The Associated Press weighs in on the pundit title fight
The media can’t get enough of this story, and it’s easy to understand why. Even though THE USA Today‘s photo (above) suggests that Conan “won” this fight, we all know who the real winner was: America. Which means that Stephen won.
From the Associated Press, via THE USA Today (my emphasis added):
Conan, Stewart, Colbert unite in TV feud
NEW YORK — With teleprompters emptied by the writers strike, Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been transformed into a bloodthirsty, if well-dressed mob.
. . .
And after too many slights (O’Brien called Colbert the “temporary host” of The Colbert Report ), the trio congregated Monday, roaming across three shows and two networks.
Eventually, blowtorches, bricks, stunt doubles and even a little dancing were employed.
“My favorite comedy is comedy where nothing is achieved and there is no point,” O’Brien said in a phone interview Tuesday. “That this whole Huckabee fight turned into an insane Marx brothers dance was fitting somehow.”
Pooling the hosts’ combined talents had the intended upshot of filling time. NBC’s Late Night and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are working without writers because of the strike.
“Nonsense! That was never, ever the point!” contradicted O’Brien before relenting. “Certainly it was a source of inspiration. The fight itself is three people with a box full of props playing for about an hour.”
. . .
The trio put off the tussle until Stewart finished his show, only to reunite on Colbert. Again, the fight needed to be postponed while interviews were attended to by the TV hosts.
Later, across town at Late Night, the feud culminated in an elaborate fight that ended only when the trio appeared to simultaneously knock each other out — the image frozen in a LeRoy Neiman-like painting.
“Conan’s claims on Mike Huckabee could not go unanswered,” Stewart and Colbert said in a joint statement Tuesday. “We just hope the kids out there learned that sometimes the best way to resolve a conflict is with violence.”
For anyone watching, it was clear the three hosts share a certain comedic sensibility. Such playfulness would seem impossible with other late-night talk-show hosts; CBS’ David Letterman and NBC’s Jay Leno, for instance, have long had icy relations.
“The three of us have come along in the same comedic environment,” said O’Brien. “Our shows all probably have their distinct flavor, but this happened because the three of us knew we would like doing this with each other.”
(Tips of the hat to Kina and Jessica, who pointed me to two clones of this story while I was typing!)
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