Conan O'Brien, Zach Galifianakis say it's a 'misconception' that comedy shows only target conservatives

There may never be a less self-aware conversation than the one recently had between comedians Conan O’Brien and Zach Galifianakis.

It’s no secret that many comedy shows and the entertainment industry at large have one specific demographic they prefer to make fun of: the political right. The sheer number of supposedly "funny" shows based on that preference, from "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" to "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," to "Late Night with Seth Meyers," to "The Daily Show," or "Saturday Night Live!" and "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," is staggering.

That’s just a small sample of how many left-wing comics have made politics the center of their shows. And they have just one target for the vast majority of their jokes: the right and more specifically, President Donald Trump. 

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Criticizing or joking about Trump has become an entire career for several ostensible "comedians." But if you ask Conan O’Brien and Zach Galianakis, the "media" doesn’t want to just make fun of conservatives.

Seriously. 

Zach Galifianakis, Conan O’Brien take turns patting themselves on the back

When discussing Galifianakis’ show "Between Two Ferns," O’Brien brought up his interviews with prominent politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. They both agreed that those interviews showed how comedians are supposed to handle politicians, by making them uncomfortable and poking fun at their vulnerabilities. 

"Podcasters that have had the president on now, they don’t do their court jester…they don’t do it. They just suck up to him," Galifianakis said. "So the comedians that are podcasters that have had Trump on, they’re not doing their job.

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"That’s not the job of a comedian, you are to challenge, you are to make uncomfortable. You are not to sit there and fake laugh, that is not the job of the court jester. Period."

He continued by saying he’s more interested in putting comedy above politics.

"People were actually, somebody yesterday was talking to me about that, about political influence through comedy and all that stuff. I’m more interested in the comedy first…" 

"Me too," O’Brien echoed. 

Galifianakis referenced his Hillary Clinton interview on "Between Two Ferns," saying that when they set it up, Clinton’s camp told him he couldn’t bring up her email scandal. He told them they didn’t need to do the interview then, and they folded. O’Brien connected that exchange to politicians or powerful people needing to laugh at themselves to become more relatable. 

"I see this all the time, and I’ve seen it for years and years and years and years, people not understanding that if they go to the supposedly vulnerable place, and have a sense of humor about it, it is magical for them," he said.

"People see they have a sense of humor, they see that they can take a joke. I mean, nobody walked away from your interview with Obama and thought, ‘wow you really showed him.’ He got to be hilarious, he sat there and entered your world of being intentionally ignorant about who he is and what he does, cutting him off, being insanely rude, and gave it back to you in equal measure. This is a great piece of comedy, and I know it reflects well back on the president."

Then, O’Brien related that to Trump, saying that it would be "humanizing" for him to be the target of a joke.

"And our current president, would do well to understand that, to understand that if he let himself be the butt of a joke, it’s humanizing."

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"It’s impossible," Galifianakis shot back. "You wouldn’t do it with him, it wouldn’t work."

"There’s this misconception that the media just wants to go after conservatives," O’Brien said. "And they don’t understand that everyone benefits when they laugh at themselves. Everyone wins. If you laugh at yourself, it humanizes you."

Comedians can't accept what they've become

All of this is completely ridiculous. 

Of course the media just wants to go after conservatives, it’s all they’ve done for years, if not decades. It’s an absurd denial of reality to suggest otherwise. Galifianakis himself told the Los Angeles Times in 2016 that he had no interest in hosting Trump on "Between Two Ferns" because he’s "mentally challenged."

"No. That doesn’t interest me," he explained. "He’s the kind of guy who likes attention — bad attention or good attention. So you’re dealing with a psychosis there that’s a little weird. I wouldn’t have somebody on that’s so mentally challenged. I feel like I’d be taking advantage of him. And you can print that."

Ah. So Trump is supposed to humanize himself and become the butt of a joke on a show he’s not allowed to participate in.

Galifianakis also said he puts comedy before politics, but was so politically motivated that he had no interest in interviewing Trump. Then there’s Jimmy Kimmel, who recently described Melania Trump as having the "glow of an expectant widow." Is that the type of joke that’s supposed to encourage the president to come on and laugh at himself? That’s just one example, obviously there are many, even worse examples. Not to mention that Trump has appeared on "Saturday Night Live!" several times. He does have a sense of humor, a much better one than Obama or Hillary Clinton, for that matter. That’s not the issue. The issue is that none of these comedians are telling jokes, they’re giving lectures.

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Additionally, Colbert, Kimmel and the rest of them almost exclusively have Democrats on for interviews. Republicans are not invited to participate, because those shows want to prioritize a specific political ideology. But they don’t just want to target conservatives, right? 

What a huge surprise that just a few weeks ago, Galifianakis was laughing and palling around with Kimmel on his show.

And of course, those same "comedians," who had an easy comedic target over the past month, have instead gone curiously quiet. The Eric Swalwell scandal could have provided weeks' worth of material. Just this week, CNN reported that he held meetings at Hooters. Sounds like a perfect setup for a joke, right? You’ll never guess how many jokes Kimmel told about it, but it rhymes with zero. Galifianakis and O’Brien ignore that missed opportunity, while saying comedy is supposed to make powerful people uncomfortable. Just not powerful people who are on the political left.

Kimmel in particular, was remarkably hypocritical, telling Michelle Obama in a recent podcast interview that it would be shameful to ignore political stories…then ignored one that made him, his party and his friend look bad. 

Galifianakis and O’Brien are simply incapable of admitting their own biases and admitting that they would never joke about Obama or Clinton the way they would about Trump. Or treat them similarly. They would never joke about Kamala Harris in the same way they would about Trump. That’s because they’re Democrats first and comedians second, no matter how hard they try to pretend otherwise.