{"id":227809,"date":"2026-01-08T20:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T20:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/227809\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T20:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T20:02:09","slug":"conan-obrien-has-a-message-for-screaming-anti-trump-comedians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/227809\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O\u2019Brien Has a Message for \u2018Screaming\u2019 Anti-Trump Comedians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comedian Conan O\u2019Brien is not impressed with comedians who have chosen \u201canger\u201d over being funny. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien, 62, shared his deep distaste for comedians who are \u201clulled\u201d into saying \u201cF Trump all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve been lulled into just saying \u2018F Trump. F Trump. F Trump. Screw this guy,\u2019 but you\u2019ve now put down your best weapon, which is being funny,\u201d O\u2019Brien said at an event with the Oxford Union, \u201cand you\u2019ve exchanged it for anger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a comedian, you always need to be funny. You just have to find a way to channel that anger, because good art 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 O\u2019Brien continued.<\/p>\n

\"Conan\u201cIf you\u2019re a comedian, you always need to be funny,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. Michael Loccisano\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Though O\u2019Brien said many non-comedians would assume an administration filled with social media rants, absurd Greenland annexation declarations, and opulent multi-million dollar ballroom constructions must be great for comedy, the truth is the opposite. For O\u2019Brien, it is difficult to parody a reality that itself seems outlandish.<\/p>\n

\u201cComedy needs a straight line to go off of, and we don\u2019t have a straight line right now,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cWe have a very bendy, rubbery line. We have a slinky. We have a fire hose that\u2019s whipping around spewing water at 100 mph.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even in late-night talk shows, which so often direct their monologues towards Trump\u2019s farce of the day, O\u2019Brien argued that satire can be a difficult task. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for someone to lose their way if they\u2019re really trying to make a point,\u201d O\u2019Brien noted. \u201cIt might go very badly, and you may lose your efficacy. It may not be a good way for you to get your point across. So it\u2019s tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n

On O\u2019Brien\u2019s own TBS show, a popular sketch involved animated lips on political figures like Bill Clinton and Bob Dole to parody their real-world talking points. \u201cWe would do a lot of political comedy, but we would do it in a cartoony way, and we would make fun of both sides,\u201d O\u2019Brien recalled.<\/p>\n

The former late-night host continued to argue that the talk show format that had defined nearly 30 years of his career was doomed<\/a>. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said that despite his deep affection for late-night shows, their place in the entertainment landscape is dwindling. \u201cThere\u2019s not an American right to these shows,\u201d he said. \u201cThese shows I do think will probably atrophy and go, but the voices won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, after 28 years as a talk show host, O\u2019Brien left his own show, Conan on TBS, to focus on his popular podcast Conan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend. <\/p>\n

\"ConanFor O’Brien, satire has as high a potential for great comedy as it does terrible comedy. Shedrick Pelt \/The Washington Post via Getty Images <\/p>\n

In his Mark Twain Prize acceptance speech last year at the Kennedy Center, O\u2019Brien reiterated his belief in comedy\u2019s power as a weapon against power. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, the money-obsessed mania of the Gilded Age, and any expression of mindless American might or self-importance,\u201d O\u2019Brien said that night. \u201cAbove all, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the word. He loved America, but knew it was deeply flawed. Twain wrote, \u2018Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it.\u2019 Some of you might think, \u2018What does this have to do with comedy?\u2019 It has everything to do with comedy. Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comedian Conan O\u2019Brien is not impressed with comedians who have chosen \u201canger\u201d over being funny. O\u2019Brien, 62, shared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[32460,146,85,46,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-227809","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-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}