With every advance in human technology comes an advance in weird new emotional situations. For example, the Germans should invent a word for the specific drop in the stomach that occurs when you open X to see a celebrity you like trending globally. No one 20 years ago could ever have imagined this specific feeling. Depending on the person, my brain leaps to conclusions. If it’s an older person, I worry they’ve carked it. If it’s Sydney Sweeney, I assume her breasts are up to something again (existing). And if it’s a comedian I’ve loved since childhood, I assume they’ve been cancelled for doing something shitty (due to patterns).
A few weeks ago, I got a Tower of Terror-size gut drop when I saw Conan O’Brien, one of my biggest comedy heroes, trending. Luckily I didn’t need to worry. He had gone viral for his appearance on the YouTube show Hot Ones, where a celebrity is interviewed while eating progressively hotter wings. Conan had given a completely unhinged and hilarious performance, including rubbing hot sauce on his nipples. In a sentence I’d never thought I’d say, thank God it was just more breasts discourse.
The viral appearance prompted many longtime fans to share their favourite Conan clips and stories, introducing him to a younger audience. In keeping with his vast body of work, this move was unbelievably committed, very funny – and genius on multiple levels. The Hot Ones performance was in service of promoting his new TV show, Conan O’Brien Must Go, an offshoot of his immensely successful podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. The show sees Conan travelling the world to meet fans he has talked with on his podcast. The man is undeniably savvy: in 2022 his podcast and the entire digital network he established was sold for US$150m. More than the money, this all shows his willingness and ability to keep pace with societal progress.
That’s what differentiates Conan from my other childhood comedy inspirations. His 90s Late Night era, with unhinged segments like the Masturbating Bear and In The Year 2000, taught me how intelligently you can wield silliness. It’s hard for people to get mad about the boundaries you’re pushing if you’re being that funny and stupid. Conan can read and create tone perfectly, usually aiming the sharpest arrows at himself. Conan O’Brien Must Go begins with a long shot of Conan’s face while Werner Herzog’s narration observes: “This clown, with dull, tiny eyes, the eyes of a crudely painted doll ...”
The other huge comedy influences from my youth were Roseanne and Ellen DeGeneres. Both undoubtedly had it much, much harder than Conan in making comedy. They were trailblazers, they each knocked down their own barriers to entry, took heavy hits and carved out a niche. To me, they were not just funny, they were heroes, showing that it’s possible to damn the man by pushing against society’s rigid structures with humour.
But unfortunately, like many comedians who get famous – and more importantly rich – they stagnated. Ellen became a gaystream milquetoast talkshow host for middle America, hanging out with George W Bush, and reportedly in charge of a deeply toxic workplace. Roseanne has recently been in the news again because of a vile video she posted making fun of an alleged sexual assault victim. These people did all the work of breaking down the locked front door and then decided to stop and make themselves comfortable in the fugly loungeroom.
Meanwhile, Conan is out in the back garden up a tree, pretending to steal eggs from a bird. Yes of course, Conan is a white straight man, had a very comfortable upbringing, and went to Harvard. The front door was open wide for him, and that meant he probably had a lot more energy left to keep exploring, and many more doors available to open. As a queer fat female comedy writer from a working class background in Australia, I understand what it’s like to not have this privilege, but there are countless comedians with backgrounds and careers like Conan who settled down into their comfy lounges and have refused to move since.
These are the rich and successful comedians who are trotting out hack jokes, getting mad when the audience doesn’t laugh at stuff we’ve heard a million times, complaining about “not being able to say anything any more”. Meanwhile, 61-year-old Conan is spewing milk all down his face on the Internet, harming nobody but his own Irish digestive system. After hundreds of episodes of Hot Ones, he completely broke new ground on the show, while promoting his new project where he travels to meet people and experience different perspectives.
I’m not saying Conan is perfect, but he remains curious, pushing forward, trying new things, diversifying, staying relevant. He is always looking to service the expansion of his art as the world moves forward. Or perhaps he is just always needing to fill the hole inside him with laughs from new audiences.
Either way, we win. Of course, there is always the possibility he’ll disappoint me in the future; I am a woman living in the real world. But for now, as he has always done, Conan remains trending – in my heart.
• Rebecca Shaw is a writer based in Sydney
• This article was amended on 26 April 2024. An earlier version stated incorrectly that Conan O’Brien was the former host of the Late Show.
