About (Late) Last Night: In Round One, Conan's monologue KOs Leno's

"Conan" premiered Monday night on TBS, sating hordes of fans (largely residing online as Team Coco) who had only grown more hungry for O'Brien's distinct brand of self-deprecation in the months since his ousting from NBC's "The Tonight Show." Much has happened since he was last on the air, so O'Brien had a lot to work with. The question was how to address it all in one episode and, moreover, one monologue.

The answer for O'Brien was to stick with what's been working: jokes about getting fired. Leno, on "The Tonight Show," acted like nothing had changed.

"Have you heard about this movie '127 Hours'?" Leno asked his audience, appropriately unfazed. He followed with a punch-line about "Eat, Pray, Love," a film released in August. So it goes for the play-it-safe "Tonight Show." That said, Leno's life is relatively drama-free.

Conan is still working out some issues, or at least milking his situation. On a fresh set, but with his usual hair-led bravado, O'Brien got right to it: "Yes, I know what you guys are thinking, 'Hey, it’s the guy from Twitter,'" he said. Have you heard he was out of a job recently?

"People ask me why I named the show 'Conan,'" he continued. "I did it so I’d be harder to replace."

Leno, meanwhile, was entirely topical, riffing on President Obama's trip to India ("Go where the jobs are!") and Keith Olbermann ("If only he'd done like Eliot Spitzer..."). A drunken George W. Bush anecdote set up a joke about John McCain and Sarah Palin, and if you closed your eyes, it could've been any time in the last two years. Airport security, Charlie Sheen, and so on.

Conan followed with four more jokes about NBC and TBS. "The truth is, I’ve dreamed of being a talk show host on basic cable ever since I was 46," he said. Finally -- hopefully spent for good on jokes about his late-night breakup -- O'Brien turned to current events.

"A lot’s happened in the news since I went off the air --- and I was hoping I could cover it all in one joke," he said. "But then I realized that’s like trying to keep an Icelandic volcano from wearing Lady Gaga’s meat dress while a trapped Chilean miner cleans up the BP oil spill." He paused. "Brett Favre’s penis."

But for all the repetition, the positive energy on "Conan" was undeniable. He managed to kick the room's elephant in the shins repeatedly, while Leno dawdled like it was any other night. Tuesday night it is, and Conan starts back at Square One.

-- Joe Coscarelli

See Leno's Monday night monologue after the jump.

Comments

[Cane]

Conan is still doing tired jokes about NBC? I'm glad I didn't bother tuning in and instead watched the much funnier Jon Stewart who isn't recycling the same old jokes. I would have thought after 9 months Conan could have come up with some new material but I guess not.

[Uhaveyours Iwillkeepmind]

At 11 pm I normally watch local news however I watched a new show called Conan and all he talked about was a guy named Leno and this is all I got from the few minutes I watched. I found out this Leno guy was on at 11:35 right after my news so I watched it. Hey, this Leno guy was pretty funny and I'll start watching it regularily. It sure paid to tune into the new show this one time! Oh one other thing, "your guy", this Conan guy, I think he needs a counselor and anger management classes.

[pomonasi]

of course he is going to take jabs at nbc. what else did you expect from his 1st show back? pretend he didn't get fired after 8 months or so? pretend he isn't bitter? who wouldnt be bitter about that? he just lost a job that would have paid him millions of dollars for few decades to come. yea, i would be very bitter too... and really, i dont remember him mentioning leno as much as nbc.

i thought his monologue was funny as usual while leno keeps to his usual jokes and punch lines. i'm sure today's show will be the "normal" version now that we got this out of the way. i guess it is a different market base from these 2 hosts.

[Rex]

Hey, Uhaveyours, you typed, "At 11 pm I normally watch local news however I watched a new show called Conan and all he talked about was a guy named Leno and this is all I got from the few minutes I watched."

That's interesting, because I watched it too. He NEVER mentioned Leno at any point throughout the entire show. Not even one mention. Like the rest of Leno's fans, you clearly live in a fantasyland. Enjoy.

[Seer Myopiac]

Of course, Cane & Uhaveyours were hallucinating.

mmm, so nice to have conesy back! Nice to have Andy at his side, nice to have (mostly) the old band there too. They even had Wormsy, Max's fill-in on the old show, on the skins.

The opening was great, the jokes were funny, the guests were OK.

I only see two problems:

1. The new theme song - how horrible was that? That song is more bland than Leno's new Tonight Show theme song, and I didn't think that would be possible. At least they kept Cone-head's old Late Night ending music, but that isn't much consolation.

2. Even though the new set is bigger than the old Late Night set, the show seemed "smaller" somehow. I can't put my finger on it, but the staging seemed flat; it didn't have the pop that either of Coco's previous shows had. Maybe it was the camera work, maybe it was just me. While the set has its style, it still seems bland somehow, expecially The Conanator's desk. Not quite fitting of a late-night show of its caliber.

Complaints aside, I enjoyed the show. It's great to have Coco-nut back where he belongs - in late-night.

[Robot Skeleton Army]

Good on Conan and good luck to his new venture. Meanwhile, comedy is still fine and grand at 12:35a from an unknown Scottish former alcoholic with enough personal experiences to fill an entire book (or two). I won't name this treasure because frankly, it's better you stumble upon this madhouse by accident.

[Gary shinberg]

The king of late night tv is back all, hail the king.com

[jacket]

Leno constantly told jokes about Eat Pray Love while it was out and continues to make jokes about it now. The reason is that he hates Julia Roberts because she's on team Coco, and he's been known to hold a grudge.

[Patricia]

As usual, Conan is all about Conan. I really loved him on "The Tonight Show" at first. It was a refreshing change from Jay. But then I got tired of hearing Conan go on and on about Conan. After two weeks I quit making the effort to watch.