{"id":235492,"date":"2026-01-09T04:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/235492\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T04:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:55:15","slug":"conan-obrien-criticises-comedians-who-only-want-to-say-f-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/235492\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O&#8217;Brien Criticises Comedians Who Only Want to Say &#8216;F&#8211; Trump&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Conan O\u2019Brien recently took part in a nearly hour-long discussion with Oxford Union and criticised comedians whose material have become dominated with serious, anti-Trump commentary. The former late night host said Trump is not good for comedy at large because \u201ccomedy needs a straight line to go off of, and we don\u2019t have a straight line right now. We have a very bendy, rubbery line\u201d (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/entertainment\/conan-obrien-knocks-f-trump-comedians-youre-just-screaming-and-youre-just-angry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mediaite<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto lrv-a-font-body-m \">\u201cSome comics go the route of \u201cI\u2019m going to just say \u201cF Trump\u201d all the time\u2019\u2026 that\u2019s their comedy,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cAnd I think well now, a little bit, you\u2019re being co-opted because you\u2019re so angry. You\u2019ve been lulled. It\u2019s like a siren leading you into the rocks. You\u2019ve been lulled into just saying \u2018F Trump. F Trump. F Trump. Screw this guy.\u2019 And I think you\u2019ve now put down your best weapon, which is being funny, and you\u2019ve exchanged it for anger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien pushed back against the idea that because the state of world has gotten so serious it means comedians also need to be serious all the time.<\/p>\n<p>That person or any person that would say, \u2018Well, things are too serious now. I don\u2019t need to be funny.\u2019 And I think, well, if you\u2019re a comedian, you always need to be funny,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just have to find a way. And you just have to find a way to channel that anger into a way\u2026because good art will always be a great weapon, will always be a perfect weapon against power. But if you\u2019re just screaming and you\u2019re just angry, you\u2019ve lost your best tool in the toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien found himself in the center of a Trump controversy last year when he attended the Kennedy Center\u2018s event to accept the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The event was held after Donald Trump\u2018s election to the Kennedy Center board and his takeover of the center. Trump has since added his name to the building in a controversial move.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously for the last couple of months with the new administration, there\u2019s been some controversial stuff going on with the Kennedy Center,\u201d O\u2019Brien said during an August eepisode of his \u201cConan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend\u201d podcast months after his ceremony. \u201cThere was a question of, \u2018Should I go? Should I not go?\u2019 And I felt like it was important to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&gt;O\u2019Brien explained that he was awarded by the \u201cold regime\u201d and that he \u201cthought we should honour their decision.\u201d The event marked the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/tv\/news\/conan-obrien-kennedy-center-mark-twain-prize-trump-1236345782\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first national event<\/a>\u00a0at the Kennedy Center since chairman David Rubenstein and president Deborah Rutter were replaced by Trump\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/legit\/news\/trump-elected-kennedy-center-chairman-ben-folds-quits-national-symphony-orchestra-1236305673\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last February<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Love Film &amp; TV?<\/p>\n<p class=\"observer-desc mb-2\"> Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/spinner.png\" width=\"30\" height=\"30\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto lrv-a-font-body-m \">O\u2019Brien is currently the host of the popular \u201cConan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend\u201d podcast and is set to return as Oscars host in March. Watch his full discussion with Oxford Union in the video below.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/news\/conan-obrien-criticizes-comedians-anti-trump-serious-1236626599\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Variety US<\/a><\/p>\n<p> optional screen readerRead More About:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conan O\u2019Brien recently took part in a nearly hour-long discussion with Oxford Union and criticised comedians whose material&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[39451,93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-235492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-conan-obrien","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}