Hey, Camp Lovers!
It was back in 2014 that I initially posted about this late night comedy king, Conan O’Brien. A character that households came to fall in love with was a former summer camper. In the previous post about Mr. O’Brien, which you can read by clicking here, I shared his history at Cragged Mountain Farm where he attended summer camp and spoke a little about his time writing for ‘The Simpsons’ before going on to host NBC Late Night Show
But I want to dig deeper to really dissect the mind of the man behind the comedy. Let’s hold up the magnifying glass to take a closer look at Conan:
Who Nose?!
You wouldn’t think it to look at him, but Conan belongs to a dangerous past. Okay,
not really…but he WAS attacked in a particular incident by a New York street gang when he was in high school. They beat him so badly that the nose he has now is not the one he had when he was born.
The Diet Coke Joke
As noted above, we already know that Conan wrote for ‘The Simpsons’. To spark spontaneity and create a loose atmosphere, Conan had a tendency to relieve his nervousness by opening a can of Diet Coke, pitching a joke, and then spraying himself down with his beverage no matter if his co-workers liked the joke or not. He always got a laugh.
No Support
For such a funny guy, NBC didn’t have much faith in Conan to host ‘Late Night’ when he first began. NBC even made him sign a new contract per week, expecting to lose him before long. They even went as far as to cancel the show for a day in an attempt to replace Conan. They found no one and brought him back to do the show the next day.
Call Him Coco
Presented as a reluctant nickname in a segment from an early ‘Late Night’ episode, Tom Hanks went on to perpetuate and popularize the nickname ‘Coco’. Despite Conan’s disdain for the name—or, more accurately, because of it—the nickname stuck and remains something that he will still answer to today.
Conan is still going strong and Late Night hosting as he always has before. On behalf of Everything Summer Camp, I’d like to extend a respectful nod to this funny man who, though he didn’t have much support, has had the courage to put himself out there to America and simply be a goofball! Thank you for all the laughs you’ve brought the world, Coco! And, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!
- John