The last of Conan on NBC just aired, and with it comes a few thoughts.

Firstly, I was perusing Hulu today, looking at the most recently added shows to see if Archer had been added yet (alack alas, not until February 14 - weak sauce, I know).  I was moving my cursor around the page when I passed by The Jay Leno Show (requisite: Boo! Hiss!) and happened to notice what people are tagging the Leno Show with:

(Click on thumbnail)

Also, Michael Ian Black wrote a bleak but honest assessment of the whole thing. 

Although, I disagree. 

Why are people supporting this as opposed to forcing through some new political reform or changing the way big companies do business?   Because this is low stakes - it's sad to see Conan go, but not as heartbreaking as watching healthcare reform die.  Because the ending is inevitable, so why not approach it gleefully? Everyone knew Conan was done - so it was about simply rallying around someone for a week or so and letting that person know, "Thanks" and "We Like You."  No one thought there'd be some weird reversal of fortune, or that it'd be like a Busby Berkeley musical with everyone dancing and Masturbating Bears swimming in formation (if only...). 

It's like Senior Week in college - the end is rapidly approaching and you feel like you just started.  You try to hook up with someone you've always wanted to, awkwardly force fun and significance into your waning drinking hours, garble some half-assed poetic words to express how you feel about the people you love, take stock of what you once had and look towards the unknown future with a mixture of fear and hope.  And in that regard, Conan is very much like us.

If you want to take this to Hyperbolic levels, and I know you do, Conan mirrors what's happening in DC.  I happen to be a liberal democrat who campaigned for Obama and spoke for the man and donated to the campaign.  I knew he wasn't as progressive as I wanted, but he seemed much more progressive than every one else (and viable - sorry, Kucinich).  So Obama won, he gets to go to the big show and spread the message of Hope and Change.  And...well, let's be honest: It hasn't exactly worked out.  It's not disastrous, but it's not like much has changed.  We (Obama supporters) were hoping that there'd be some difference, some new approaches - and what we received was, frankly, a disappointment. 

Compare that with Conan - the nerdy outcast writer who created the "Monorail" episode of The Simpsons.  An outsider who finally gets a seat at the table and then eventually the main stage - but then that doesn't work out.  And it's business as usual, which is so perfectly personified by Jay Leno's sub-mediocrity.  And again, we knew we couldn't change the tide, but we send Conan out in a Viking Funeral, complete with fancy posters and little tweet tags.  (Todd VanDerWerff covers some of these aspects of the Leno/Coco war at The AV Club)

Conan did have some impact on my life.  This may sound stupid, but Conan O'Brien was one of my earliest influences and informed my perspective on life.  He helped teach me to laugh at myself and be absurd.  Conan was awkward and weird, made obscure references and jokes that didn't make any sense.  He was from Massachusetts and never seemed to fit in with the celebrities he interviewed.  I dunno, it's not JFK being shot or the Berlin Wall coming down or anything approaching that significance - but it's just a moment where one of us, who seemed to have made it, was struck down.  As John Hodgman tweeted this evening: "Saying farewell to an entertainer. Jocks win. This time."

The passion we showed (those of us who tweeted or blogged or Facebooked or paraded or whatever hipster doofusy thing we did) wasn't about changing a system.  And yes, that exact same energy could've been spent elsewhere (and for many of us who can multitask, it was).  But it wasn't about making a statement to anyone else but the people who made us feel less alone, or weird, or who simply brightened our day with a vomiting Kermit or an ornery dog puppet.  I think, even with all the bitterness and hatred towards Zucker, Leno and NBC - it was a chance for people to follow Vonnegut's advice: "And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"

Tomorrow I will go back to being the depressive guy I always am, reading news sites hourly and feeling disappointment.  Haiti will still be in ruins, Healthcare will continue to swirl the toilet bowl, the Trial on Prop 8 will still be decided.  But tonight, we just took a moment to say "Thanks, Conan."

We are gathered here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. But it should be noted that this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human.