As the fallout continues from Donald Trump calling for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired, another late-night legend is offering a more measured take. Conan O'Brien shared his thoughts on the controversy, explaining why he's unlikely ever to find himself in a similar situation.
While in the Netherlands filming a new installment of his travel series Conan O'Brien Must Go, O'Brien appeared on the Dutch talk show Eva, where he was asked directly about the controversy surrounding Kimmel. Everyone from Ted Cruz to George Clooney has weighed in, so of course the question came up to O'Brien right off the bat.
O’Brien didn’t exactly leap to his fellow comedian’s defense. But he also made clear that singling out Kimmel misses the bigger picture. “The president is saying that Jimmy Kimmel said something hateful,” O’Brien said. “And what I would say is I think there’s a lot of angry rhetoric on all sides.”
Rather than bring the focus to the exact language used by Kimmel or the government's response, O'Brien took the opportunity to speak more broadly on what he sees as a damaging trend in American culture, well beyond just late-night television.
“I think that’s one of the problems in the United States,” O’Brien continued, pointing to the increasingly combative nature of political conversation. “There’s just a lot of anger on both sides, on the left, on the right.”
The late-night legend went on to say things are very toxic in America right now. He pointed to the rise in political violence, suggesting that it does raise a level of fear in him as a family man.
While O’Brien stopped short of directly defending Kimmel’s controversial “expectant widow” joke about Melania Trump, it's hard to imagine he isn't on the late-night host's side. And though Kimmel may have said something provocative, he’s far from alone.
Unlike many of his late-night peers, O’Brien largely steered clear of deeply political humor during the later years of his television run, especially as shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Seth Meyers leaned heavily into commentary centered around Donald Trump. Instead, O’Brien focused on characters, absurd sketches, and remote segments.
That comedy philosophy was reflected in his remarks on Eva, where he described intentionally pursuing “comedy that’s about people… situations, human things." It's that kind of material that brings O'Brien joy. It’s also what has defined his post-late-night TV career, including Conan O’Brien Must Go and Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.
It's also why O'Brien never ends up on President Trump's radar the same way Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and even Jimmy Fallon have in recent years. O'Brien's politics aren't hard to read, but he's never been the type to weave them directly into his comedy.
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