Conan O’Brien gets serious about silliness

On July 16, 2008, Conan O’Brien spoke about his style of late night and his reason for doing comedy. Interview conducted by director Michael Kantor for the six-hour PBS comedy series, “Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America” (2009).

Chapters:
00:00 Silliness as the engine for O’Brien’s brand of late night
02:05 Taking arms in Groucho Marx’s war against the snobbery of cerebral comedy
04:32 The beautiful, simple currency of “funny”
05:33 The pointless genius of Andy Kaufman
07:39 Comedy as both a defense mechanism and a sanctuary for the perennially snubbed
09:57 Conan O’Brien hates jokes
11:45 Buster Keaton and the well of humor in sadness
12:30 Getting big in Finland and the pure, uniting joy of absurdity

The American Masters Digital Archive includes over 1,000 hours of never-before-seen, raw interviews: a treasure trove of the movers and shakers of American culture, including Maya Angelou, Gloria Steinem, Patti Smith, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Matthew Broderick, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Dionne Warwick, Lee Grant, Sidney Lumet, Betty White and many others.

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