CONAN’S COMPETITION: Comedy Central Re-Ups Jon Stewart And Stephen Colbert

COMMENTS (16)

• I think we all like Conan personally. His tastes are good. Behind the scenes, he’s solidly on the good guy team, a mensch. We agree (hopefully) that he’s more compelling than Leno in nearly every respect–certainly smarter.

  But let’s also realize that the contrast with Stewart and Colbert is not flattering.

  The truth, folks, is that Conan is tame and, alone with the mic, not really that funny. Endearing, sure. Clever, yes. Was his old show courageous? Sometimes, with him the straight man politely pulling back from the edge. But would you watch his stand-up? Really?

  How about Jon Stewart’s? Or Bill Maher’s? Or Colbert’s?

  Does anyone think that in a million years Conan O’Brien would have been capable of even one-tenth of the courage Colbert showed right up in George Bush’s face?

  Think about it.

  His desperate-to-please shtick reflects, unhelpfully, a genuine desperation to please that, compared with Stewart and Colbert, falls just too close to cowardice. Next to Leno, Conan may seem edgy, but Kimmel’s show was more successfully irreverent than Conan’s Tonight Show.

  The truth is that Conan has always been overly eager to be a “good boy,” to play the game of getting even greater millions at The Tonight Show. (And this is someone who already lives like a Goldman Sachs CEO.)

  Lorne Michaels likes good boys and girls. Obedience over originality.

  So whereas Stewart and Colbert have repeatedly reached through the screen to grab difficult issues by the neck and twist them to the floor (at least by American television standards), Conan, as you can see countless times, will nervously laugh and deflate even mildly controversial sentiments aired in his presence.

  He’s a good boy. He wants you to like him. Please.

  And, yes, the good boy got screwed and we feel bad for him, because we hate Leno. But we’ve overlooked the extent to which Conan screwed himself. And not like Bill Maher, who got kicked out of network late-night for being uncompromising. No, Conan got tossed trying to go even more watered-down, more safe, more eager-to-please.

  And where’s the honor, or the humor, in that?

  Stewart, ironically, has become a national treasure via a startling, refreshing, exciting inclination to (relatively) fearlessly call b*llshit from a modest post that has consequently become a mainstay of the culture more significant than the Tonight Show by miles. Colbert, in his fashion, is sometimes even more daring. Forget the ratings. Country music awards shows get big ratings. How many times a year does Leno drive the media conversation? How does Neilsen measure relevancy?

  Coco, I think, will die a slow death on TBS unless–a big unless–he has an inner Stewart/Colbert so long-repressed and desperate to come out that it’s going to explosively eclipse his Comedy Central competitors. He has to make Stewart look like Matt Lauer.

  And what are the odds of that? Given the psychological dynamics after the high-profile Nancy Kerrigan-style jacking he was dealt, the odds are that Conan will now be more desperate to please than ever. (Right now, he’s on stage somewhere with a guitar. You know, like Adam Sandler used to do.)

  And that won’t be pretty. Forget funny.

  Comment by Dustintime — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 8:20am PDT  Reply to this post

  • That’s pretty harsh- and very accurate.

    Comment by cst — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 9:55am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Conan just played (more music than comedy I might add) to wonderful reviews in Seattle as part of his Coco tour.

    That said, I think Dustin’s post is probably the most accurate, if not succinct, analysis of what Conan will FAIL to bring to the table — and why his new TV show on TBS will be all uphill.

    As someone who knows him, I can say he is, indeed, kind, affable, quirkily clever (in a Harvard Crimson kind of way) but that is more niche, frat-boy humor, and not broad ADULT humor.

    During his Seattle performance it was announced he was turning 47. FORTY SEVEN? I knew he was in his 40s but until the number was write large I would have had a hard time believing he was closer to 50 than 40. After all, how many 47 year-olds find routines like the Masturbating Bear/Panda (a common Conan routine on NBC) to be anyone’s idea of rollicking, knee-slapping humor?

    Such jejeune comedy fails at the end of the day, but feels even more cringeworthy when you realize the guy guiding the joke is your dad’s age. It’s sort of like a beefy 50-year-old stripper gyrating like a tight, libidinal 20-year-old Sophia Loren.

    Doesn’t work.

    Comment by bobby the saint — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 4:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Stewart and Colbert, only having to deliver a niche audience to make Comedy Central happy, are allowed to have a sharp point of view. The job of a broadcast network host is to appeal to a large mainstream audience. That’s not at all the same job.

    Stewart and Colbert do their job brilliantly. Conan did his job brilliantly.

    Would Stewart or Colbert be as good trying to appeal to a wide base? I have no idea. Would Conan be damn good going after a niche? Probably.

    They’re all talented as hell, as are their writing staffs. It’s a bummer they’ll be up against one another. In a perfect world, Comedy Central would have had the money to put Conan on every night at 10pm, followed by his friends Stewart and Colbert. But Comedy Central doesn’t even have the dough to keep a great quirky show like “The Sarah Silverman Program” on, let alone match TBS’s offer to Conan, so we all lose out. (Except for George Lopez, who will get sampled by a new audience now. And hopefully he’ll use his opportunity to go beyond his tired “white people act like this but Latinos act like this.” schtick.)

    Comment by Michelle T — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 4:05pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • “We agree (hopefully) that he’s more compelling than
    Leno in nearly every respect….”

    Actually, we agree with one exception. I believe Jay Leno is better at interviewing guests. A skill that requires the interviewer to take a back seat to the guest. Conan is not nearly as good at this, and as I often tune in to late night talk because of the guests, I prefer Leno. A admit that Conan may be better at other aspects of his show, but that’s not why I tune in.

    Comment by mfan — Wednesday April 21, 2010 @ 9:42am PDT  Reply to this post

• Great news. This is the best hour of television available to those sorely in need of a laugh. It’s my favorite hour of the day and rarely fails to please.

  Comment by CLB — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 8:51am PDT  Reply to this post

• @Dustintime How did you manage to write all of that during your break at Starbucks?

  Comment by Shawn — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 10:04am PDT  Reply to this post

• Dustintime is right. Koonin and his group are all about the deal. All about the splash of landing a “star” without much thought to what comes after. They are emptying the vault and think they’ve got a sure thing in Conan bc of his name but he’s still got to deliver a great show now in a much more challenging context– on an obscure basic cable channel with no real brand (Tyler Perry?) And against two shows that are his exact audience. In tv there are no sure things. But best of luck to all involved.

  Comment by ifonly — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 11:49am PDT  Reply to this post

  • I don’t know where you get this idea that TBS is obscure. Since Conan made his deal, it seems that a countless number of TV writers have pointed out how well TBS’ Office and Family Guy reruns do with Conan’s sweetspot 18-34 demo. While of course it’s true that Conan still has to deliver a good product, there’s no particular reason to believe that we won’t, now that he’s in a situation where he can once again cater to a niche audience with total creative freedom. Conan vs Stewart isn’t a particularly reasonable comparison. Maybe Conan doesn’t have it in him to do a truly courageous interview, but I don’t think he’s ever claimed or implied that he does. Conan’s schtick is about being goofy and childish in a clever way, he leaves politics to the Stewarts and Mahers. In a TiVo world, the same audience wants both styles of humour, and they’ll be able to watch both Conan and Stewart with ease. I certainly will.

    And as a small side note…how courageous is Stewart, really? Boy, he really speaks truth to power, provided you think that “power” means Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. His most pointed face-to-face critique was of Jim Cramer i.e. the financial world’s equivalent of the sound effects guy in Police Academy. Colbert, on the other hand, has balls of steel.

    Comment by BrianK — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 2:35pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Conan O’Brien and George Lopez ARE NOT the future of late night comedy. Especially going up against Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert. Conan was great on Late Night and that venue served his brand of comedy the best. He was an absolute disaster on The Tonight Show. His sketches felt stale, and his interviewing skills are just plain awkward. I hate to say it, but Jay serves The Tonight Show audience better. Sure Jay’s comedy can be a bit bland and conservative, but he’s a relaxed interviewer and presence and the numbers show. And some of Jay’s sketches are funny. Conan is a perfect late night second banana / sidekick. He is not a late night lead in.

  I agree with the above post. I feel that Conan is going to fall through the cracks here. He is not a conservative enough Leno, or a cutting edge Jon Stewart. The marketplace may prove to be a bit too crowded with all of these late night comedy shows and TBS may find themselves having to find some kind of alternative late night programming. Sure, on cable, Conan may not need to bring in Tonight Show numbers, but his show is not exactly cheap.

  We will just have to wait and see how all of this pans out.

  Comment by Tito — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 12:42pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Comparing Conan to Stewart/Colbert is a little bit like Bob Hope or Eddie Cantor to George Carlin or Woody Allen. They’re playing an inherently different game. It’s an unfair comparison in many ways because Conan does not claim to be a political satirist in any shape, or form. He’s basically just a Irish tummler, and a very, good one. Sometimes, you want thoughtfully hilarious comedy. Sometimes you want pure silliness. There’s a place for both in this world.

  Comment by Bob Westal — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 1:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Those of us who were a fan of Conan’s original Late Night run are hoping that he goes back to the wonderfully inventive comedy that served as the foundation of that show. Some will roll their eyes at that statement, and some will know exactly what I’m talking about. They took chances on that show and often found gold. Equal parts goofy, offensive, and esoteric.

  Conan lost his edge for The Tonight Show (mainly by having to take the “offensive” element out of that formula). It seems possible that he could get it back for TBS – if he shows no fear. And lets face it, a guy with as much cash in the bank as Conan can afford to be fearless.

  Comment by Chris J. — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 1:07pm PDT  Reply to this post

• There is nothing else to add to this. Dustintime is right.

  Comment by Humberto — Tuesday April 20, 2010 @ 1:51pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I think Conan comes off as being less political than Colbert and Stewart because he and his writers are less interested in being topical and more interested in being literary.

  Colbert and Stewart do brilliant, easy-to-get comedy about the stupid things politicians do.

  Conan and his writers do some of that, but they also try to do comedy about the stupid stuff that’s inside all of us. That’s a harder game, and Conan & Company score less often when they play it, but, when they score, they can produce amazing work.

  I think that Conan has ended up with a more intimate relationship with his fans because we get that, in a low-key way, in fits and starts, he’s trying to grapple with the dark night of the soul. Maybe he doesn’t even know exactly what it is that he wants to do, but he wants to do something big, for all of us, not just make fun of Mitch McConnell.

  I also think that Conan has a harder time doing simple, scathing political comedy because he’s way, way more of an insider than someone like Stewart or Colbert and is more aware of how complicated everything is.

  Comment by A spouse — Wednesday April 21, 2010 @ 9:50am PDT  Reply to this post

• Love ‘em both

  Comment by Pep — Wednesday April 21, 2010 @ 12:12pm PDT  Reply to this post

• So great

  Comment by pep — Wednesday April 21, 2010 @ 12:13pm PDT  Reply to this post