14 DAY TRIAL // Last night, Conan O’Brien, whom fans named “Coco” in the recent “I’m with Coco” campaign, hosted his last episode of The Tonight Show. Though it was more of a wake than a regular episode, Coco stuck to the same recipe of the past couple of weeks, holding celebrity interviews and thrashing NBC in the opening monologue. Until the time came to say goodbye and he almost chocked with emotion when he addressed his fans, as EW says in a complete review of the final episode.
Conan began the show in full force, announcing members of the audience that they had exactly one hour to steal every single item in the studio, one that NBC had built specifically for him. He then went on to crack jokes about how he always lived his life by the saying that all fun things have come to an end a decade earlier than they’re supposed to, and how he was gunning for a position as sidekick with an upcoming talk show on Animal Planet.
As for suggestions as to who should play him in a future HBO film that would detail the entire late night show debacle, O’Brien believes Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, renown for her androgynous looks, would fit the bill perfectly. Val Kilmer should also be cast in the movie, it was said, though why exactly that should happen was not mentioned. O’Brien also enumerated a list of 10 suggestions of how to use the studio after he would be vacating it, and these included being made into a location for a Tiger Woods mistress convention and being left empty as “The World’s Largest Metaphor For NBC Programming.”
However, when time came to say goodbye, O’Brien put all differences aside and called a spade a spade: his home for the past 20 years or so had been NBC and, though they were going different ways, he was grateful for every opportunity the network gave him. He was thankful for the fans he got, as well as overwhelmed by the support he had received over the past couple of weeks. He was happy with what he had and knew that, if anything, he should be saying thank you to NBC and not act ungratefully because, as he put it, “nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get” but “amazing things” do happen if you work hard enough.
“The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational. To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism – it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere,” O’Brien also said, almost chocking with tears.
Below is Coco’s goodbye on The Tonight Show. To see his opening monologue as well, please refer here.