Jeff Swensen/Getty Images; Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
- Conan O'Brien quipped that Trump's greatest crime might be "how much he's hurt comedy."
- The late-night legend compared writing jokes about Trump to trying to parody the National Enquirer.
- "I think the January 6 thing is a blip compared to how much he's hurt comedy," O'Brien told Kara Swisher.
Comedian Conan O'Brien joked that former President Donald Trump's "worst crime" is how he killed late-night comedy.
"And so I think it's just … I'm really going on a limb here saying: That's his greatest crime, that I think he's hurt political comedy by being so outlandish himself," O'Brien told journalist Kara Swisher on the latest episode of her New York Magazine podcast. "I think the January 6 thing is a blip compared to how much he's hurt comedy."
O'Brien, who never leaned into Trump comedy the way some of his then-competitors did, said the struggle was so many of the punchlines were about visceral feelings rather than actual jokes.
"So I always thought when Trump came along, what a lot of people have to revert to is: 'Doesn't he suck? I hate that guy. He's an asshole," O'Brien said. "And those aren't jokes."
O'Brien compared trying to make jokes about Trump to parodying The National Enquirer. Before he became a late-night legend, O'Brien described how he and fellow writers at the Harvard Lampoon would parody popular magazines. But they could never top the actual stories in the infamous tabloid.
"If you go and buy a real National Enquirer, it says, 'Elvis sighted in UFO; he has tentacles for arms. Ghost baby turns into vampire and attacks Michael Jackson's ghost,'" he said. "There's no way to parody that. You can't parody something that already has that crazy irregular shape. It's not possible."
Trump is no stranger to courting comedy controversy. He's hosted Saturday Night Live twice, including a controversial 2015 appearance where he danced to Drake's then-smash hit "Hotline Bling." Jimmy Fallon, host of "The Tonight Show," was pilloried for an interview he did with Trump on the show.
As for taking punchlines himself, Trump famously skipped out on the White House Correspondent's Dinner, which often includes a top comedian making jokes about the president.