Something occurred in the wee small hours of the morning on Tuesday during “Late Night,” and I can’t rest my weary head until I’ve mentioned it. In the middle of Conan’s “Celebrity Douchebags” segment (sort of like his usual “If They Mated” feature), Los Angeles NBC O&O KNBC interrupted the broadcast. Anchorwoman Colleen Williams announced that, in light of the recent train crash, they were not airing a joke Conan made in the sketch about a train wreck. Apparently, the joke was what would happen if Dog the Bounty Hunter and somebody from “The Hills” mated, and the result was a depiction of a train wreck. KNBC aired a brief news clip in place of the segment.
If I ever meet Linda Sullivan, the general manager of KNBC, we’re going to have words.
Humor is a release… a means of coping with a tragic situation. Some are offended by that idea, and I respect that. But for many of us, humor is a part of the grieving process. It helps us to move on with our lives, sometimes enabling us to smile, even at our lowest moment. And, not for nothing, but the joke being made bore no resemblance to the tragic incident in LA.
Censorship in all its forms offends me. Part of what makes the United States the best country in the world is our sacred right to make tasteless jokes. A lot of people are terribly depressed about losing their homes. Does KNBC plan to censor jokes about the economy? Soldiers die overseas every day. Will KNBC censor jokes about the war?
Depending on which mail setup KNBC is using, Linda Sullivan’s e-mail address should be either:
linda.sullivan@nbcuni.com or linda.sullivan@knbc.com
If you support the decision to censor Conan O’Brien, let Ms. Sullivan know. If you don’t, maybe you should let her know that, too.
God bless America, and kiss my ass KNBC.
on Sep 26th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
The joke in this case — and it was a repeat of one made by poor timing the same day as the train crash — was that Late Night had set up its own supercollider, inspired by the Large Hadron Collider.
So their experiment was to see what happens if sufficiently large douchebags are collided, with a model train loop and the front engines showing the faces of Spencer Pratt and Chris Angel (this week; it was Spencer Pratt and someone else the first time the sketch was done). And the trains were turned on, allowed to run around the track in opposite directions, and crashed into each other, derail, and catch on fire.
As a side point the collision of douchebags was said to potentially threaten the entire douchebag continuum and so `cameras’ were pointed at Ryan Seacrest, Geraldo, Paris Hilton, et cetera to see if they survived this little train crash.
I doubt anyone would argue the pulling of the bit, at least in the Los Angeles area, on the 12th of September (the first time the bit was done; the sketch was taped before the crash). It’s more questionable ten days later but I was surprised Late Night was doing a bit about a crash of trains and cartoony loss of life when the crash was still quite so recent.
on Sep 26th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I live in L.A., so I had to download the show in order to see the bit in question in order to respond…
Two model train locomotives crashed head-on into each other and ended up off the tracks, on their sides, and on fire. That is indeed extremely similar to the results of the Metrolink wreck on September 12.
I’m definitely not a fan of censorship, but I find it hard to fault KNBC for choosing to pre-empt the bit on Monday, with the 10-day-old incident still relatively fresh in the minds of people in L.A.
I think if Conan does this bit again in two months after the Large Hadron Collider is fixed, and KNBC pre-empts it then, that’ll be the time to complain.
on Sep 26th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Well Jim and Joseph, I still find fault with the censorship. If they wanted to include a disclaimer, that would have been sensible, and it would have been enough.
Though I am normally San Diego based, I was far enough north in the state a few Fridays ago to see some of the coverage of the LA stations. Yes, it was tragic, and obviously Conan’s joke was ill-timed. But so what? None of that is an excuse to censor a joke.
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I have to agree with Kevin here. Television shouldn’t cater to the most sensitive viewer. I bet there would have been no complaints from actual families of victims if they had aired the program.
on Jan 24th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I love you Conan! We’ll follow you wherever you go!