Aaron D. Neufeld

Aaron D. Neufeld- BLOG #43- ‘CONAN’
I am a Late Night TV junkie. I used to watch Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno religiously. I am also a fan of Stephen Colbert, John Stewart, David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon. I have actually attended a live taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon multiple times!

My ultimate favorite Late Night host is Conan O’Brien. I watch his new show, CONAN on TBS, religiously. I noticed something interesting during various episodes of CONAN. Conan has his monologue standing up and then heads to his desk for some cute little shtick with partner Andy Richter before leading into celebrity guest interviews and a musical guest. What I noticed recently is that during both his monologue and the latter comedy bit, technology plays a larger role than many may realize. Having attended Late Night tapings a few times, I watch the show and think about it through an audience member’s perspective.

During the monologue, different photos, objects, captions, etc. appear alongside Conan, and he often interacts with them. During the comedy bits, objects such as a cruise ship or a whale are digitally inserted into the ocean backdrop and move across the backdrop as if it were really there. However, the audience members see none of this unless they look above their heads at the mini in-studio screens. Much of the comedy relies on technology. The media relies on technology. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I don’t think it is either. But it is just something interesting to note, because in the past when Conan hosted Late Night or even earlier when Johnny Carson ruled Late Night, technology wasn’t around and the humor still existed. Is Late Night relying too heavily on technology? It’s something to think about…