Seriously, Though, I Cried A Little Bit

Over the passed couple of weeks everyone and their mom have been covering the NBC fiasco, and I’ve made my opinions very vocal to friends and such, but I haven’t really had the impetus to write anything down. We’ve all heard it from other sources: NBC execs are dicks, Jay is essentially a huge turd for even accepting the Tonight Show back, Conan got eleventy billion dollars to leave. And in the end only two out of three of those things are true. I am not here to talk about that. There really is no reason.

What I am here to talk about, however, is the feeling that I’m feeling right now, minutes and seconds after watching Conan’s last show.

Now if you didn’t happen to see the show, you missed a doozy. I’ll recap briefly: there were some jokes, and then the shit got real a little bit after that. There, of course, were a few digs at NBC for what they’ve done throughout the last couple of weeks. These jokes were similar to those we’ve heard: Conan & crew buys something extremely expensive (this time some dinosaur bones that shoot caviar onto an original picaso. By the way, the last three nights of binge spending were fake) and others.

The shit got real right at the end. After guests Steve Carell and Tom Hanks appear, after a song sung by Neil Young, Conan sits us all down for what is – for all intents and purposes – an expected speech. He wouldn’t just have a couple of guests on and then roll some credits. No way. Not my Conan.

He begins by stating that he is allowed to say anything that he wants. At this moment my mind went to various scenerios of hate-filled and outright angry sentiments that a lesser man (read: me) would have easily jumped to. But this is not what we get. What we get is an extremely sincere and heartfelt statement of gratitude. One that grabs you in the core. Conan discusses how for the last twenty years NBC has been his home, and that he’s the luckiest person he knows. He also goes on to thank the fans for all of our support.

But the thing he said that stuck out the most to me what his plea that people should not be cynical. “Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.” And it’s true. “But if you work really hard and you are kind, amazing things will happen.” I really can’t think of anything else that would have been better to say. You will see this written on every damn blog or editorial you’ll read in the next couple of days, but the entire speech was full of so much class it hurts, and seeing a man who creating a “self-pleasuring” bear and a robot pimp, who has weathered having his show very unpoetically ripped away from him, leave with such dignity and graciousness for all around him is quite the site to behold.

It really was a hard thing to watch someone you’ve essentially grown up with leave, but to end it that speech and with an entertaining rendition of Freebird was great.

Seriously, though, I cried a little bit. God-speed Coco.