It’s clear that the late night world will have plenty of comments on the tragedy in Orlando, but it would seem that Conan has set the tone for the evening. In his opening monologue, O’Brien let the jokes on the sidelines for the evening to make a strong message on the nation’s response to the Orlando nightclub shootings.
He starts out much like many of the past late night statements following similar incidents, noting the difficulty in telling jokes following a tragedy of such magnitude:
Our goal obviously night after is to be funny and silly if you’re in the move for that at night. However sometimes events are so horrifying and bleak, that to come out here and tell jokes… It’s not really possible. Tonight is sadly one of those nights.
But it’s here that the tone changes completely, in a manner that is a little jarring to see on Conan. Instead of just wishing well for the families or sending prayers along, he decides to take on the status of gun control in the United States:
I am not a pundit, I am not an expert and I have always made it a policy to stick to my job and keep my opinions to myself. I have really tried over the years not to bore you with what I think. I simply do not understand why anybody in this country is allowed to purchase and own a semiautomatic assault rifle.These are weapons of war and they have no place in civilian life. I have tried to understand this issue from all sides and it comes to this: nobody I know or have ever met in my entire life should have access to a weapon that can kill so many people so quickly. These mass shootings so often now, that lamenting them afterwords is becoming a national ritual. I do not know the answer, but I want to take a moment here tonight to agree with the rapidly-growing sentiment in America that it’s time to grow up and figure this out.
Samantha Bee has teased a preview for tonight’s Full Frontal and the anger that she has over the Orlando incident, but this truly is something different from a long-running late night host. Who knows how this will be received by people around the country, but it’s safe to say that this would’ve never happened if Conan was still on NBC.
(Via Team Coco)
