Legendary American comedian and former late-night host Conan O'Brien has issued a stark warning to his peers, arguing that focusing comedy solely on criticising former President Donald Trump is a creative dead end that surrenders their most potent tool.
The Peril of Being 'Co-Opted' by Anger
Speaking at a panel discussion at the prestigious Oxford Union on Friday 9 January 2026, the 62-year-old entertainer addressed the significant impact Trump's presidency has had on the comedy landscape. O'Brien, who has historically preferred to keep overt politics out of his own material, observed that some comedians have become trapped in a cycle of rage.
"Some comics go the route of, 'I'm gonna just say F Trump all the time,' or that's their comedy," O'Brien noted. "But now I think, you're being co-opted. Because you're so angry you've been lulled. It's like a siren leading you into the rocks."
He elaborated that this singular focus causes performers to exchange their humour for pure anger, effectively disarming themselves. "You've put down your best weapon, which is being funny," he stated, urging comics instead to "find a way to channel that anger" into more nuanced and effective art.
Trump as an Un-parodyable Force
O'Brien drew a striking parallel to explain why satirising Trump has become so challenging. He recalled that in comedy writing rooms, the one publication they could never parody was the outlandish National Enquirer, because its headlines were already beyond belief.
"With Trump, we have a similar situation in comedy," O'Brien explained. He illustrated the point by describing a hypothetical, exaggerated Trump sketch, only to conclude, "Yeah, no, that happened yesterday." The reality of the Trump era, he suggested, has often outstripped the imagination of satirists, making straightforward parody ineffective.
A Long-Standing Critique of Political Comedy
These latest remarks reinforce a position O'Brien has held for years. On a 2023 podcast episode with journalist Kara Swisher, he quipped that one of Trump's "greatest crimes" was inspiring bad and derivative comedy, bluntly arguing that "'Doesn't [Trump] suck?' isn't a joke."
"I actually think Trump has been... bad for comedy," he added during that appearance, a sentiment he firmly reiterated at Oxford.
Throughout his career, O'Brien has largely avoided deliberate political commentary, telling Esquire magazine in 2016 that any opinion he expressed needed to feel organic, not forced. His recent critique is less about politics and more a defence of comedic craft, asserting that "good art will always be a perfect weapon against power." However, he cautions that when anger replaces wit, comedians lose their essential tool and become part of the noise they seek to critique.
