Unbridled silliness

Silly artist. Conan O'Brien as Vincent van Gogh in the new season of "Conan O'Brien Must Go"

Silly artist. Conan O'Brien as Vincent van Gogh in the new season of "Conan O'Brien Must Go"

Few comedians can match the unpredictable humor, quick wit and shameless penchant for self-irony of Conan O’Brien. The graduation ceremony at the renowned Harvard University last May was evidence of this. As an alumnus - he graduated in 1985 - the former late-night host was invited to give the commencement speech to the hundreds of graduates in their black and red gowns. In a 25-minute staccato, he spared no one - neither the students nor the professors and certainly not himself. »No university in our country has produced more Nobel Prize winners or white-collar criminals. So whether you choose good or evil, know that you are one of the best," he told the graduates, before imparting a piece of wisdom a little later: "Many people like to attribute a lucky poker hand to their own genius, and fighting this human instinct has kept me sane."

Towards the end of his speech, he also talked about the countless trips he has undertaken as part of his show formats: “On these trips I learned an important lesson: It’s okay to be bad at something sometimes. (…) For me, modesty can easily lead to humiliation on such trips, which is also a useful tool. Three weeks ago I was in Amsterdam dressed as van Gogh and forced my way into the Van Gogh Museum, where I loudly demanded a share of the merchandising revenue because I hadn't made any money during my lifetime. The guards forcibly threw me out.”

What sets O’Brien apart, aside from his boundless appetite for nonsense, is his unbiased curiosity about people.

The episode in Amsterdam is part of the recently released third season of “Conan O’Brien Must Go”. However, the four new episodes of this anarchically freewheeling travel show show that O'Brien isn't necessarily at his best when he's giving speeches. His great strength is improvisation, when he has to react to his environment in the moment. Like in Amsterdam, when he disguised himself as van Gogh and made a fool of himself.

In addition to the Netherlands, O'Brien traveled to India, Morocco and the Philippines. Each episode follows a similar pattern: The reason for his trip is fans of his podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” whom he pays a visit (often unannounced). There are also protagonists who introduce him to the country's peculiarities or curiosities. And in between there are always absurd interludes. In the India episode, for example, there is a parody of animal documentaries in which kleptomaniac monkeys steal cell phones from a homemade miniature shop. In Morocco he has a leather tuxedo (including a shirt) tailored for him. And in the Philippines he takes on a guest role as a mustache-wearing villain in the police series “Sanggang-Dikit FR”.

The gain in knowledge about the respective country tends to be zero. In an episode of the YouTube talk show “Hot Ones,” in which guests have to eat chicken wings with increasingly hot sauces, O’Brien succinctly summarized the premise of his show: “My mission is that you learn absolutely nothing about the country.”

In this respect, the show is pleasantly anachronistic. Unlike usual travel shows (O'Brien likes to make fun of his colleague Stanley Tucci), the audience doesn't expect spectacular landscape shots or culinary forays into regional cuisine, and O'Brien doesn't have to master any daring tests. He's just all about mischief and nonsense. “Conan O’Brien Must Go” is quickly and cheaply produced, but extremely intelligent television.

O’Brien developed his sense of comedy on what is probably the most famous comedy show in the world: from 1988 to 1991 he worked as a sketch writer for “Saturday Night Live”. He then spent two years as a writer and producer on The Simpsons before succeeding David Letterman as host of NBC's Late Night in 1993; Letterman had left CBS because of disagreements with the network. After initially poor ratings and mixed reviews, O'Brien developed into one of the most popular entertainers in the USA. In 2009, he took over Jay Leno's “Tonight Show,” the most prestigious of all late-night shows. But the ratings fell short of expectations, and the show was supposed to be moved to a later time slot to make room for Jay Leno's new format, which for O'Brien amounted to a dismantling. He bailed out and gave himself and his crew a generous settlement - O'Brien received just over $32 million. For this, the television station banned him from appearing on television in the next few months.

In 2010, O'Brien began his new show "Conan" on the cable channel TBS, which ran until 2021. He has already traveled to countries such as Germany, Australia and Israel for this purpose. “Conan O’Brien Must Go” is simply a continuation of an existing show format; the first season appeared in 2024.

What sets O’Brien apart, aside from his boundless appetite for nonsense, is his unbiased curiosity about people. He loves fooling around with strangers - and he always finds someone who gets involved in the game and can counter him evenly. In India, that person is Rusty, a long-time fan who is in a wheelchair due to spinal muscular atrophy. When O'Brien shows up at his house, he is initially stunned. The comic situation that arises a little later with Rusty's parents will make you laugh.

It's precisely when O'Brien has to react to the situation at hand and doesn't offer staged slapstick that the show shines - when he doesn't really know what he's doing and finds himself in moments that could be embarrassing for his counterpart. Or if it doesn't follow the direction of his jokes. Most of the time, those involved don't even know what's going on in the head of this crazy clown from the USA.

All you have to do is place the comedian, who is over 1.90 meters tall, in a tulip field in the Netherlands or give him the Filipino delicacy balut, an incubated boiled duck egg ("I shouldn't praise the food in foreign countries, otherwise Stanley Tucci will sue me"). There's also a great moment in Amsterdam when O'Brien ostentatiously hides small miniature houses (rare KLM Royal Dutch Airlines souvenirs) under his jacket and the owner - a good-natured old man - asks with sincere politeness if he doesn't want a bag. Checkmate!

The weakest episode is the one in Morocco, in which it is not fans who provide the decisive reason for O'Brien's trip, but rather his assistant Sona Movsesian, who wants to go to the country to search for the origin of argan oil. The humorous and expected exchange of blows between two people who are very familiar with each other in the middle of nowhere in the Moroccan desert seems downright dull compared to the encounters with him and strangers.

The great trick in O'Brien's unbridled silliness is not to ridicule the country and its culture. The trick: He regularly makes sure that he himself is the butt of his jokes. With "Conan O'Brien Must Go," the now 63-year-old entertainer proves that Harvard not only produced great scientists and white-collar criminals, but also one of the funniest people in the world.

“Conan O’Brien Must Go” can be streamed on HBO Max.