I know that we're living in the Age of Obama, and thus transparency, but on last night's Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien took his audience through a play-by-play of his recent head injury, and it was easily the most nauseating thing I've ever seen on late night, not counting every Jay Leno monologue, ever. It was only a matter of time before footage of the incident surfaced (since it took place while cameras were rolling on Friday's show), but I didn't expect O'Brien to show it himself, not to mention take us along on a thorough account of the cringe-worthy disorientation and side effects he endured afterward.
After the truly hard-to-watch clip of O'Brien falling and smashing the back of his head on the floor, he gets up and tries to continue by running an instant replay. He slurs his words, and is clearly out of it. He tells us that when he tried to read the prep cards for his interview with Seth McFarlane, it was like reading "the menu of an Egyptian restaurant." He said to producers "I don't know what I'm supposed to do, I don't know what this is." That's scary stuff, especially in the wake of Natasha Richardson's seemingly innocent but ultimately fatal head injury earlier this year. The scariest part came when O'Brien revealed that he struggled to tell his producers what year it was. The audience was laughing, and it's probably because O'Brien was sitting before them in fine health, but that ain't funny. This can be justified only by its newsworthiness, because Conan will probably do anything to steal ratings away from Dave, even if it's only for eight minutes. Watch the clip below and chime in. Too much head trauma talk for a ha-ha show?


Responses to Did Conan O'Brien Go Overboard by Showing Us His Injury?