Posted 6:11 AM by Blah blah

Ooh, another great writer I found from Ida. Her name: Joyce. Her blog has so much romantic juice I could drink it with my bacon and eggs. Joyce also has a sharp sense of humor that makes her writing bittersweet and memorable. It's hard to imagine she's still a student at the University of Michigan. She sounds more mature.

A Random Woooo!

Edie wrote something that reminded me of this insightful interview with Conan O'Brien in that funny newspaper, The Onion. I find Conan the funniest of all the commercial network TV talk show hosts. He's the comedy host I personally relate to most. I would sooo like to hang with him on a Sunday afternoon and just throw water balloons. One time Martha Stewart came on his show to show how to iron shirts. While she lectured, Conan picked up her iron behind her back, clawed the air with his fingers, made his trademark dorky face, and went "HISSSSSSS! Rahhhh!" I fell out of my chair laughing. He's a brilliant funny mind:
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Conan: ...There are other audiences that are too frat... I get depressed if I do a joke that has something to do with alcohol or pot or something, and a whole audience of 20-year-olds with backwards baseball caps goes, [adopts low voice] "Yeah!" I feel my soul leaving my body.

The Onion: It's no good pleasing people you don't like.

Conan: ...It's more like I like to get a laugh, or not get a laugh. There's this phenomenon now in America of just, "Yeah, woo!" People go "Woo!" If you ever watch Total Request Live, everybody does that. It's a phenomenon that depresses me. I think it's partly daytime talk shows like Jerry Springer and stuff. It's encouraged on so many shows. "Woo!" It's encouraged, so all they know is that when they want to be part of the show and they're having a good time, they want to "Woo" in the correct spot. They're not really listening. So they wait until after I'm done with a joke, and then they go, "Woo! Oh, yeah!" It's kind of not why I got into comedy. If I wanted that, I'd have become a jai-alai player or something. I like an audience that's listening and then laughing or not, because if they listen and then don't laugh, I can usually have fun with the fact that they didn't laugh. Or I can play with the fact that I failed. That's fun, because that's just reality that people respond to. "Oh, look, the professional comedian/talk-show host is in a little bit of trouble out there." I think people like to see me work my way out of a situation.

The Onion: It's honest reaction versus a Pavlovian reaction.

Conan: Exactly. But when you're out there and they just hear, "I don't know if you heard, but a woman in San Antonio was arrested with 800 pounds of marijuana in her truck..." "Yeah! Woo!" I get sad, because I think, "Oh, I'm just the host of American Gladiators." There are crowds that think you want a standing ovation or something, because they see that on other shows, and they think that's what you're supposed to do. The ladies of The View get a standing ovation every day on their show, and I think, "How much have we devalued the standing ovation? That's just ridiculous." Johnny Carson got one standing ovation, the last night he did his show, and it was really cool. It was like, "Wow, he did 30 years and then ended it on a classy note, and he got a standing ovation." And then you realize that Maury Povich is getting a standing ovation every day on his show. I don't like that. I don't like that stuff. Sometimes I think audiences are too... They've picked up bad habits from watching these things on shows. I like people to just be honest, and if I'm funny, laugh. If you're not so sure, don't laugh. I'll try and win you back. But let's have it be honest. If I wanted to get "woos," I'd have become the dictator of a South American country.