Moral? Don’t mess with comedians.
One of the fun things about Letterman is, although he has
mellowed, if he doesn’t like a guest - like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly -
he won’t hide it from the guest or his audience. Nobody else, especially Conan,
will do that. Leno, Fallon, O'Brien, Kimmel, all too nice. Although I suspect Kimmel could . . .
Or so I thought…
Conan had Bruce Jenner on his old show (NBC won’t release any of
the clips, so it isn’t on YouTube, I looked) at the height/depth of Jenner’s
shameless red sweater-wearing infomercial huckstering. The skit was a
faux/corny infomercial that quickly established a premise that Jenner had no compunction
about his lack of shame and lack of morals. He would promote anything no matter
how much of a silly sell-out whore it made him look.
The skit got so insulting, at one point I actually felt bad for
Jenner and thought, as embarrassing as the human joke Jenner has become, he is
a US Decathlon gold medal winner and deserves some respect.
But what then became immediately clear was that Jenner was not
even close to getting the fact that he was the butt of the joke. And Conan knew
that. And it was hilarious. Suddenly it wasn’t mean.
Conan must have realized in rehearsal that Jenner is such an
out-of-touch, egomaniacal celebrity a-hole who clearly and genuinely believes
he is still a beloved Olympic National hero, that it wasn’t possible to hurt his
feelings.
Comedy writers love nothing more than a challenge, and Conan had
clearly thrown down the gauntlet: be as brutal as possible, this ass-clown will
never figure it out.
So the skit just got meaner and funnier and meaner and funnier.
Scary face jokes. Has-been jokes. Stupid old jock jokes. Reality TV stars are morons jokes. Rich and
famous with no talent jokes. Your step-daughter, Kim, is a fat-assed whore
jokes.
At one point I seem to recall Conan had Jenner pitching a DVD titled;
"How to Whore-Out Your Celebrity."
It was now painfully clear, to everyone but Jenner, Conan was saying; "Hey, everybody, look at what a pompous bafoon this guy is," and Jenner thought they were saying; "Hey, look at how funny it is when you try to make a pompous bafoon out of a great, great idol and beloved hero."
Conan has said many times it is important for comedians to remember nothing is funnier than someone trying to show off who hurts themselves. That was what was happening with Jenner, but Jenner did not know it.
By the end, the audience was crying with laugher at what a
complete tool Jenner is, and Jenner just beamed at getting the attention for
what he clearly believed, due to the crowd reaction, was a great comedic performance. (Imagine if Carrie
thought getting blood dumped on her was actually a huge compliment)
Since then, I have noticed a gleam in Conan’s eye when he leans
in on a Bruce Jenner joke.
