Conan O’Brien has had it with comedians who ditch punchlines in favor of pure rage – especially when it comes to Donald Trump.
Speaking during an appearance at Oxford University, the former Late Night with Conan O’Brien host said Trump’s second term has created a comedy trap that too many comics are falling into.
‘Some comics go the route of, “I’m gonna just say F Trump all the time,” or that’s their comedy,’ O’Brien said. ‘Now, a little bit, you’re being co-opted. Because you’re so angry, you’ve been lulled into just saying “F Trump, F Trump, F Trump, screw this guy.” I think now you’ve put down your best weapon, which is being funny. And you’ve exchanged it for anger.’
While O’Brien didn’t deny the fury is justified, he warned that anger without humor is a dead end.
‘You just have to find a way to channel that anger… because good art will always be a great weapon,’ he said, later adding that ‘if you’re just screaming and you’re just angry, you’ve lost your best tool in the toolbox.’
His comments land as late-night comedy faces fresh scrutiny, with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel accused by critics of leaning too hard into politics.
Conan O’Brien has had it with comedians who ditch punchlines in favor of pure rage – especially when it comes to Donald Trump
Speaking during an appearance at Oxford University, the former Late Night with Conan O’Brien host said Trump’s second term has created a comedy trap that too many comics are falling into
In mid-2025, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was cancelled by CBS, officially for financial reasons – though the timing raised eyebrows amid Paramount’s Trump-linked legal settlement and merger talks with Skydance.
Kimmel’s show faced its own turbulence after a temporary suspension following controversial remarks about Charlie Kirk, a move ABC attributed to business considerations, despite Trump allies publicly cheering it on.
Asked directly about his fellow hosts being sidelined, O’Brien didn’t hesitate.
‘Well they are both friends of mine, I think they’re really talented comedians and they’re fantastic, so I’m biased,’ he said.
Addressing Kimmel’s situation, he added that it was ‘very clear to all of us’ political pressure played a role, calling it ‘just wrong’ and ‘against a very sacred principle of free speech.’
Expanding on Colbert’s situation, O’Brien acknowledged that late-night television simply isn’t the powerhouse it once was – something he knows firsthand.
‘With Stephen’s situation there was some economic realities with these shows, which is they are not the cash machines that they were. I’ve lived it too,’ he said.
‘Especially with the internet now and so many choices. I thrived at 12:30am – people in the 90s in America, because people up that late had nothing else to do. That is not the case anymore.’
‘You just have to find a way to channel that anger… because good art will always be a great weapon,’ he said, later adding that ‘if you’re just screaming and you’re just angry, you’ve lost your best tool in the toolbox’
Still, he suggested money wasn’t the whole story.
‘The terrain is not the same, but I also feel in Stephen’s case there’s a little bit of a… clearly there’s a merger going on,’ O’Brien said. ‘
And sometimes I think people are eager to make the administration happy. And that can speed things up a bit.’
He then pointed to what he called the ‘flip side’ of the argument, pushing back on claims that comedians are being silenced altogether.
O’Brien said he’s arguably had a bigger platform since his own show ended, thanks to podcasts and digital outlets expanding comedians’ reach.
‘So… Jimmy’s not going anywhere, and Stephen’s not going anywhere,’ he added.
Earlier in the Oxford discussion, O’Brien also pushed back on the lazy assumption that Trump’s presidency is a gift to comedians.
‘People who know less about comedy or maybe haven’t given it a lot of thought’ often assume it ‘must be so great for comedy,’ he said – before shutting that idea down.
Asked about Stephen Colbert (pictured) and Jimmy Kimmel being sidelined, O’Brien said, ‘Well they are both friends of mine, I think they’re really talented comedians and they’re fantastic, so I’m biased,’ he said.
Addressing Kimmel’s situation, he added that it was ‘very clear to all of us’ political pressure played a role, calling it ‘just wrong’ and ‘against a very sacred principle of free speech’
‘It’s not,’ O’Brien said flatly.
Drawing on his days at The Harvard Lampoon, he explained how some subjects are so extreme they’re almost impossible to parody.
One publication the Lampoon could never quite crack was The National Enquirer. ‘How do you parody that? You can’t,’ he said, pointing to its already outrageous headlines.
For O’Brien, Trump presents the same problem.
He recalled comedians pitching sketches that rely on exaggerating the former president’s behavior – only to realize reality has already beaten them to the punch.
‘People say, “We’ve got a great Trump sketch for you. In this one, he’s kind of talking crazy! He’s saying stuff and he tears down half the White House to build a giant ballroom,”’ O’Brien joked. ‘Yeah, no. That happened yesterday.’
The issue, he explained, is that comedy needs something solid to push against.
‘Comedy needs a straight line to go off of,’ he said. ‘And we don’t have a straight line right now.’
Instead, he quipped, ‘We have a very bendy, rubbery line. We have a slinky.’
