Conan O'Brien Warns Comics Against Centring Comedy on Trump Criticism

Comedian and former Late Night host Conan O'Brien has warned comedians who make their criticisms of US President Donald Trump the sole focus of their comedy have been 'co-opted' and have abandoned their best weapon.

Speaking at a recent Oxford Union panel, O'Brien argued that the constant anti-Trump outrage has led some of his peers to exchange humour for anger, a move that he believes renders their comedy ineffective. His comments offer a rare insight into how Trump's presidency has fractured the genre.

Comedians Urged to 'Always Be Funny'

O'Brien was asked about the political landscape in the US and how it had affected his peers, such as Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. He said comedians should not always centre their criticism of Trump in their comedy.

'Some comics go the route of, "I'm just gonna say F Trump all the time' or that's their comedy,' said O'Brien. 'But now I think, you're being co-opted. Because you're so angry you've been lulled. It's like a siren leading you into the rocks.'

'You've been lulled into just saying "F Trump. F Trump. F Trump. Screw this guy,"' O'Brien continued, sharing how he has had conversations with comedians who say the world is too serious for purely comedic sets. 'And I think you've now put down your best weapon, which is being funny, and you've exchanged it for anger.'

O'Brien argued that comedians should prioritise making audiences laugh. 'I think well, if you're a comedian, you always need to be funny,' said the former Late Night host. 'You just have to find a way. And you have to find a way to channel that anger. Because good art will always be a perfect weapon against power, but if you're just screaming or just angry, you've lost your best tool in your toolbox.'

Parody in the Trump Era

O'Brien explained the difficulty of parodying the current political climate by drawing a parallel to his time at the Harvard Lampoon. He said there was one publication they could not parody: the National Enquirer.

O'Brien described the publication as having a headline like '"Elvis found in Titanic lifeboat 105 years after sinking. He is now a woman and he's married to a giant peanut butter sandwich." And that is a legitimate, real Enquirer cover. How do you parody that? You can't,' said O'Brien.

'And I think with Trump, we've got a similar situation in comedy,' O'Brien continued. 'Which is people saying, "We've got a great Trump sketch for you. In this one, he's kind of talking crazy, and he's saying stuff and he tears down half the White House to build a giant ballroom, and he says it's going to be the new Mar-a-Lago." Yeah no, that happened yesterday.'

Despite his concerns, the former Late Night host has long been a vocal critic of the Trump administration. O'Brien voiced his support for Kimmel, whose show was briefly suspended last year, stating that threats against talk show hosts should be concerning to everyone regardless of political leaning.