Conan O’Brien Rips Lazy Trump Jokes And Late-Night Rage

Conan O’Brien is calling out what he sees as a growing problem in modern comedy as performers are abandoning jokes in favor of rage, particularly when it comes to President Donald Trump. O’Brien’s comments arrive amid Trump’s ongoing war with late-night comedy, a clash that has increasingly centered on hosts who regularly target the president in their monologues, particularly Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel was temporarily taken off the air last year following a suspension, before later returning to his show, where Trump jokes have remained a consistent part of the show. Now, O’Brien is offering his take on how political rage is shaping comedy and whether humor is being sacrificed along the way.

Speaking during an appearance at Oxford University, the former "Late Night with Conan O’Brien" host argued that Trump’s second term has created a trap many comedians are falling into, sacrificing humor for anger, and losing their edge in the process.

“Some comics go the route of, ‘I’m gonna just say F Trump all the time,’ or that’s their comedy,” O’Brien said, per Daily Mail. “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 acknowledged that frustration with Trump is understandable, he warned that anger alone doesn’t translate into effective comedy or art. “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.”

In mid-2025, "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" was cancelled by CBS, officially citing financial reasons. The timing, however, raised eyebrows, coinciding with Paramount’s Trump-linked legal settlement and merger discussions 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, even as Trump allies publicly celebrated the decision. Asked directly about his fellow hosts being sidelined, O’Brien didn’t hold back. “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 specifically, O’Brien 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.”

When it came to Colbert’s cancellation, O’Brien acknowledged that late-night television simply isn’t the cultural force it once was, something he’s experienced 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.”

Still, O’Brien suggested economics weren’t the entire 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,” he said. “And sometimes I think people are eager to make the administration happy. And that can speed things up a bit.”

O’Brien also pushed back against claims that comedians are being silenced altogether, arguing that platforms have expanded rather than disappeared. He noted that he’s arguably had a larger reach since his own show ended, thanks to podcasts and digital media. “So… Jimmy’s not going anywhere, and Stephen’s not going anywhere,” he added.

Earlier in the Oxford discussion, O’Brien also dismantled the assumption that Trump’s presidency is inherently good for comedy. “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 bluntly concluding, “It’s not.”

He also recalled comedians pitching sketches based on exaggerating Trump’s behavior, only to realize reality had already gone further. “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 problem, he explained, is structural. “Comedy needs a straight line to go off of,” O’Brien 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.”

In the end, O’Brien’s takeaway is blunt. Yelling ‘F Trump’ might feel good, but it’s not a joke.