Last night was Conan's last of 2,725 broadcasts as the host of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." In a couple months, he takes the big job at "The Tonight Show," taking over for Jay Leno and taking a seat once legendarily filled by the great Johnny Carson. American tastes have changed to the point that someone as alternative, edgy and (let's just say it,) weird as Conan can host The Tonight Show. Some fans are worried Conan will have to tone his schtick down to fit his earlier time slot and retain Leno's audience, many of which are older Americans looking for inoffensive comedy before they fall asleep.
Frankly, I don't for a minute expect Conan to change to appease Leno's fans. He earned his job as the new host of "The Tonight Show" by crafting his own unique persona and creating a voice in comedy unlike anybody else on television... the NBC brass gave him his big promotion because of who he is, not because they want him to be anybody else. We're going to see a Maturbating Bear at 11:30 on weekenights, and if he turns any prudish Leno fans off, he's going to win a lot more people over with his risk taking, weird, and totally authentic sense of humor.
Conan has earned his new job after sixteen unique, surprising, and laugh out loud funny years on "Late Night." It was sad to see his show come to an end, but it's going to be exciting to see Conan take on his new challenge with the bigger audience that comes with it.
Below are a couple great clips from Conan's last "Late Night" show.
Conan's personal all time favorite bit from the show:
Conan's emotional last words to close the show (and his promise to never grow up just because he's hosting "The Tonight Show":)
1 comment:
Unfortunately, the Masturbating Bear has been retired. They said he was the only character they couldn't bring with them to the earlier slot... so they froze him in carbonite (he escaped shortly thereafter).
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