Oops, Conan O'Brien suffers from a little premature jocularity tonight
Funny lines are not unusual in Conan O'Brien's opening monologue, even in his 9-day-old gig as new host of NBC's "The Tonight Show."
Tonight is no exception.
"Speaking of President Obama," NBC's new late-night host had in his Tuesday script, "earlier today, President Obama spoke at a town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Half of the Wisconsin crowd had never seen an African American and the other half had never seen a skinny person."
A funny comment for many, unless you're among Wisconsin's dominant white Cheeseheads. Some of them overweight. And these shows do always try to be topical.
Unfortunately, reports of Obama's Green Bay town hall meeting, like Mark Twain's death, are premature.
The town hall doesn't happen until Thursday. Minutes before the show's airtime in the East tonight, the show's L.A. writers, asked for comment, were scrambling to determine what, if anything, to do. Clipping out the error is one possibility. Watch and see how they handle it.
(Update: 8:35 p.m. Pacific. No snipping for the Eastern time zone. They ran the joke as was.)
Maybe they could rerun Tuesday's joke on Thursday's show? Green Bay officials, btw, are already worried about an extra $30K in police overtime to protect the Great Change Agent this time.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Photo: NBC
Ummmmmmmm, joke? Heard of the concept?
Posted by: Thomas | June 09, 2009 at 09:17 PM
Not only were Conan's comments premature they were completely wrong. President Obama will be in GB this Thursday (that's 2 days from now) and not at a Town Hall Meeting but at one of the high schools.
GB and the state of Wisconsin enjoy a large population of not just African-Americans but many ethnic groups. He must not watch the Packers play or he would realize that the majority of players are African American and they live in GB for at least part of the Year.
Green Bay does not even rank in the top 25 fattest cities in the US however NYC where Conan comes from ranks #21. And just for the record Milwaukee ranks #11 for the nations fittest cities.
Maybe Conan should invest in a cheesehead, it might help him clear up some of those dead brain cells so that he gets his information correct in the future.
Posted by: R Brennan | June 09, 2009 at 09:40 PM
Green Bay has never seen a black person? This should be news to Reggie White.
Posted by: Radish | June 10, 2009 at 01:21 AM
Such biting sarcasm. But it'll be a cold day in Hell before the late night yakkers start cracking the kind of vicious jokes on Obama they routinely made about Bush.
Posted by: Ralph Gizzip | June 10, 2009 at 04:44 AM
Well, it's better than the Times, who would not only pre-print the Presidents remarks, but how well the audience reacted to them.
Posted by: tom | June 10, 2009 at 05:38 AM
Yes, all of the Green Bay Packers are White. Every one in Los Angeles is skinny. Genius.
Posted by: Jamie Gumm | June 10, 2009 at 08:37 AM
very nice & interesting. good luck
Posted by: kevin | June 10, 2009 at 10:38 AM
It's a late night show quit your whining people wow. We all know that everything that’s said on these shows is true. It’s a comedic show not meant to be politically correct. His writers come up with more than half his stuff anyway so give it up.
Posted by: quit crying | June 10, 2009 at 12:48 PM
I'm skinny. I know black dudes. And I'm from Wisconsin. It was a joke. Premature or not...Conan is awesome and I'd let him prematurely joke on my girlfriends face if he wanted to.
Posted by: Dr. G | June 11, 2009 at 01:11 PM