Comedian and late-night host Conan O’Brien expressed his frustration with comedians who base their persona on “screaming” about President Trump instead of being funny.
O’Brien revealed his thoughts about comedians going all in on anti-Trump jokes during an interview with the Oxford Union on Tuesday.
“Some comics go the route of I’m going to just say ‘F Trump’ all the time or that’s their comedy. And I think… you’re being co-opted because you’re so angry. You’ve been lulled,” he said. “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,” he added. “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.”
On the issue of comedians using their talent to wade into hot button political issues, O’Brien said it was “tricky.”
“I have very strong political feelings and views, but my comedy is something that I don’t have that kind of control over,” O’Brien said. “In a way, it is there’s so much of what I’ve done in my life that’s impulse.”
O’Brien felt that Trump’s greatest crime was hurting political comedy.
“I’m really going on a limb here saying that’s his greatest crime. I think he’s hurt political comedy by being so outlandish himself. I think the January 6 thing is a blip compared to how much he’s hurt comedy,” O’Brien said.
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