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Conan O’Brien Criticizes Trump-Bashing Comedians For Nonstop ‘Anger’: ‘You’re Just Screaming’
Former late night host Conan O’Brien shared words of warning for comedians who do nothing but bash President Trump, saying they are “just screaming” and need to try harder to come up with “funny” material.
“I think some comics go the route of, I’m going to just say ‘F Trump’ all the time and that’s their comedy. And I think, well now … you’re being co-opted because you’re so angry,” O’Brien said during an interview with the Oxford Union on Tuesday.
He added, “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.’ And I think you’ve now put down your best weapon, which is being funny, and you’ve exchanged it for anger.”
“And that person or any person like that would say, ‘Well, things are too serious now. I don’t need to be funny.’ And I think, well, if you’re a comedian, you always need to be funny,” O’Brien went on. “You just have to find a way. And you just have to find a way to channel that anger into a way … because good art will always be a great weapon, will always be a perfect weapon against power. But if you’re just screaming and you’re just angry, you’ve lost your best tool in the toolbox.”
The late night alum said it’s “tricky” for comedians to tackle politics.
“I have very strong political feelings and views, but my comedy is something that I don’t have that kind of control over, in a way,” O’Brien said. “There’s so much of what I’ve done in my life that’s impulse.”
Last August, following the announcement that “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert was being canceled, O’Brien predicted that late night television in its current form would soon “disappear.”
“It’s all electrifying a new generation of viewers,” the longtime host continued. “Yes, late-night television, as we have known it since around 1950, is going to disappear. But those voices are not going anywhere. People like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away,” he said at the time, as The Daily Wire previously reported.