The entire debacle over who should host The Tonight Show is getting a little out of hand. In 2004, when NBC made the announcement that Conan O'Brien would be taking over for Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, it seemed like an odd but reasonable change. Conan had been a host on Late Night for years and it seemed alright for him to try his hand at it. His humor is completely different from Leno's: its acerbic, witty and irreverent. It packs a punch. Leno's style, on the other hand, is much more basic. More silly. More plain. Most importantly of all, though, it's more "American" (whatever that may mean).
In fact, Leno' routine landed him in top late night spot for over a decade. In the recent switch, O'Brien's ratings have sometimes pulled this world-famous show down to 3rd place (behind David Letterman and Nightline) in its seven month run. For the businessmen at NBC, this signifies epic failure. If someone doesn't deliver immediately, he gets the axe whether he's is humiliated or not. It's all about the Benjamins, baby.
In truth, I think NBC has made everyone involved in this switch look bad: Co Co's frustrated, Leno looks guilty and they look avaricious. Their insistence on nothing but immediate perfection really speaks to their insecurity as a network. They were too anxious to wait for any kind of turn around in Co Co's performance and didn't trust that the American audience at the 11:30 timeslot would ever be smart enough to catch the biting humor of his show.
All these things aside, I think that Conan could've handled his reaction to this mess a bit better. I got into a discussion with my brother (who's incredibly brilliant and overwhelmingly stubborn) about whether his behavior is "appropriate." If someone stripped me of my show and made me out to look like I couldn't deliver, I'd be enfuriated, too. I'd express my frustrations to the people around me or just release a public statement that encapsulated my how I felt to a mass audience.
It is inappropriate, though, to use the platform of his show that NBC is still providing him with to lash out at the network. On his show the other night, he said "My contract says I can't say anything negative about NBC. But I can sing it....MORONS, INCOMPETENT MORONS!!!" Now, I get that he's hurt and has been wronged. It's a little more difficult to understand why he's using time out of his show to critique a station which is about to pay him the remaining $30-40 million of his contract.
No, I didn't stutter: 30-40 million dollars! That is more money than 99% of people in America will ever touch. In a time with an unemployment rate of around 10% (the highest it's been in recent decades), it's in poor taste to try to tear down a company when he's been so fortunate both to have a job like his and to be rewarded so handsomely for it (even while leaving it). Are Americans really going to root for a rich guy complaining about his mistreatment when they know how greatly he'll be compensated for his losses?
I think many people have too much on their minds to really sympathize with what Co Co's facing. As a fellow comedian Katt Williams once said, "You are not supposed to be at the gas station making life decisions. You just at the pump asking 'Did I eat today? I can't get no half a tank'" which is all too real. Many Americans are struggling daily with all kinds of things: expensive gas, expensive healthcare, relatives being blown up in a pointless expensive war and a general time of unease. This is not a time of America the Superpower but rather America the Struggling Giant.
With all of these especially difficult situations going on, I think it's a little insulting for a talk show host who's been so blessed to enjoy a fruitful career to be so openly hostile towards his network. Is this really a problem we should be concerned with or is it just a time to listen to Co Co's woes? He was wronged, but instead of exiting in a dignified way, he has now stooped to NBC's level by acting in a reckless fashion. I understand his will to fight back but I think it's always more honorable to pull yourself together and to use your show time to entertain people rather than to focus on your own professional drama.
He even had the option of just moving his show to midnight but now he's walked away entirely, leaving all the people of his staff who've uprooted their lives to move from the East Coast to the West Coast with him out of a jobs, as well. He's causing a lot more chaos and crisis for the people around him but in the face of all that he's still focused on himself....and, don't forget, he's gonna have the benefit of a 30 million dollar unemployment check. Not too shabby.
The reason this whole situation fascinates me is because it speaks so much to American power dynamics and issues of masculinity. Men seem to be so heavily defined by their careers that even when they are lucky enough to receive enormous financial benefits from their work, they're never satisfied.Conan will find some other place to work and he'll be able to bounce back....which may not be true of many Americans watching (or not watching) his show. There's obviously a disconnect between the embarrassment he's suffering and the actual crises that Americans face on a regular basis.
Maybe Co Co's just a little too out of touch and that's the reason for his recent demise. Or maybe (let me be frank although it hurts cause I really enjoy him as a comedian) he's the golden example of the term "sore loser"? Whatever the case may be, I still have to ask Conan to try to be the bigger person and if he can't, I guess I'll just have to ask him "what's up with that?"
