeknights). As long as his core audience stays fervently devoted, I think Conan – and Conan – is here to stay… this time.
