Last week, America experienced its second and only-slightly-less important peaceful transfer of power of the year. And while Obama may have somewhat better name recognition, and apparently gets much higher ratings, beloved lanky funnyman Conan O'Brien arguably joins a much more prestigious group of people.
For one thing, some 43 people have already worked their ass grooves into the presidential chair, while Conan is only the 5th host of still/again-number one rated show in late night television, The Tonight Show. Unless you count all those guest hosts before and during the Johnny Carson era, or Ernie Kovac's two-night a week deal during the Steve Allen years. But I don't. Count them, I mean. (It would pretty much destroy my argument, for one. And even wikipedia doesn't list all the guest hosts, or even give me a ballpark figure, so what am I gonna do, guess?)
And like Obama's popularity with the youth of America, Conan seems to have the college kid vote. Plus, he really does feel like My Tonight Show host, ya know? Also, they both went to Harvard. Where they were both Presidents. Obama was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, which is probably pretty impressive. (I mean, I've never heard of it before, but whatever). Conan, on the other hand, was president of the Harvard Lampoon! (Which I may or may not have heard of before)
Lest you think I disrespect the office of Commander in Chief let me offer up one more piece of evidence for my case here. Much is made of the way Conan was picked from obscurity when he was picked to take over from David Letterman as host of Late Night in 1993. On the night of its announcement, Jay Leno joked it was the first time he had even been on camera.
And sure, he wasn't known as an onscreen performer, and I doubt any viewer at the time could have corrected Jay by remembering Conan from the background of a few Saturday Night Live skits in the early 90s, where he wrote from 1989 to 1991. But obscurity, really? At the time he got the call, as well as eating a big sandwich, he was writing for one of the most important shows in the history of American television - The Simpsons. The Simpsons!
And this was still during its media darling stage, before nitpicking and naysaying had become the norm, before Lindsay Naegle and Duffman, before the array of guest stars playing themselves. He wrote the monorail episode! (his favourite of his episodes) and Homer Goes to College! (my favourite of his episodes) What was Obama doing during that time? Professoring on Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School, directing a campaign that registered over 150,000 unregistered African Americans in Illinois, and writing a personal memoir that Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison called "quite extraordinary"? Yeah, real impressive.
I've been watching Conan for almost 10 years now (I remember seeing the In the Year 2000 bit when it was actually looking to the future), and I don't think I learned The Simpsons connection for years after that. And even though I wrote my Honours Thesis on Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, Conan will always be atop the talk show throne in my heart. From nervously shuffling around his mark in the opening monologue to lunging and roaring at the lady guests, from the alternating self-deprecating/self-aggrandizing interview style to the instant parodies of the pompous things celebrities say, the world is a slightly brighter place when Conan is on TV. (Plus Andy Richter's back!)
Hmm, though now that I think about it, maybe its for the best that the White House isn't run by a former Simpsons writer.
-hobospaceman
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