Conan O’Brien Cautions Anti-Trump Comedians Against “Exchanging Funny For Anger”

While Donald Trump has provided plenty of material for late-night hosts and other comedians, Conan O’Brien considers political comedy a much more delicate art.

The 6x Emmy-winning comic acknowledged that some “very gifted political comedians” exist, but “it’s tricky” when the subject of a comedian’s joke is already so absurd, using the comparison of attempting to parody The National Enquirer.

“It’s a very tricky thing. I honestly don’t think it’s for lack of caring,” O’Brien explained during an appearance at Oxford University. “It is just very easy for someone to lose their way if they’re really trying to make a point with what it is they do.”

Noting he’s gone after politicians in the past on his talk show, O’Brien reasoned that he went after both sides during his hosting days, which were during an entirely different political landscape.

“Comedy needs a straight line to go off of, and we don’t have a straight line right now,” he said. “We have a very bendy, rubbery line. We have a slinky. We have a fire hose that’s whipping around, spewing water at 100 miles an hour. So, comedically, it’s been very challenging.

“Some comics go the route of, ‘I’m gonna just say F Trump all the time,’ or that’s their comedy. But now I think, you’re being co-opted. Because’ you’re so angry, it’s like a siren leading you into the rocks.”

O’Brien added, “You’ve been lulled into just saying ‘F Trump. F Trump. F Trump. Screw this guy,’ and I think you’ve now put down your best weapon, which is being funny, and you’ve exchanged it for anger.”

Emphasizing that comedians “always need to be funny,” he advised anti-Trump comics, “You just have to find a way to channel that anger, because good art will always be a perfect weapon against power, but if you’re just screaming and you’re just angry, you’ve lost your best tool in the toolbox.”

The comedian’s Oxford appearance comes after he accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Trump-run Kennedy Center in March, explaining he wanted “to be funny, but also bring some optimism” to the event.