1 Hmm, looking older and scruffier since he got the boot.

2 He looks like a lil' leprechaun.  Actually, I like the beard.

3 Why the anger?  Didn't he walk away with 40 mil?  Seriously.  Someone please pay me to be pissed.

4

Yeah, it's a real shame he lost his job and all he got was 32 million dollars severence pay.  I get $386 a week unemployment so I have a little trouble mustering up sympathy.

5 There are a lot of things that I would do if my job paid me 32  mil to go away.....and I mean a lot of things

6 I love the Al Gore beard...

7 He never had a stand-up act? He broke into the biz as a writer? Did not know that.

8

He's upset because he learned people preferred Letterman to him and is blaming Leno.

9

As is usually the case, the head is right.

Not at all.  Conan got screwed, and "nice guy Jay" had a huge part in it.  And the most bitterly ironic thing of all?  Leno's ratings aren't any better than Conan's were, before Conan got the boot. 

Pity Conan is contractually prohibited from telling us how he REALLY feels.

10 So is he the hip, edgy one or is that the guy with the gap in his teeth and the fugly girlfriend?

11 'Cause nothin' says "hip, edgy" like the Grizzly Adams look.

12 Saying people preferred Letterman to Conan is a bit unfair. Letterman had top-rated CBS shows leading into either local news or his show directly. Conan had as his lead-in...Leno, trying an odd, neither-fish-nor-fowl thing.

When Leno's prime-time show went away nobody @ NBC seemed to miss it. I also don't remember NBC scrambling to find a category replacement for it, do you?

I think Conan came off quite well here, if understandably annoyed by the entire thing. Even if he was an objectively dismal failure it's quite absurd to be given one of TV's most durable brands for six months (after years of flirting and negotiation), then have it taken away and given back to the other guy. Oh yeah, and being paid obscene money to be cool about it.

13

He's not funny.

14 Neither of them is remotely funny Ace.

15

I got screwed over when I got canned from my last job.

Where's my $32 million dollars?

16 Maybe he's upset because he knows that in a couple years, that 32 million will be good for a nice meal at Chili's

17 60 Minutes? I didn't know it still existed. What'd they do... learn how to embalm old, stupid, Leftists?

18 His job was to beat Letterman, like Jay had always done. He didn't do it, they asked hin to move his show a half hour later. He threw a hissy fit. They gave him $32 million to go away.

19 Maybe if he was in the least amusing and truly got fucked over I might feel some sympathy for him.

20 I don't feel sorry for him in the least, but...

It is too bad that he couldn't out-rate Letterman.  Give it time and I bet he might.  Letterman's schtick for me has been old alot longer.

21 Why the anger?  Didn't he walk away with 40 mil?

I know this is hard for a lot of us scraping by in unpleasant situations to imagine, but some people really like their work, and being forced out of it (mandatory retirement, layoffs, disability, whatever) really hurts.  Fucks with their identity, sense of purpose, etc.  Some people can't get those things from sitting around by the pool counting their money all day.

Once he finds his next work, he'll feel better.  Even if it's not a moneymaker.

22 @ Heather

Good point, however, part of being successful in life in general is the ability to re-invent yourself.  If you are ever so dependent on your job that you are pissed about losing it enough to get in the gutter over it, you aren't a full person to begin with.

And certainly 40 mil can't hurt.  Jeebus if I had just a 1 mil I'd be set for life.

23 Jeebus if I had just a 1 mil I'd be set for life. Posted by: Bleh at May 04, 2010 12:06 AM (cTbxM) That's what everyone says - until they get the million. Then they set their sights on the next million (or ten).

24 As is usually the case, the head is right.

Would that be the little head or the big head?

25 Bleh: "Jeebus if I had just a 1 mil I'd be set for life."

I'm sorry but that's too much money. You and Conan need to get your heads straight on this distribution of wealth thing.

26 Explain this situation to someone who is honestly uninformed: Why does he feel Leno is the "honest bad guy" if he was simply being opportunistic in taking the job back? I understand the repercussions of putting people out of a job/people under Conan and Leno need work but if it serves on Leno's behalf, why be all upset if he essentially said, "I'll take the job back?" I'll do some searching I suppose as well.

27 Jay Leno should never have been fired from his gig. Darrell Zucker is a fucking idiot, and Conan O'Brien is the whiniest multi-millionaire this side of Bobby Kennedy's kids.

28

ace: and also, he had a role in all this too when he secretly negotiated to put Leno out of a job five years ago.

Wait, did you hear him say this in the interview?  Because I missed it.  Are you sure you're not bringing that in (perhaps unconsciously) from some other place?

Aside from that, I think your analysis is spot on.  I just don't recall Conan actually admitting he helped get Leno put out of a job.  Maybe I missed it.

29 http://mlb-game.blogspot.com

30 Well, that secret negotiation to kick Jay Leno out, "READY OR NOT" then spent this last year whining about the consequences he brought on himself.  Don't tell ME he didn't study the demographics of the two shows enough to know his bread was buttered where he already was, following a #1 show, with a demographic closer to himself than the new one with JAY'S demographics.

I'm so tired of backstabbing little snots who sole idea of comedy is just being as nasty as you can be, with no class or grace, or artistry about it.

I pretty much hope anything on TV he lays hand to will "come back a nub" for him.
And I hope that the Class Act, Jay, finds his footing again, and comes back better than ever, before much longer.

31 #33. Conan did it. Those watching back then saw it all happen, because after Conan and NBC closed that deal, THEN NBC called Jay up and said, Hey, #1 Rated LENO, how do you like THIS? 5 Yrs, you are retired!

Jay said, well, if you really don't want me, FINE! I'll go home, quietly.

Then the AUDIENCE told NBC, "HEY STUPID, HANG ON!"

THEN NBC, said, well, give Leno the 9PM slot - that slot is always dead for us anyway, because we NEVER do anything BRIGHT, like LISTEN TO THE AUDIENCE about what THEY like! - he can't HURT it.

And Jay didn't HURT THE SLOT, but by that time, the local stations and their advertisers were dying. And THEY said to NBC, "HEY STUPID, HANG ON!"

Difference was, by then, 9PM, 10PM, and 10:35 PM were ALL dying.

Jay carried Johnny Carson's numbers and GREW.
Conan lost EVERYTHING and was crass enough to blame LENO.
However, LENO IN THAT SLOT was #1, with DEAD 9PM AND DEAD NEWS LEAD-IN!

So CONAN'S numbers weren't Leno's fault, not with NEWS IN BETWEEN!

My son had been watching both men. When Jay was moved, we did the best we could, but usually were watching MOVIES at that time. THROUGH local News.
I used to be gone by the time Conan came on at 11:35 - but when he came on at 10:35, and I was SUBJECTED to the smarmy little jerk, I was NOT a happy camper.
All my uncles would have smashed the smarmy Conan in the FACE, the FIRST time he "twirled his coat tails" at THEM! And I felt the same way.
It was a decided lack of Testosterone. Flirting with all his hunky male guests didn't help. I felt so sorry for his "wife" if he has one really.

Jay was and is the Professional. The only trouble he is having now is figuring out who his audience is again, with all the new political upheaval for his own time slot.  Soon, he will just go back to PLAIN COMEDY and stick with what is FUNNY, regardless of where it falls, and then he will be fine, again!
Letterman is certainly NO CONTEST for Leno in his stride!

I just realized, my son is acting more normally since Conan is gone! YEA!!!! His sense of humor is funnier since he doesn't have a false picture of what is "supposed to be funny" in his face several nights a week.

32 Conan quit cryin' and being a bitch!

33

As much as I hate to go against moron consensus.......

If Jay didn't want to leave his job in five years he should have manned up and said so.  If they insisted he go anyway, then he should have gone to another network ASAP.

Conan had been with the network for ten years when he made queries about the eventuality of a Tonight Show gig.  I don't see anything unreasonable about him doing so.  They could have told him the job was Jay's as long as he wanted it...and then Conan could have simply gone to another network.

 

 

 

34 Conan has totally jumped the shark as far as I'm concerned.  I never thought I'd say this - but I have NO respect left for Conan.  Jay Leno has been the only gentleman in all of this - oh wait a minute - add George Lopez to the gentleman list, since altho Conan "would never do that to anybody" he's done it to Lopez and did it to Leno several years ago.  Conan and Letterman are whiny, immature, delusional lefties who stab other people in back to get what they want and then whine and cry for mommie when things don't go their way.  Typical of the breed.

35 Conan O'Brien is only mad at Jay Leno because of the Health Care Bill.

36 good point #41 - Conan doesn't seem too upset about taking Lopez's slot away from him.

37 An ancient Egyptian themed party allows a cross-over between the age of the Pharaohs and story of Cleopatra and Antony. His sizzling affair and later marriage to Cleopatra was played out on the big screen by Taylor and Burton as well as being parodied by the team in 'Carry on Cleo'. So here we have a theme within a theme as it allows the partygoer to select a Roman Centurion or Marc Antony costume and still be in keeping with the overall theme.

38

 

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