“One of the reasons it’s so tough to find work is that aging baby boomers refuse to leave their jobs. Trust me on this. Even if they promise you for five years they are going to leave, and say it on television โ€” you can go on YouTube right now and watch the guy do it โ€” there’s no guarantee they won’t come back. I’m speaking generally.”

Watch all of it here.

21 replies on “From Conan O’Brien’s Dartmouth Commencement Speech”

  1. Conan lost the Tonight Show audience and no amount of whining by him or his fans (or commenters here) is going to change that.

    In TV, it’s the numbers, stupid. Conan couldn’t get them. Simple as that.

  2. Continue to allow. Dartmouth didn’t hire him to speak about things other than what he usually speaks about. It’d be like Dan accepting a fee to speak at some college, then talking about nothing but Stephen Sondheim.

  3. Continue to allow, not because of Conan, but because Leno is such a gigantic asshole that any and all ridicule in his direction is more than warranted.

  4. Jay Leno hands-down destroyed the legacy of the Tonight Show.

    For those of you with amnesia out there, as opposed to spending real money and developing new content, NBC had the not-even-1/4-cocked, bonehead idea to have Jay Leno for an hour at 10PM, FIVE NIGHTS A WEEK, leading in to the local news/Conan. THAT’S what hurt their numbers. Do you not remember all the affiliates decrying the banality of the Jay Leno China Bukkake Hour, or whatever the hell it was called?

    So for that alone, yes, Conan gets to rip on Jay as long as Leno continues to host the Tonight Show.

  5. one would have hoped that the 40 million dollars in severance pay and another talk show of his very own would have taken the sting out of this harrowing common person ordeal.

  6. It is important that each of us take the time to support the interests of one bloated, audience-killing multimillionaire over another bloated, audience-killing multimillionaire.

  7. how much did they pay him? something in the millions, less taxes and legal… can he not survive on a few million? really?

    it was funny once, but it’s been played. if he can’t be funny and relevant, he needs to retire.

    of course, jay leno is obnoxious, too.

  8. Keep on, Conan, you can say it every day for the next 50 years and it still won’t undo the stupidity and injustice that “nice guy” Leno inflicted on you and the rest of us.

  9. @9 The sad part about Jay’s failed 10PM experiment is that it is an idea that could really work with the right plan, and most importantly, the right host.

    Five nights a week works with weekly resident guests, themes, and a host with the depth & breadth to handle all situations. There’s just not too many Steve Allen types out there, and the staffing would be costly. NBC wanted cheap (other than Leno’s salary), and the result is that the whole concept now has such a stink on it that even the right host may not get a shot at it again.

  10. @17: “the result is that the whole concept now has such a stink on it that even the right host may not get a shot at it again.”

    I don’t see that as a negative, really.

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