Has Conan O'Brian gone completely downhill?

[Blarg]

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So you turn it off after the 4 minute monologue?

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I forgive him the monologue. He was never a stand-up comic and he isn't now, despite the fact that he sometimes sees himself as a comic. I often turn the sound off on the monologues so it doesn't detract from the rest of the show.

At least he's better than Carson. I saw that guy's show for 20 years and don't remember laughing once at a single monologue and virtually never in any of Johnny's bits.

I think the jumping in and out of frame during his monologues and thinking it was innovative television where he was really stretching his limits as a performer was what made me turn down the sound on the opening monologues.

I think Conan is super likeable and very smart and talented, and funny, but the monologue is an archaic talk show tradition that doesn't really fit him. He's not alone, though. It doesn't fit at least half the talk show hosts who try it, and there's no way not to suck when you have to come up with several minutes worth of material every day, no matter how many writers you have. I wouldn't mind if he just humbly realized where his strengths really lie and give up the monologue. But that will never happen.

[Blarg]

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I was dying at an episode a while ago. Anybody catch the ghost of an old NBC announcer? "Women are as dumb as muuules.. anybody who educates them are fools." And "Irish men pour whiskey on their beef.. and wake up face down in the street."

Classic.

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Yup. That was a funny bit, I dug it. The racist mysognist old time entertainer.

[Blarg]

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I usually turn it off once it gets to the guests.

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really? i think you really get to see how brilliant he really is when he starts to interact with his guests. first nobody has ever diced up bill o' reilly like he did (if you like him or not), plus his wit is unmatched and that isn't written. i don't know why you turn it off once the unwritten stuff comes on, to me this is when he really starts to shine and you get to see how sharp he is with is expressions, comebacks and subtle humor.

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The dude is insanely smooth and very smart. He's not on auto-pilot like so many t.v. personalities and has little interest in just being smarmy. He'll nail his guests pretty frequently and is smart enough and good-spirited enough that the often incredibly uptight stars almost always genuinely laugh along and love it. The dude has a real gift for interviewing.

[Dan Rutter]

I think your wrong. I have never thought his monolouges were that funny. The part of his show inbetween his monolouge, and interviews are usually hilarious. And his interviews are great. It depends on the guest somewhat, but I think he is the best late night interviewer. It would be a close call with him and Jon Stewart for interviews, if we are including Stewart in the late night crowd.

Conan's show is the only talk show that i watch to see the host. All the other talk show hosts are boring and i only watch them depending on the guest.

[Blarg]

Same here. For years I would just flip on the Conan show without ever looking who the guest was or even paying attention when the announcer said who it was at the beginning. I was there to see Conan and his cool helpers like the masturbating bear.

[1C5]

Conan is the best.

No contest between him and anyone else.

He would be fun to hang out at the bar with. He could make fun of anyone in a way that he wouldn't get beat up and provide laughs for everyone.

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Star Jones is fat.
Reuben Studdard (sp?) is fat. (I find it absolutely astounding that anybody is still making jokes about this guy)
Michael Jackson is strange.
George W. Bush is dumb.
Kirstie Ally (sp?) is fat.

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You forgot:

J-Lo has a big ass.
Calista Flockhart is skinny.


I like how Max doesn't just burst out into phony laughter whenever Conan says something to him. Sometimes he just shrugs his shoulders and goes "meh."

I think the show lost some of it's greatness when Andy left, but it's still the best late night show.

Does anyone remember Pimpbot? That was awesome. I've been watching Conan since the beginning. In the early years, it was obvious he couldn't attract the most famous celebrities, so he had a lot of strange guests. There was a boxer who called himself The Mouse and prided himself on being the only pro boxer to lose a fight on every continent. That just proves that Conan never needed good guests to be entertaining.

[webmonarch]

Yes. He's downhill.

His monologue has been pretty bad from the word go. The thing that annoys the hell out of me though, is all the crap he pulls in between the, like three jokes he tells. Like flipping the hair, interacting with the ass in the crowd who yells "CONAN!!!!!" at the top of his lungs, etc.

ALso, the thing I have really noticed is that I feel like he is just getting arrogant. I swear the guests do less talking during the interview than he does anymore. He strikes me as rude generally, etc. Basically, he seems to think he's above his current show, and he doens't moind showing it.

His skits, however, are good, and always have been. He really needs to stick to those and spend less time with the filler crap.

[The Truth]

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I absolutely loved his show, but lately, every single time I turn him on, he has this same basic rotation of jokes (with different variations of course):

Star Jones is fat.
Reuben Studdard (sp?) is fat. (I find it absolutely astounding that anybody is still making jokes about this guy)
Michael Jackson is strange.
George W. Bush is dumb.
Kirstie Ally (sp?) is fat.

The man needs to hire new writers. It seems that he has inherited the Tonight Show, and he's already lowered his jokes to that level. I'm not saying that the above jokes are offensive (though I'm sure they are to those people and the people who know them personally) - they're just not funny. It's the same stuff every night. From everything I watched years ago, he seems capable of being easily the best late night show there is. Maybe losing Andy Richter did it, but I think he's capable of being funny without Richter.

Am I wrong?

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I thought it was pretty funny even the way you pitched it; so i guess his stuff is still gold.

blake