Conan O'Brien is better than Jay Leno. WELCOME TO DUH TOWN, POPULATION: DUH. We already know this simple fact. The world has not changed, I cannot feel it in the water. But with the imminent transition of power at the Tonight Show, along with Jay Leno's proposed move this fall to a new show weeknights at 10PM, the difference between the two is being made very, very clear. Mainly, what's happening is that both men have to appeal to their audiences to try and carry them over to the new shows, while also attempting to win over new audiences by proving why they deserve the spot. And the difference between the two approaches is like funny apples and miserable oranges.
For example! The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien premieres June 1st, and the new website launched today, along with this special announcement from Conan:
Funny. Knowing. Teased the nerds. Casual off-hand Kutcher zing. Good. Compare it with Jay Leno's teaser video.
I had a one-credit class in college once (that's right, COLLEGE) about communism and socialism in which the professor suggested that in order for those systems of government to truly work, everyone who had ever lived in a capitalist society would have to die, because we are all too attached to our deeply rooted belief/enjoyment in personal/material possession. I'm not saying that Jay Leno is a failed form of government, but I am saying that I wish that everyone who thought that this shit was funny or cool would die so that we could make the world a more perfect place.
Going further back, we have the series of celebrity-filled on-air promos for Conan's upcoming takeover at the Tonight Show.
Again, pretty decent. At the very least, the cameos are smartly chosen, and the conceit may be a little overly cute for its own good, but it does not feature a bumper sticker on a rare sports car traveling down Highway 1 to a dentist's office disco soundtrack.
Compare that, once more, to this new Jay Leno ad:
Ugh. "FACT: 65 percent of you asked for more comedy." I don't think this is what they meant, NBC. And if that is what they meant, please have them sign up for my summer remedial course in Communism's Failure and the Modern Response to Jay Leno 101.
