team coco for life

as i am sure you have all seen/read/heard conan "coco" o'brien is no longer the host of the tonight show. for those of you who live under a rock or are still depressed because of avatar, here is what happened: after the clusterfuck of "the jay leno show" in primetime, coco quit because nbc wanted to push him to 12:05am in order to give jay leno a half-hour show. he felt that moving the show would damage the institution that is "the tonight show".  the seemingly unfair treatment of the beloved coco struck a chord with millions of young people, many of which don't know a late night tv without conan. as both a coco fan and a communications major, it has been disappointing yet fascinating to witness this all happen. conan's ratings rocketed his last week prompting many critics to say smart ass things like, why weren't you watching the whole time? while i watched this last week, i proudly turned my little brother into a coco fan as well, better late than never. i even found myself crying during his closing monologue and promised to coco and myself to try and be less cynical. i will google what that entails later.

as this whole mess unfolded, at times i felt my despair over the whole situation was a bit irrational. yes, i have been a legit conan fan since high school and i actually watched him host the tonight show before the whole mess, not every night but enough to say i watched, but i still felt (on occasion) that maybe i was too emotionally involved. i found myself thinking, am i really going to not watch 30 rock, the biggest loser, and the olympics over this? (yeah that's pretty much all nbc has to offer me now anyways)

another comedian i like, michael ian black, was sorta able to rationalize the situation on his website, norma rae i say sorta because while, i understand where he is coming from and don't disagree completely, i have to say.... dude,  i am not that upset. i can't speak for anyone else but i am pretty sure people have the capacity to be passionate about more than one issue in the world, be it "frivolous" or not. maybe he is just hating a little because no one  rallied around the cancellation of stella. (loved that show) however, i think he made a few decent points including this one:

We see Conan as a victim because we feel as though, like us, he wasn’t given a fair shot. If a guy like that, a guy who has everything, can be downsized and demoted, what hope do the rest of us have?

i don't really view conan as a symbol for my struggles or someone i can relate to, but rather a reminder that no matter how educated, well-trained, or talented you are, nothing is guaranteed in life, and you can either act like a petulant child about it or you can have integrity and class and keep going.

stay classy coco!

All I ask is one thing -- and I’m asking this particularly of young people -- please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.- coco o'brien