Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
show name	The Colbert Report
format	Late night talk show
genre	Comedy, Satire,News parody
creator	Stephen ColbertBen KarlinJon Stewart
director	Jim Hoskinson
presenter	Stephen Colbert
theme music composer	"Baby Muggles" by Cheap Trick
country	United States
language	English
num seasons	7
num episodes	915 ()
list episodes	List of The Colbert Report episodes
executive producer	Jon StewartBen KarlinStephen Colbert
runtime	22 minutes
network	Comedy Central
picture format	480i (SDTV) (2005-2009) 1080i (HDTV) (2010-present)
first aired
last aired	present
status	Returning series
related	''The Daily Show''
website	http://www.colbertnation.com }}

''The Colbert Report'' (  – the ''t'' is silent in both "Colbert" and "Report") is an American satirical late night television program that airs Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. It stars political humorist Stephen Colbert, a former correspondent for ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''.

''The Colbert Report'' is a spin-off from and counterpart to ''The Daily Show'' that comments on politics and the media in a similar way. It satirizes conservative personality-driven political pundit programs, particularly Fox News's ''The O'Reilly Factor''. The show focuses on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits.

''The Colbert Report'' has been nominated for four Emmys each in 2006, 2007 and 2008, two Television Critics Association Awards, and two Satellite Awards. It has been presented as non-satirical journalism in several instances, by the Tom DeLay Legal Defense Trust, and following Robert Wexler's interview on the program. ''The Report'' received considerable media coverage following its debut on October 17, 2005, for Colbert's coining of the term "truthiness", which dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster named its 2006 Word of the Year.

''The Report'' has had cultural influence in a number of ways. In 2006, after Colbert encouraged viewers to vote online to name a Hungarian bridge after him, he won the first round of voting with 17,231,724 votes. The Ambassador of Hungary presented Colbert with a declaration certifying him as the winner of the second and final round of voting, though it was later announced that the bridge would instead be named the Megyeri Bridge, as a law prevented it from being named after a living person. In 2007, the Democratic Caucus chair, Rahm Emanuel, instructed freshmen Representatives not to appear on the show's "Better Know a District" segment.

Production

In 2005, ''The Daily Show'' won Emmy Awards, and Comedy Central wanted to expand the franchise. Producers were also looking for a way to hold on to Colbert, ''Daily Show'' correspondent and co-writer for six seasons, after the show's other breakout star, Steve Carell, left the program to pursue a career in film and network television. Jon Stewart and Ben Karlin (''The Daily Show'''s executive producer) supposedly came up with the idea for ''The Colbert Report'' after watching coverage of the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Bill O'Reilly. Jon Stewart's production company, Busboy Productions, developed ''The Report''. Colbert, Stewart, and Karlin pitched the idea of the show (reportedly with one phrase: "our version of ''The O'Reilly Factor'' with Stephen Colbert") to Comedy Central chief Doug Herzog, who agreed to run the show for eight weeks without creating a pilot.

''The Colbert Report'' first appeared in the form of three television commercials for itself which aired several times on ''The Daily Show'', although the themes that form the basis for ''The Report'' can be seen in the reports of Colbert's correspondent character on ''The Daily Show''. The show debuted October 17, 2005, with an initial contract for an eight-week run. On November 2, 2005, based on the strong ratings for the show's first two weeks, Comedy Central and Colbert announced they had signed for an additional year, through the end of 2006. In 2007, co-head writer Allison Silverman became an executive producer of the show.

Program format

Typically, Colbert starts an episode with teasers regarding the show's topics and guest; each headline is structured to be a deliberate pun. The series of puns are followed by a verbal metaphor that promotes the show and is almost always finished with, "This is the ''Colbert Report''." The show's original opening title sequence began with an eagle diving past the host, following by images of Americana, stock footage of Colbert, and words describing Colbert flying by (some of which have been used as The Wørd). The first word used was "Grippy", and has changed to include, among others, "Megamerican", "Lincolnish", "Superstantial", "Flagaphile", and "Factose Intolerant". The May 4 episode in 2009 featured "''346x''" as a hint planted by J. J. Abrams about when and where Colbert would be in the Persian Gulf, and "Farewellison" for the final episode of former producer Allison Silverman. The sequence ends with a computer-generated shrieking eagle swooping toward the foreground and exposing a live shot of the set. On January 4, 2010, a new opening debuted. The opening begins and ends with an eagle as before, but features new background renderings, new shots of Stephen Colbert, and is now colored in an American, red white and blue motif. Both openings feature "Baby Muggles" by Cheap Trick as theme music.

Following the opening sequence, Colbert most often proceeds with a run-through of recent headlines in a manner parodying traditional news broadcasts; this is similar to ''The Daily Show'' but with a faux-right-wing spin. The program typically continues with Colbert addressing a specific topic. That topic will often lead into a "The Wørd" segment, which juxtaposes Colbert's commentary with satirical bullet points on-screen, a parody of ''The O'Reilly Factor''s "Talking Points Memo". On occasion he will conduct a short interview with someone having to do with the topic. The format of the middle segment varies, but it is normally a visual presentation or skit. Often, these skits are parts of recurring segments, which may include "Better Know a District", in which Colbert interviews a U.S. Representative from a certain district of the United States; "Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger", in which Colbert voices his approval or disapproval of prominent people and news items; "Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.", a health segment; "The Sport Report" with the "t" in both Sport and Report silent, a sports segment; and "The ThreatDown", in which Colbert lists the five greatest threats to America, and others. His newest segment, "Thought for Food" deals with the consumption of specific foods across the world.

Sometimes, there is a "''Colbert Report Special Repor-t''" (the final 't' pronounced with special emphasis), or even a "''Colbert Report, Sport Report, Special Repor-t''", in which Colbert devotes a section of an episode, and sometimes the entire episode to a special subject. The third segment is almost always an interview with a celebrity guest, often an author or government official. The interview is, unlike ''The Daily Show'', conducted at a different table on the set. Viewers applaud as Colbert hammily jogs from his desk to the interview area, where his seated guest awaits. At times, Colbert will give high fives to the front row of his audience as they stand and clap. This is presumably meant to parody traditional talk show formats in which the guest enters to applause and joins the already-seated host. The third segment of the show is on occasion a musical guest. Prominent musical guests have included Rush, Green Day, Paul Simon, Crosby Stills & Nash, Pavement, Cat Stevens, and Yo-Yo Ma. Afterwards, Colbert ends the show by giving some parting words to the audience or, if short for time, a simple "good night".

Set

''The Colbert Report'' taping studio, at 513 W. 54th Street New York, NY 10019 located in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, was used for ''The Daily Show'' until July 2005. NEP Studio 54 on 54th Street is owned by NEP Broadcasting which is New York City's largest production facility and also owns ''The Daily Show'' set at NEP Studio 52 two blocks south on 52nd Street.

The set for ''The Colbert Report'' is called "The Eagle's Nest" and reflects and facilitates Colbert's self-aggrandizing style. The set has two main areas: the desk, from which Colbert hosts most of the show, and the guest interview area to camera right, where his guest for the evening is interviewed. Colbert's desk is in the shape of serifed C, standing for Colbert. On one wall, there is an artificial fireplace with the engraving "Videri Quam Esse," meaning, "to seem to be rather than to be"; it is a play off of the traditional Latin phrase "esse quam videri," or, "to be, rather than to seem to be," reflecting Colbert's mock right-wing personality. Above this fireplace is a portrait of Colbert; it originally showed Colbert standing in front of the same mantel with another portrait of himself. On the show's first anniversary, the portrait was replaced by one of Colbert standing in front of the mantel with the first portrait above it; the original was auctioned off at a charity event and currently hangs in the Sticky Fingers restaurant in Colbert's native Charleston, S.C. Colbert stated that the portrait will be changed every year to add another level of depth. On October 17, 2007, the portrait was removed and replaced with a new one that followed an identical pattern, but changed Colbert's placement in the foreground.

On January 16, 2008, the "three-deep" Colbert portrait was placed on display "right between the bathrooms near the 'America's Presidents' exhibit" at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. After first being rejected by the National Museum of American History, Colbert petitioned the Smithsonian to display his portrait, who agreed to "go along with the joke", though they stressed that it was only temporary. Colbert said "I don't mean to brag, but as it contains three portraits, my portrait has more portraits than any other portrait in the National Portrait Gallery!" The portrait was then put on display at the Smithsonian until April 13. On October 16, 2008, the three-deep portrait was officially donated to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's American Treasures exhibit. In September 2009, the portrait was retired to the Smithsonian's collection. At the end of that show, a new 5-deep portrait was unveiled, with the newest Colbert holding his newly won Emmy with another Emmy and a Peabody by the mantle.

The graphics used throughout the show and the studio itself are saturated with American flags, bald eagles, Captain America's shield, and other patriotic imagery. The set contains many references to Colbert, and on the show's first episode he pointed out several examples: his name, initials and the name of the show appear on the desk's plasma screen, on the rafters above the desk, and the desk itself is shaped like a giant "C". In an interview with ''The A.V. Club'', Colbert explained that much of the design for the set was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's ''The Last Supper''. "All the architecture of that room points at Jesus' head, the entire room is a halo", Colbert said. "On the set, I'd like the lines of the set to converge on my head. And so if you look at the design, it all does, it all points at my head...there's a sort of sun-god burst quality about the set around me." On the floor to the front stage right of his desk there is an eagle's nest, and a tape outline of where he injured his wrist, akin to those seen at murder scenes on television police procedurals.

For the week of April 14 through April 17, 2008, the program was taped at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania campus, in advance of the Democratic Party primary in that state on April 22. This was the first time the program has been taped outside its regular New York City studios.

In an interview with Lisa Rose for nj.com published on October 26, 2009, Colbert mentioned that a new set was being built and would premiere sometime in January, 2010. The new set was introduced on the show on January 4, 2010, along with a new opening graphic for the show's transition to HD broadcasting.

Writers' strike

Production of new episodes was suspended on November 5, 2007 due to the Writers Guild of America strike, although a live untaped performance called ''The Colbert Report – On Strike!'' took place on December 3, 2007, with proceeds going towards show staffers. The show returned on January 7, 2008, without the writing staff. Upon the show's return, Colbert modified the pronunciation of the show's name, using hard 't's (); a similar move was made by ''The Daily Show'' which returned to air as ''A Daily Show''. On February 13, in honor of the end of the strike, the original names of both shows were restored.

During the strike, Colbert stopped performing the customary "table of contents" that usually precedes the opening titles, as well as other regular written segments such as The Wørd. As a member of the Writers Guild of America, Colbert was barred from writing any material for the show himself which his writers would ordinarily write. As a result, Colbert conducted more guest interviews, although several people turned down invitations to cross the picket line to appear on the show, including Katrina vanden Heuvel and Naomi Klein. At one stage, pitched as an effort to fill time on the show, Colbert lashed out at fellow late night host Conan O'Brien, who had also recently returned to air without his writers, for claiming to have elevated the popularity—or "made"—presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, which Colbert's character had frequently claimed credit for in the past. In response, Jon Stewart, Colbert's former ''Daily Show'' colleague, claimed that he had introduced O'Brien to the public on MTV's ''The Jon Stewart Show'', and thus, by his logic, ''Stewart'' was responsible for Huckabee's success. This sparked a briefly recurring mock feud between Colbert, O'Brien, and Stewart—during which they appeared on each other's shows—which culminated in a three-way brawl on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' on February 4, 2008. On April 14, 2011 Colbert announced the termination of his candidate-funding PAC due to complications with parent company Viacom. Later in the program, Colbert's lawyer came on the show to bring to light that the action was legal under the recent bill and would proceed.

Stephen Colbert character

The Stephen Colbert character is a fictional character portrayed by comedian and actor Stephen Colbert. The character is a caricature of news pundits such as Stone Phillips, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Geraldo Rivera, whose shows focus on "bluster and personality". Colbert's character, a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is right-wing, egomaniacal, fact-averse ("factose intolerant"), God-fearing, and super-patriotic. He claims to be an independent who is often mistaken for a Republican, but uniformly despises liberals and generally agrees with the actions and decisions of George W. Bush and the Republican Party. This is evidenced by one of the questions that he asks of many of his guests: "George W. Bush: great President, or the ''greatest'' President?"

The character's self-aggrandizing style includes frequent promotion of an extensive range of fictional merchandising and products, including perfumes, sci-fi novels, medications, his own "man seed", and other products, all of which are either produced or endorsed by Colbert. He has also convinced his viewers, whom he addresses as "the Colbert Nation", to vote for him in various public naming polls: the mascot of the Saginaw Spirit, an Ontario Hockey League team has been named after him.

Colbert's character holds a recurring grudge against everything related to France and the French language. Ironically, he pronounces both his last name "Colbert" – a surname of French origins – and "Report" in "The Colbert Report" with a silent T in accordance with French pronunciation. In an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" Colbert acknowledged the pronunciation of report referring to the word "rapport": A close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well.

Colbert's character has been described as a "caustic right-wing bully". On the interview segment of the show, Colbert frequently attempts to nail his guest by using various rhetorical devices, and often logical fallacies, to prove them wrong. Despite his bluster, Colbert's character suffers from "arctophobia", the fear of bears, which he refers to as "giant, marauding, godless killing machines". This bear phobia was inspired by Colbert's real-life fear of bears as a child. Colbert refers to Bill O'Reilly as "Papa Bear", a title with a double meaning, considering Colbert's fear of bears. Colbert displays fear and suspicion of nearly any animal and is quick to declare they are "training" to attack humanity. He is also highly distrustful of technology, particularly robots. Over the months of May and June in 2007, Colbert begged Apple to give him a free iPhone, and finally received one in July. Once he received it, however, he claimed the phone knew so much about him that he had become virtually dependent on it, and that the iPhone itself was a threat. Colbert was one of the first public figures to receive a pre-production iPad, which he used in a joke at the 2010 Grammys.

Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando

From June 7–9, 2009, Colbert filmed a series of four episodes for the troops in Baghdad, Iraq. He had a suit tailored for him in the Army Combat Uniform pattern and went through an abbreviated version of the Army's basic training regimen. On the first of the four episodes, Colbert had his head shaved on stage by General Ray Odierno who was jokingly "ordered" to do so by President Barack Obama, who appeared on the episode via a pre-recorded segment from the White House.

Recurring themes

''The Colbert Report'' presents various recurring themes that help define the show.

Truthiness

In "The Wørd" segment of the first episode of the ''Report'', Colbert featured the term ''truthiness'', defined as "the quality by which one purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or intellectual examination". Colbert said that, "I don't trust books, they're all fact, no heart. And that's exactly what's pulling our country apart today. Let's face it folks, we are a divided nation...between those who think with their head and those who know with their heart." In December 2005, ''The New York Times'' selected ''truthiness'' as one of nine words that captured the zeitgeist of the year, and in January 2006, the American Dialect Society announced that ''truthiness'' was selected as its 2005 Word of the Year.

Colbert has made frequent reference to the spread of the word ''truthiness'' since he introduced it, while carping on media accounts of ''truthiness'' that neglect to identify him as its source. ''Truthiness'' has since been discussed, sometimes repeatedly, in ''The New York Times'', the ''Washington Post'', ''USA Today'', the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', ''The Chicago Tribune'', ''Newsweek'', MSNBC, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, ''Editor & Publisher'', ''Salon'', ''The Huffington Post'', ABC NewsRadio's ''Word Watch'' with Kel Richards and ''Chicago Reader'', and on ABC's ''Nightline'', CBS's ''60 Minutes'', and ''The Oprah Winfrey Show''. In January 2006, ''truthiness'' was featured as a Word of the Week by the website of the Macmillan English Dictionary. In December of the same year, Merriam-Webster announced that "truthiness" had been voted by visitors to its website to be the #1 Word of the Year for 2006. On August 27, 2006, the ''Global Language Monitor'' named ''truthiness'' and ''wikiality''—both coined by Colbert on ''The Colbert Report''—as the top television buzzwords of 2006. It was used in The New York Times crossword puzzle in June 2008, which Colbert himself mentioned during an exchange with Jon Stewart on an episode of ''The Daily Show''.

Relation to ''The O'Reilly Factor''

The Stephen Colbert character and ''The Colbert Report'' are generally parodies of Bill O'Reilly and ''The O'Reilly Factor'' respectively. New episodes of ''The Colbert Report'' are scheduled in the same time slot as rebroadcasts of ''The O'Reilly Factor'', while ''Colbert'' rebroadcasts are scheduled during new ''O'Reilly'' shows. When O'Reilly appeared on ''The Daily Show'' before the second episode of ''The Colbert Report'' aired, he commented, "Before we get started, somebody told me walking in here, you got some French guy on after you making fun of me?", and made several references in the following interview to 'the French Guy'. In a subsequent ''Newsweek'' interview, O'Reilly said that he "feels it's a compliment" to have Colbert parody him because Colbert "isn't mean-spirited" and does not "use [his] platform to injure people". Later, Colbert replied on-air, "I like you too. In fact, if it wasn't for you, this show wouldn't exist."

''The Colbert Report'' features a commentary segment called "The Wørd", similar to O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo". Like the Memo, The Wørd features the commentator asserting a political point of view with a text screen graphic next to him. However, while O'Reilly's text serves to emphasize his points, Colbert's text generally serves as an ironic counterpoint to his character's position. Other segments that can be juxtaposed with ''The O'Reilly Factor'' are The Colbert Report's ''Inbox'' (compared to O'Reilly's "Factor Mail"); ''Stephen Colbert's Balls for Kidz'' which, unlike The Factor's "Children at Risk", tends to portray messages and lessons typically considered unsuitable for children; and ''That's The Craziest F#?king Thing I've Ever Heard'', which is comparable to O'Reilly's "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day". Additionally, Colbert parodies O'Reilly's references to his program as the "no spin zone" by inviting viewers of his show to "take a spin in the no fact zone". O'Reilly and Colbert each appeared as a guest on the other's show on January 18, 2007. As a souvenir, Colbert "stole" a microwave from the O'Reilly green room—in fact, he informed O'Reilly of his intention to take the microwave beforehand—later displaying it on his own show. He later sent over a replacement microwave, emblazoned with ''The Colbert Report'' logo.

Green Screen challenges

On the August 10, 2006 episode, Stephen Colbert was shown wielding a lightsaber in front of a green screen, a parody of the Star Wars Kid internet phenomenon. This was done as part of the "Better Know A District" segment, when Colbert visited California's 6th congressional district, the home of Star Wars creator George Lucas. The greenscreen footage was subsequently edited by fans and their results were posted on the Internet, primarily the website YouTube. Colbert featured some of these clips on the August 21 episode and issued the "Green Screen Challenge" to the public—a contest to create the best video from footage shown in the August 10 episode. Lucas himself made an appearance on the October 11 episode to showcase his own entry.

When indie rock band The Decemberists shot a music video for their single "O Valencia!" in front of a green screen and asked fans to complete the video, Colbert accused them of copying his idea, and started his second green screen challenge, which called for fans to edit Stephen Colbert into The Decemberists unfinished music video. In response, The Decemberists challenged Colbert to a guitar solo challenge. For a few weeks, the upcoming contest, which Colbert titled "Rock and Awe: Countdown to Guitarmageddon" ("The I-Rock War: Cut and Strum" and "The Axeman Cometh: Mourning Becomes Electric" were announced as alternate titles; Colbert added that he would find and fire the English major on his staff who created the latter title), became a focus of the show. On December 20, 2006, Chris Funk, lead guitarist for The Decemberists, came on the show for the guitar solo challenge. Once Funk finished playing, Colbert arrived on stage with a five-necked guitar belonging to Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. Colbert played two notes, pretended to cut his hand, and insisted that he could no longer play, so Peter Frampton played a solo in Colbert's place. A panel of three judges, then New York governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, Rock critic Anthony DeCurtis, and chairman of the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University, Jim Anderson, voted to determine the best solo. DeCurtis voted for the Colbert/Frampton team, Anderson voted for Funk, and Spitzer withdrew himself from judging as Colbert tried to bribe him during the commercial break. The deciding vote was given to Henry Kissinger, who had briefly appeared earlier in the show. Kissinger said that the American people had won, at which point Colbert declared himself the winner. As a prize, Colbert received ''The Crane Wife'', The Decemberists' new album, saying "The Crane Wife by the Decemberists? I love the Decemberists, they rock. In your face, Funk!"

On June 12, 2008, Stephen announced his third green screen challenge, "Stephen Colbert's Make McCain Exciting Challenge!", in which he invited viewers to replace the green screen behind John McCain during one of his speeches with something more exciting. The show would display entries on a semi-regular basis for the next two months.

On September 5, 2008, Colbert issued a follow up McCain green screen challenge. He challenged his viewers to alter the footage of McCain's acceptance speech, while Colbert himself took a one week hiatus.

Wrist violence and fictional addiction

On July 26, 2007, Colbert broke his left wrist while performing his warm-up for the show. Following the accident Colbert launched a new section of the show entitled "Wrist Watch", featuring news stories about wrists during which the character attacks what he sees as Hollywood's glamorization of "wrist violence". On August 8, Colbert debuted the "Wriststrong" wrist band, based on Lance Armstrong's "Livestrong" wrist band, in a hope to increase wrist awareness. The wristbands were made available for purchase online and Colbert ordered those wearing the bracelets to give them to anyone they meet who is more famous than themselves. Colbert has subsequently attempted to pass on bracelets to well-known media figures including Katie Couric (Stephen gave a Wriststrong bracelet to Couric and she said that she would wear it on air, but didn't), Brian Williams and Matt Lauer. All proceeds raised by the sales of the wrist bands are given to the Yellow Ribbon Fund. On January 23, 2008, Colbert interviewed the Yellow Ribbon Fund's director of communications, Marie Wood, and presented her a check for the money raised by WristStrong bracelet sales to date, totaling US$171,525, the profits of over 30,000 bracelet sales.

Colbert had a number of well-known figures autograph his cast, including Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City; ''CBS Evening News'' anchor Katie Couric; Bill O'Reilly, host of Fox's ''The O'Reilly Factor''; Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; Tim Russert, host of NBC's ''Meet The Press''; Tony Snow, former White House Press Secretary; and ''NBC Nightly News'' anchor Brian Williams. On August 23 the cast was removed on air, and it was announced that Colbert would auction off his cast for the Yellow Ribbon Fund on eBay. The auction began after that evening's show. Within minutes of the auction's start, bidding quickly rose to over US$71,000. However, many bids were canceled because bidders failed to get pre-approved by the seller (which was required in the auction). It was sold for US$17,200.

While Colbert's wrist was in the cast, the character began taking (and subsequently became addicted to) painkillers to deal with his injury, frequently taking absurd doses and displaying exaggerated withdrawal symptoms of irritability and hallucinations when they were denied. The cast was removed on television, after which ''The Report'' went on a brief hiatus, and following its return on September 10, Colbert claimed that, with help from a court order and rehab over the break, he had kicked his addiction.

Snoopy

On January 5, 2010, during a parody of his "Better Know a District" segment, "Better Know Your Enemy" concerning Yemen, Colbert debuted a new "high-definition touchscreen", set in-between his main set and his interview set. Colbert is able to draw on the screen, while slides change over via an external control. Sometimes, he will take a something regarded on a scalar basis (e.g., how to feel about Yemen as an enemy, the weather forecasts...) and provide 3 statuses (e.g., when to be Happy, when to be Angry...), accompanied by a sketch on the touchscreen. The third of which always has been a sketch of ''Peanuts'' comic strip beagle, Snoopy. Colbert has incorporated his Snoopy sketching into most of every other of his segments utilizing the touchscreen in some way.

Recurring characters

While the show is largely dominated by Colbert, there are a number of recurring characters who appear periodically. Colbert will frequently address the show's director, Jimmy—a reference to real-life ''Colbert Report'' director Jim Hoskinson—and will sometimes converse with him. On the rare occasions Jimmy has appeared on screen, he has been portrayed by staff writer Peter Gwinn. Building manager Tad, portrayed by Paul Dinello, has appeared on the show multiple times to host special segments. Other recurring members of Colbert's fictional staff have included Meg the intern (played by Meg DeFrancesco), Jay the intern (played by staff writer Jay Katsir), Bobby the stage manager (played by Eric Drysdale) and Killer (uncredited). Colbert himself has portrayed his character's Cuban alter ego, Esteban Colberto; and his Chinese alter ego, Ching Chong Ding Dong.

Early in the show's run, Stephen occasionally encountered Russ Lieber, a liberal media personality character portrayed by David Cross. Tim Meadows has also appeared on the show as P.K. Winsome, a black Republican and hucksterish entrepreneur.

An inanimate character was created in response to Supreme Court ruling to lift the Washington, D.C. gun ban. Sweetness is a black revolver that Colbert can hear talk to him. He will often converse with Sweetness by holding her up to his ear and then relaying what she has said to the audience.

Colbert has also voiced Wilford Brimley in false phone conversations. Gorlock, Colbert's alien financial adviser, is another recurring character mentioned on the show. During June 2009, Jeff Goldblum frequently appeared to make supposedly spontaneous speeches that would inevitably finish with him promoting ''Law & Order: Criminal Intent''.

Reception

''The Colbert Report'' currently scores favorable reviews, with 65/100 on Metacritic, while its viewers ranking on the site is higher at 8.7/10.

''The Colbert Report'' drew an unusual amount of media attention prior to its premiere. It was featured in articles in ''The New Yorker'', NPR's ''All Things Considered'' and ''Fresh Air'',CNN, and ''The Washington Post''. ''The New York Times'' alone ran three articles on the ''Report'' before its debut, and has made repeated references to ''The Colbert Report'' since then. Maureen Dowd, for instance, referred to Colbert's "Dead To Me" board as a metaphor in her column, saying that Oprah Winfrey "should take a page from Stephen Colbert and put the slippery James Frey on her 'Dead to me' list".

''The Colbert Report'' drew 1.13 million viewers for its premiere episode, 47 percent greater than the average for that time slot over the previous four weeks, and 98 percent of the viewership of ''The Daily Show'', which has Comedy Central's second-largest viewership. Averaged over its opening week, ''The Report'' had 1.2 million viewers per episode, more than double the average for the same time the previous year, when the time slot was occupied by ''Too Late with Adam Carolla''. The premiere week of ''The Colbert Report'' also coincided with the second-highest-rated week of ''The Daily Show'', behind the week leading up to the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

''The Colbert Report'' rapidly became an internet phenomenon, with a vast number of clips from the show being posted onto YouTube by fans. Subsequently references to YouTube were made in jokes on the show, which also launched the first "green screen challenge". On October 27, 2006, however, Comedy Central asserted its copyright over ''The Colbert Report'' clips, and YouTube removed all clips over 5 minutes in length. In February 2007, at Viacom's request, they removed all remaining ''Colbert Report'' clips.

Presented as non-satirical journalism

Tom DeLay Legal Defense Trust

In May 2006, the Tom DeLay Legal Defense Trust posted a video of ''The Colbert Report'' on its website and sent out a mass email urging DeLay supporters to watch how "Hollywood liberal" Robert Greenwald "crashed and burned . . . when promoting his new attack on Tom DeLay." The video featured Colbert asking questions such as, "Who hates America more, you or Michael Moore?" The Trust's email describes its content as "the truth behind Liberal Hollywood's" film about DeLay, and characterizes the ''Colbert Report'' clip with the headline, "Colbert Cracks the Story on Real Motivations Behind the Movie." On June 8, 2006, Colbert responded by conducting an "Exclusive Fake Interview" on his show with DeLay. Three different interviews with DeLay on different networks were spliced for humorous effect, and Colbert ended the "interview" by saying "I do hope you enjoyed my manipulation of your words." DeLay has since appeared as a guest on the program.

Robert Wexler

On July 25, 2006, Colbert responded to television networks—specifically Fox News, NBC's ''The Today Show'' and ABC's ''Good Morning America''—which took comments made by Florida Congressman Robert Wexler on ''The Colbert Report'' out of context (e.g.: "I enjoy cocaine and the company of prostitutes because they are a fun thing to do."). Wexler, who ran unopposed in the then-upcoming election, made the comments in response to urging by Colbert that he "say some things that would really lose the election for [Wexler] if [Wexler] were contested." Colbert criticized the major networks' morning news shows that featured the interview in a misleading and a negative light, by showing clips from many of the "fluff" pieces they favored instead of "real" news. Colbert subsequently told his viewers to "vote Wexler, the man's got a sense of humor, unlike, evidently, journalists."

Awards

Arts honors

In 2006, ''The Colbert Report'' was nominated for four Emmys, one more than its parent, ''The Daily Show''. However, ''The Colbert Report'' lost two of its Emmy opportunities to ''The Daily Show''—Colbert received one as a then-member of ''The Daily Show'''s writing staff. Colbert also lost Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program to Barry Manilow, who was nominated for a one-time PBS special, as Colbert jokingly noted while presenting an Emmy later that night. Manilow later appeared on the show to sign a peace treaty with Colbert, in which they agreed to joint custody of the award. The two then sang a duet of Bruce Johnston's song "I Write the Songs".

The show was nominated for:

Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program, Episode #110

Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program, Stephen Colbert

Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series

Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program

Additionally, the show was nominated for two Television Critics Association Awards: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Comedy (Stephen Colbert), and Outstanding New Program of the Year. ''The Colbert Report'' was also nominated for Satellite Awards in two categories in 2005 and 2006: Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical (Stephen Colbert), and Television Series, Comedy or Musical. It was also given a Special Recognition award at the 2007 GLAAD Media Awards.

In 2007, ''The Colbert Report'' was nominated for four Emmys for the second consecutive year, in the same categories as in 2006. Not only did none of the nominations result in an award for the second straight year, that year's winner for Outstanding Individual Performance was another singer, Tony Bennett. Likewise, Bennett eventually sang with Colbert on the program. In 2008, ''The Colbert Report'' won the Producers Guild of America Award for "Best Live Entertainment/Competition Show".

In April 2008, ''The Colbert Report'' received a George F. Peabody Award recognizing its excellence in news and entertainment. This award was last seen being "smashed" by Colbert in anger because he had not won the Peabody Award once again.

In 2008, ''The Colbert Report'' was again nominated for four Emmys for the third consecutive year, and for the same four categories as listed above and won for Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music, Or Comedy.

In 2009, the Best Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program category was eliminated.

On 21 August 2010, it was announced that The Colbert Report won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program for its episodes broadcast from Iraq.

Other honors

Colbert has received several other honors and distinctions. Colbert announced on his March 28, 2006 show that he had been contacted by San Francisco Zoo officials seeking his permission to name an unhatched bald eagle after him. The eagle, affectionately dubbed Stephen Jr. on ''The Report'', was bred to be reintroduced into the wild, as a part of the zoo's California Bald Eagle Breeding Program. Colbert celebrated the chick's birth on the April 17, 2006, program, and has since given updates on the bird's development. He has criticized the bird for migrating to Canada, and has attempted to lure him back to the U.S. On December 24, 2008, Stephen Jr. (tag A-46) was photographed at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge on the California/Oregon border.

Colbert received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Knox College, Illinois on June 3, 2006; his credit as producer has been listed since that time as "Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A." (later changed in April 2009 to "Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A." after Colbert was knighted by Queen Noor of Jordan in exchange for his support of the Global Zero Campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons).

On September 30, 2006, the Saginaw Spirit, an OHL hockey team in Saginaw, Michigan, named its co-mascot Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle in honor of Colbert, despite the fact that it was spotted holding a Canadian flag during the anthem. Before the introduction of the mascot, the team record was 0-3-0-1, but once the Steagle was introduced, the team improved their record to 44-21-0-3 by the season's end, before losing in the first round of the playoffs. On January 27, 2007, Oshawa, Ontario declared March 20 of that year (John Gray's birthday) Stephen Colbert Day after mayor John Gray bet Colbert that the Oshawa Generals would beat the Spirit, and Saginaw won 5-4.

In 2007, the ice cream company Ben and Jerry's announced a new flavor of ice cream, Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream (available only in the United States). The flavor is described as "a decadent melting pot of vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl." The company's founders appeared on the show on March 5, 2007 to discuss the ice cream and to plug their "grassroots education and advocacy project", TrueMajority.

On March 12, 2007, the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, Joe Quesada, awarded Stephen Colbert the shield of the recently deceased superhero Captain America. The letter to Colbert accompanying the shield stated that "the Star-Spangled Avenger has bequeathed... his indestructible shield to the only man he believed to have the red, white, and blue balls to carry the mantle." Colbert promised to use the shield "only to fight for justice...and to impress girls." It was, in fact, one of only two full-sized prop shields which had previously been kept in the Marvel offices. In the latter part of March 2007, Drexel University named a leatherback turtle in honor of Colbert in their Great Turtle Race. "Stephanie Colburtle the Leatherback Turtle" came in second place, losing to a turtle named Billie.

On August 22, 2007, Richard Branson, who was being interviewed as a guest, announced that one of his ''Virgin America'' aeroplanes would be named Air Colbert. Colbert announced on April 2, 2008, during a ThreatDown segment, that the plane had been grounded after one of its engines was damaged by a bird strike.

On June 24, 2008, Dr. Jason Bond, an associate professor with the Department of Biology at East Carolina University, appeared on the show because he agreed to name a trapdoor spider after Stephen Colbert. They negotiated over what kind of spider would be named after Stephen, and Colbert told the professor that they would "settle this in the next couple of weeks". During the interview, the visual approximation of Bond changed between different pictures depicting Spider-Man, including Tobey Maguire (the actor who played Spider-Man in the films) and costumed people/animals. The spider was officially announced on August 6 as the ''Aptostichus stephencolberti''.

''Time'' magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 Returning Series of 2007, ranking it at #7.

Colbert has appeared on the covers of several major magazines, including ''Wired'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Esquire'', ''Sports Illustrated'' (as sponsor of the US Speedskating team) and ''Newsweek'', in which he was the Guest Editor.

On January 29, 2008, Marvel Comics president Joe Quesada announced that Colbert's fictional campaign for the presidency was still active in the Marvel universe, references to which have appeared in Marvel comics since. Colbert appears on the cover of ''Amazing Spider-Man #573''.

On October 17, 2008, it was announced that the portrait of Stephen from his second year of ''The Colbert Report'' was accepted into the national portrait collection at the National Museum of American History for its November reopening.

On October 21, during the appearance of Patrick Henry College chancellor, Michael Farris, Stephen was presented with the honorary title of Arbiter of American Morality and Defender of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

At the end of 2008, ''The Colbert Report'' was named the number one television series of that year by ''Entertainment Weekly''.

Colbert announced on February 5, 2009 that the UC Santa Cruz Marine Lab named an elephant seal in honor of him: Stelephant Colbert the Elephant Seal.

During the sweepstakes for naming the new wing on the International Space Station, Stephen Colbert announced on his show that there was a write-in section where you could write your own suggestion for a name in. He encouraged his fans to write in "Colbert". When the sweepstakes was over, NASA announced that "Colbert" had beaten the next-most-popular choice, "Serenity," by over 40,000 votes on March 11, 2009. "Colbert" received 230,539 votes out of nearly 1.2 million cast.

On April 15, 2009, NASA announced that instead of the new module being named after him, a treadmill onboard the space station would be called the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT).

On November 2, 2009, Colbert, representing the Colbert Nation, signed an on-air sponsorship agreement with U.S. speedskating executive director Robert Crowley. Fundraising via ''The Colbert Report'' ultimately raised $300,000 for the US Winter Olympics speedskating team. Coverage of the show's efforts also led to Colbert personally being invited to be the official ombudsman at the oval for the Olympics, appointed as the official assistant sports psychologist for the US olympics speed skating team, and as such is now an official member of the team, and invited by Dick Ebersol, to be part of NBC's 2010 Winter Olympics coverage team.

In 2010 Colbert won the Golden Tweet Award.

Cultural impact

International distribution

Outside of the United States, ''The Colbert Report'' is shown in Canada on The Comedy Network one hour earlier than its original U.S. broadcast on Comedy Central, as of September 7, 2010, and also on Canadian network CTV at 12:35AM local time following The Daily Show. Additionally, all four episodes from the week prior air from 12:00am to 2:00am in a early Monday block on A. It airs on The Comedy Channel in Australia, Comedy Central in New Zealand, and on Maxxx in the Philippines. It aired on FX in the United Kingdom until they decided not to renew their contract in May 2009. The show also has a strong following in Ireland. In Portugal, it airs on Sic Radical.

Beginning June 3, 2008, ''The Colbert Report'' also aired on the Showcomedy channel of Showtime Arabia, a channel which broadcasts in the Middle East and North Africa. The show is transmitted on a one-day delay from original transmission in the US.

The show was shown during prime time on Australia's free-to-air ABC2 in 2010, however the channel was outbid for rights for 2011.

Several international markets also air ''The Colbert Report Global Edition'', which shows highlights from the previous week's shows and includes a special introduction by Stephen Colbert at the start of the program. This means a new or newly repackaged episode can be screened every weekday.

In addition most recent episodes (usually 3 weeks back) are available in full length on colbertnation.com. However some international audiences are unable to view the videos or episodes.

Related multimedia

DVD

A DVD of highlights from the first two seasons of ''The Colbert Report'' was released by Comedy Central on November 6, 2007. Entitled ''The Best of The Colbert Report'', the three-hour disc contains two "The Wørd" segments (including "Truthiness" from the first episode and "Wikiality"), one "Threat Down", various "Better Know a District" segments (including Robert Wexler), and interviews with Bill O'Reilly, Willie Nelson, and Jane Fonda (also included is Fonda's appearance with Gloria Steinem in a segment called "Cooking with Feminists"), as well as the special segments "Green Screen Challenge", "Stephen Jr. – Flight of a Patriot", "Indecision 2006: Midterm Midtacular", and Colbert's "Meta-Free-Phor-All" with Sean Penn. Best Buy sold the DVD with a bonus disc containing several animated ''Tek Jansen'' adventures.

An hour-long Christmas special ''A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!'' was released on DVD November 25, 2008.

Music

Comedy Central released the complete soundtrack of ''A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All'', featuring songs by performers such as Feist, John Legend, Willie Nelson, Toby Keith, Jon Stewart, Elvis Costello, and Colbert himself. It was released exclusively through iTunes.

In June 2011, Jack White's record label Third Man Records released a 7" vinyl single of Stephen Colbert and The Black Belles performing "Charlene II (I'm Over You)," which they also performed together on the show.

''I Am America (And So Can You!)''

Referred to as a "pure extension" of the show in book form, ''I Am America (And So Can You!)'' was released on October 9, 2007. Written by Stephen Colbert and ''The Colbert Report'' writers, the book covers Colbert's opinions on a wide array of topics not addressed on the show. Red margin notes appear throughout the book, providing reactions and counterpoints to Colbert's arguments in a style comparable to the ''Report''s Wørd segment. The book draws some influence from and also parodies the literary endeavors of the character's pundit models, such as Bill O'Reilly's ''The O'Reilly Factor'' (2000) and Sean Hannity's ''Deliver Us From Evil'' (2005), which Colbert says he "forced" himself to read as a reference.

''I Am America (And So Can You!)'' was also released as a three-CD audiobook, narrated—or according to the cover, "shouted"—by the author.

See also

Busboy Productions

Colbert's shred-off with the Decemberists following Green Screen Challenge dispute

Comedy Central

List of late night network TV programs

List of ''The Colbert Report'' writers

List of ''The Colbert Report'' episodes

''The Daily Show''

Recurring segments on ''The Colbert Report''

Who Made Huckabee?

Notes

References

'Daily Show' Correspondent Readies 'The Colbert Report': National Public Radio's Robert Siegel interviews Stephen Colbert, ''National Public Radio'', May 4, 2005

'Daily Show' Personality Gets His Own Platform, ''The New York Times'', May 4, 2005

TV's Newest Anchor: A Smirk in Progress, ''The Washington Post'', October 10, 2005

The News Is Funny, as a Correspondent Gets His Own Show, ''The New York Times'', October 12, 2005

Zap2it Colbert interview October 15, 2005

The Colbert Factor: The Daily Show's senior bloviator gets a desk of his own, ''Slate'', October 18, 2005

Comedy's Colbert Report Gets 1.13 Mil. Viewers, Mediaweek, October 18, 2005

'Daily Show' alum scores with a slap at talking heads, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', October 19, 2005

Colbert brings real wit to mock punditry, ''Detroit News'', October 20, 2005

The wit and sense of 'Colbert Report': Show is smart, funny and a logical offshoot, Media Life, October 20, 2005

'The Colbert Report' succeeds as comedy, opened with strong ratings and seems destined for a long run. What does that tell us about the news business?, ''Newsweek'', October 21, 2005

Egomaniacal satirist broadcasts Stewart spinoff, ''Daily Orange'', October 21, 2005

'Colbert', Cartoons Break Big for Comedy Central, zap2it.com, October 24, 2005

Bringing Out the Absurdity of the News, ''The New York Times'', October 25, 2005 (misreports first Word of the Day as "Trustiness"; later publishes a correction, reports that it should have been "Truthiness")

Colbert Report comes north Nov. 7, ''Toronto Star'', October 31, 2005

Group wants hall named for Colbert, ''The Pitt News'', January 7, 2007

External links

''The Colbert Report'' Web site

RSS Feed of Colbert Report clips on Viacom's iFilm

Bluster and Satire: Stephen Colbert's 'Report' from December 7, 2005

Category:2000s American television series Category:Comedy Central shows Category:Peabody Award winning television programs Category:Satirical television programmes Category:Television spin-offs Category:The Daily Show

da:The Colbert Report de:The Colbert Report et:The Colbert Report es:The Colbert Report eo:The Colbert Report fr:The Colbert Report it:The Colbert Report he:הקולבר ריפור nl:The Colbert Report ja:コルベア・リポート pl:The Colbert Report pt:The Colbert Report ru:The Colbert Report simple:The Colbert Report fi:The Colbert Report sv:The Colbert Report

Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
name	Lawrence Lessig
birth date	June 03, 1961
birth place	Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.
occupation	Founder, Creative CommonsFounder, Stanford Center for Internet and SocietyProfessor, Harvard Law School
spouse	Bettina Neuefeind
website	www.lessig.org
footnotes	}}

Lawrence "Larry" Lessig (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.

He is a director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University and a professor of law at Harvard Law School. Prior to rejoining Harvard, he was a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of its Center for Internet and Society. Lessig is a founding board member of Creative Commons, a board member of the Software Freedom Law Center, an advisory board member of the Sunlight Foundation and a former board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Academic career

Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, Lessig grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and earned a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Management (Wharton School) from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Cambridge (Trinity) in England, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1989. After graduating from law school, he clerked for a year for Judge Richard Posner, at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois and another year for Justice Antonin Scalia at the Supreme Court.

Lessig started his academic career at the University of Chicago Law School, where he was Professor from 1991 to 1997. From 1997 to 2000 he was at Harvard Law School, holding for a year the chair of Berkman Professor of Law, affiliated with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He subsequently joined Stanford Law School, where he established the school's Center for Internet and Society. Lessig returned to Harvard in December 2008 as Professor and Director of the "Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics".

Political activism

Lessig is currently considered a political liberal. As a law clerk, however, he worked for both Judge Richard Posner and Justice Antonin Scalia, two influential conservative judges.

Lessig has emphasized in interviews that his philosophy experience at Cambridge radically changed his values and career path. Previously, he had held strong conservative or libertarian political views, desired a career in business, was a highly active Teenage Republican serving as the Youth Governor for Pennsylvania through the YMCA Youth & Government program in 1978 and almost pursued a Republican political career.

What was intended to be a year abroad at Cambridge convinced him instead to stay another two years to complete an undergraduate degree in philosophy there and develop his changed political values. During this time, he also traveled in the Eastern Bloc, so acquiring a lifelong interest in Eastern European law and politics.

Lessig refuses to embrace conventional libertarianism. While Lessig remains skeptical of government intervention, he favors regulation by calling himself “a constitutionalist”. In his blog, Lessig came out in favor of then-Democratic primary candidate Barack Obama, citing the transformative nature of Obama's campaign as one of his chief reasons. On one occasion Lessig also commended the McCain campaign for discussing fair use rights in a letter to YouTube where they took issue with YouTube indulging overreaching copyright claims leading to the removal of various campaign videos.

A campaign to draft Lessig to run for the US Congress from the Bay Area began in February 2008.

Lessig claimed in 2009 that because 70% of young people obtain digital information from illegal sources that the law should be changed.

Constitutional Convention

In 2010, Lessig began to organize for a national constitutional convention.

Lessig, along with Mark McKinnon, wrote the following in an e-mail proposing their idea of a constitutional convention to the public:

The framers left open a path to amendment that doesn't require the approval of Congress: a convention. Article V of the Constitution requires Congress to call a convention to propose amendments if 34 state legislatures demand it. Any proposed amendment would then have to be ratified by both houses of 38 state legislatures (three-fourths of the states). This entails 76 separate votes in the affirmative by two houses of 38 state legislatures.

Easy to do? No. But possible? Certainly, yes. There hasn't been a time when there has been such anger and frustration directed at our nation's capitol. There hasn't been a moment when the opportunity to organize to build a movement among the states has been as real. The beauty of a convention is that it would provide a forum of possibility for conservative Tea Party types who might want an amendment calling for a balanced budget, or a line-item veto for the president as well as progressives who would like to amend the constitution to make it possible to enact meaningful campaign finance reform. The only requirement is that two-thirds of the states apply, and then begins the drama of an unscripted national convention to debate questions of fundamental law. It would be a grand circus of democracy at its best.

"Code is law"

In computer science, “code” typically refers to the text of a computer program (''i.e.'', source code). In law, "code" can refer to the texts that constitute statutory law. In his book ''Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace'', Lessig explores the ways in which code in both senses can be instruments for social control, leading to his dictum that "Code is law". Lessig later updated his work in order to keep up with the prevailing views of the time, releasing the book ''Code: Version 2.0'' in December 2006.

Lessig Method

Lessig is also known for using a style of computer presentations typified by rapid display of short phrases or pictures. James MacLennan calls his presentation style the "Lessig Method". The Takahashi method is similar.

"Free Culture"

In 2002, Lessig received the Award for the Advancement of Free Software from the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and on March 28, 2004 he was elected to the FSF's Board of Directors. In 2006, Lessig was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lessig is also a well-known critic of copyright term extensions.

He proposed the concept of "Free Culture". He also supports free software and open spectrum. At his "Free culture" keynote at OSCON 2002, half of his speech was also about software patents, which he views as a rising threat to both free/open source software and innovation.

Wiki-related activities

In March 2006, Lessig joined the board of advisors of the Digital Universe project.

A few months later, Lessig gave a talk on the ethics of the Free Culture Movement at the 2006 Wikimania conference.

Combating sexual abuse

In May 2005, it was revealed that Lessig had experienced sexual abuse by the director at the American Boychoir School which he had attended as an adolescent. Lessig reached a settlement with the school in the past, under confidential terms. He revealed his experiences in the course of representing another student victim, John Hardwicke, in court. In August 2006, he succeeded in persuading the New Jersey Supreme Court to radically restrict the scope of immunity that had protected nonprofits which failed to prevent sexual abuse from legal liability.

Political activity

At the iCommons iSummit 07, Lessig announced that he will stop focusing his attention on copyright and related matters and will work on political corruption instead. This new work may be partially facilitated through his wiki — "Lessig Wiki" — which he has encouraged the public to use to document cases of corruption. In February 2008, a Facebook group formed by law professor John Palfrey encouraged him to run for Congress from California's 12th congressional district, the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Representative Tom Lantos. Later that month, after forming an "exploratory project", the decision was made not to run for the vacant seat.

Despite having decided to forgo running for Congress himself, Lessig remained interested in attempting to change Congress to reduce corruption. To this end, he worked with political consultant Joe Trippi to launch a web based project called "Change Congress". In a press conference on March 20, 2008, Lessig explained that he hoped the Change Congress website would help provide technological tools voters could use to hold their representatives accountable and reduce the influence of money on politics. He is a board member of MAPLight.org, a nonprofit research group illuminating the connection between money and politics.

Lessig has known president Barack Obama since their days teaching law at the University of Chicago, and had been mentioned as a candidate to head the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the telecommunications industry. However, this position is now held by Julius Genachowski.

At his talk at the 2009 Aspen Ideas Festival, Professor Lessig talked about Forbin Problems in a talk entitled Will Technology Change Our Lives? and also about his idea that the American public has lost faith in the central institution of our democracy, Congress.

Media references

Lessig appears as a character in a 2005 episode of the television political drama ''The West Wing'' ("The Wake Up Call", season 6, episode 14). Lessig’s character, portrayed by Christopher Lloyd, is intended to be a realistic depiction including such details as citing his book ''The Future of Ideas'' and his expertise in Eastern European constitutional law. (Lessig’s comments on his blog)

Artist group Monochrom performed a "Love Song for Lessig" on Boing Boing TV in the November 15, 2007 episode. The German term "lässig" (meaning "cool" or "relaxed") is pronounced the same as Lessig's last name, and "Love Song for Lessig" uses the homonym for humor.

Notable cases

''Hardwicke v. American Boychoir'' (representing plaintiff John Hardwicke) Pending

''Golan v. Gonzales'' (representing multiple plaintiffs)

''Eldred v. Ashcroft'' (representing plaintiff Eric Eldred) Lost

''Kahle v. Ashcroft''—(also see Brewster Kahle) Dismissed

''United States v. Microsoft'' (special master and author of an amicus brief addressing the Sherman Act)

Lessig was appointed special master by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in 1997. The appointment was vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The appellate court ruled that the powers granted to Lessig exceeded the scope of the Federal statute providing for special masters. Judge Jackson then solicited Lessig’s amicus brief.

Lessig himself says about this appointment: "Did Justice Jackson pick me to be his special master because he had determined I was the perfect mix of Holmes and Ed Felten? No, I was picked because I was a Harvard Law Professor teaching the law of cyberspace. Remember: So is 'fame' made."

''MPAA v. 2600'' (submitted an amicus brief with Yochai Benkler in support of 2600)

Bibliography

''Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace'' (2000) ISBN 978-0-465-03913-5

''The Future of Ideas'' (2001) ISBN 978-0-375-50578-2 - available as a free Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical (by-nc) licensed download

''Free Culture'' (2004) ISBN 978-1-59420-006-9 - available as a free Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licensed download

''Code: Version 2.0'' (2006) ISBN 978-0-465-03914-2 - available as a free Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (by-sa) licensed download

''Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy'' (2008) ISBN 978-1-594-20172-1 - available as a free Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (by-nc-nd) licensed download

See also

Copyleft

Free software movement

Free content

FreeCulture.org

Open educational resources

Gratis versus Libre

Open content

Law of the Horse

References

External links

Official site

Transcript of his oral argument and the Court's Opinion for ''Eldred v. Ashcroft''

2002 FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software

coverage of Lessig's opposition to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act

The 'Lessig' Method of Presentation

The Anti-Lessig Wiki, a wiki started by Prof. Lessig intended to provide a space to catalog critics and oppositions of his ideas (currently mostly inactive)

An Interview with Lawrence Lessig on Creative Commons

Change Congress A national movement started by Lessig and Joe Trippi to end corruption in America's congress

Libre Culture: Mediations on Free Culture

Columns

How I Lost The Big One—Lessig's account of why the Eldred v. Ashcroft case went to Ashcroft

''Some Like It Hot'' essay by Lessig in Wired 12.03 excerpted from ''Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity''

Lessig admits having been wrong on Microsoft's monopoly power and the potential for a competitor to arise.

Interviews

''Lawrence Lessig's Supreme Showdown''—Wired magazine interview from October 2002

''Seven Questions: Battling for Control of the Internet'', Foreign Policy, November 2005

Slashdot interview

''Remixing Culture: An Interview with Lawrence Lessig'', O'Reilly Network, 2005-2-24

“Lawrence Lessig and the developing Nations License”, Worldchanging, November 16, 2006

“Lessig discusses implementing Change Congress”, Make Something Happen, July 22, 2008

"Debate with Richard Epstein on Public Financing of Elections", August 7, 2009.

"Live Interview with Professor Lawrence Lessig", February 18, 2009.

Audio/video

Press Conference Announcing the release of the Change Congress website

“Free Culture” keynote from OSCON 2002 (including an audio and Flash with the presentation as well as the presentation itself)

Who Owns Culture?—Jeff Tweedy and Lawrence Lessig in conversation with Steven Johnson

Who Owns Ideas? Radio interview on Philosophy Talk

Debate between Lessig and Jack Valenti.

Lessig's keynote from OSCON 2005 (with comments, audio and presentation)

Christopher Lydon Interviews… Audio interview.

The Lawrence Lessig interview on Radiophiles.org

IT Conversations—Audio programs featuring Lessig

Lawrence Lessig interview on This Week in Tech

Lessig on Digital Village Radio, December 3, 2005

* Part 1 (MP3)

* Part 2 (MP3)

Lessig on the Triangulation podcast, December 5, 2005. Topic: Google Books

An archive of speeches

Lessig discusses Network Neutrality in this video taken at Rochester Institute of Technology on March 24, 2006

Lessig discusses the concept of the Read-Write Society at the Wizards of OS (138 MB) (alternatively you can hear the audio recording: 36 MB)

Lawrence Lessig—On Free, and the Differences between Culture and Code from the 2006 Chaos Communication Congress

Video—Interview (mainly in English with German intro and German subtitles): Part 1, Part 2

Creative Commons Explained: Lawrence Lessig on ''The Hour'' with George Stroumboulopoulos

Lessig participating in a Panel Discussion, Free Culture Forum, March 23, 2006, sponsored by the Northeastern University Libraries in Boston, MA.

TED Talks: Larry Lessig says the law is strangling creativity at TED in 2007

Lawrence Lessig on "Open Source Cinema", an open source documentary film about copyright.

Lawrence Lessig interview in "Good Copy Bad Copy", a documentary about copyright and culture. Denmark, 2007.

Change Congress Project Launch, Sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation, and held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 20, 2008

The Future of the Open Internet in America, FCC hearing at Stanford University on April 17, 2008

Audio and transcript of ''Eldred v. Ashcroft'' hearing, from Oyez.org

Video (and audio) of conversation between Lawrence Lessig and Thomas E. Mann on Bloggingheads.tv

''Re-thinking Remix'' First Monday Podcast, 2008-12-3

Colbert and Lessig on REMIX, audio of interview with Stephen Colbert, on ccMixter.

Lessig interviewed 'The future of copyright in a digital age', audio of interview with Phillip Adams on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Late Night Live.

Well-Rounded Radio mp3 audio interview with Lawrence Lessig on Remix book and Creative Commons and music from the history of remix culture.

Category:1961 births Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:American bloggers Category:American lawyers Category:American legal scholars Category:Computer law Category:Copyright activists Category:Copyright scholars Category:Creative Commons Category:Harvard Law School faculty Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Category:Living people Category:Open content activists Category:Access to Knowledge activists Category:Access to Knowledge movement Category:People from Rapid City, South Dakota Category:Scholars of constitutional law Category:Stanford Law School faculty Category:Technology in society Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:Wharton School alumni Category:Wired (magazine) people Category:Yale Law School alumni

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Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
name	Lynn A. Westmoreland
birth date	April 02, 1950
birth place	Atlanta, Georgia
state	Georgia
district	3rd
term start	January 3, 2007
preceded	Jim Marshall
succeeded	Incumbent
state2	Georgia
district2	8th
term start2	January 3, 2005
term end2	January 3, 2007
preceded2	Mac Collins
succeeded2	Jim Marshall
religion	Baptist
party	Republican
spouse	Joan Westmoreland
occupation	Construction Executive
alma mater	D.M. Therrell High School, Atlanta, GA, Class of 1968
residence	Grantville, Georgia }}

Lynn A. Westmoreland (born April 2, 1950) is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district stretches from the far southern Atlanta suburbs to the suburbs of Columbus. He previously represented Georgia's 8th congressional district from 2005 to 2007.

Early life, education and career

Westmoreland owned a construction company and worked as a real estate developer after dropping out of Georgia State University.

Westmoreland served in the Georgia House of Representatives beginning in 1993 and began serving as the House Republican Leader in 2001, until he resigned from that position to pursue his Congressional campaign in late 2003. He continued to serve in the Georgia House until his election to the U.S. House in 2005.

During his time as the Republican Leader in the Georgia House, he led the fight against redistricting by the Democratic majority in 2001, and then was instrumental in the re-redistricting that took place in 2005 after Republicans won control of the Georgia legislature in the 2004 elections.

U.S. House of Representatives

Committee assignments

Committee on Financial Services

*Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit

*Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity

Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Republican Study Committee

Tea Party Caucus

During his first term in the 109th United States Congress, Westmoreland was appointed to the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, and the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

In 2005, Westmoreland received criticism for spreading a memo to fellow House members that consisted of auto-industry talking points, verbatim, even using the same font as the auto-industry document. An aide defended him, saying, "such behavior is standard practice."

As a U.S. congressman, Westmoreland cosponsored a bill to place the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Westmoreland also sponsored a bill that the Ten Commandments could be displayed in courthouses in a historical setting. In May 2006, political humorist Stephen Colbert interviewed Westmoreland for ''The Colbert Report'' show segment ''Better Know a District'', and during the interview, asked Westmoreland to name the Ten Commandments. The edited interview showed Westmoreland only being able to name three of them, although his press secretary later said that he had named seven of the ten.

Westmoreland led a group of congressmen who opposed the 2006 renewal of certain provisions in the Voting Rights Act that require nine Southern states and a number of counties (mostly in the South) to obtain Federal permission for certain changes to election law or changes in venue. Westmoreland and his colleagues claimed that it was no longer fair to target their states, given the passage of time since 1965 and the changes their states had made to provide fair elections and voting. Despite Westmoreland's objections, a strong bipartisan majority renewed the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years without changes.

In 2008, Westmoreland ran unopposed in the Republican primary and was re-elected after defeating his Democratic opponent Stephen Camp. After his win, Westmoreland announced that he was considering running for the office of the governor of Georgia in 2010, but later indicated in an April 2009 press release that he would not.

Controversy

On September 4, 2008, Westmoreland described Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as "uppity," a pejorative historically used to describe African-Americans who have made economic, social, or political progress.The Resonance of Racism, April 16, 2008, ''Los Angeles Times.'' He told reporters: "Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Senator Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said. Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

The ensuing media attention compelled Westmoreland to issue the following statement: "I’ve never heard that term used in a racially derogatory sense. It is important to note that the dictionary definition of ‘uppity’ is ‘affecting an air of inflated self-esteem — snobbish.’ That’s what we meant by uppity when we used it in the mill village where I grew up."

Political campaigns

Westmoreland won a plurality of votes in the Republican primary election in 2004, but faced fellow Republican Dylan Glenn in a runoff. Westmoreland received 55.5% of the vote in the runoff. The district was so heavily Republican that Westmoreland's primary victory was tantamount to election in November. He routed his Democratic opponent, businesswoman Silvia Delamar, with almost 76 percent of the vote. He was handily reelected in 2006 after his district was renumbered as the 3rd and made even more Republican.

Personal life

Westmoreland grew up in metro Atlanta. He attended Georgia State University but dropped out to work in a family construction business, in which he later became an executive. He resides in Grantville, Georgia, with his wife, Joan; they have three children and six grandchildren.

References

External links

U.S. Congressman Lynn A. Westmoreland ''official U.S. House site''

Lynn Westmoreland for U.S. Congress ''official campaign site''

Profile at SourceWatch

Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Members of the Georgia House of Representatives Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:People from Coweta County, Georgia

de:Lynn Westmoreland it:Lynn Westmoreland sv:Lynn Westmoreland

Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
Name	Jon Stewart
Alma mater	The College of William & Mary
Birth name	Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz
Birth date	November 28, 1962
Birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, books
Nationality	American
Active	1987–present
Genre	Satire/political satire/news satire, observational comedy
Subject	Mass media/news media/media criticism, American politics, current events, religion, Jewish culture, race relations, human sexuality, self-deprecation
Influences	George Carlin, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, David Letterman, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor
Influenced	Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Ed Helms, Rob Corddry
Spouse	Tracey Stewart (née McShane; 2000— ; 2 children)
Children	Nathan Stewart, Maggie Stewart
Notable work	Host of ''The Daily Show''Host of ''The Jon Stewart Show''''America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction''''Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race''
Child	yes
Emmyawards	Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009 ''The Daily Show'' Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 ''The Daily Show''
Grammyawards	Best Comedy Album 2005 ''America (The Audiobook): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction Best Spoken Word Album 2011 ''Earth (The Audiobook): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race }}

}} Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian. He is widely known as host of ''The Daily Show'', a satirical news program that airs on Comedy Central.

Stewart started as a stand-up comedian, but branched into television as host of ''Short Attention Span Theater'' for Comedy Central. He went on to host his own show on MTV, called ''The Jon Stewart Show'', and then hosted another show on MTV called ''You Wrote It, You Watch It''. He has also had several film roles as an actor. Stewart became the host of ''The Daily Show'' on Comedy Central in early 1999. He is also a writer and co-executive-producer of the show. After Stewart joined, ''The Daily Show'' steadily gained popularity and critical acclaim, resulting in his fourteen Emmy Awards.

Stewart has gained acclaim as an acerbic, satirical critic of personality-driven media shows, in particular those of the US media networks such as CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. Critics say Stewart benefits from a double standard: he critiques other news shows from the safe, removed position of his "fake news" desk. Stewart agrees, saying that neither his show nor his channel purports to be anything other than satire and comedy. In spite of its self-professed entertainment mandate, ''The Daily Show'' has been nominated for news and journalism awards. Stewart hosted the 78th and 80th Academy Awards. He is the co-author of ''America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction'', which was one of the best-selling books in the U.S. in 2004 and ''Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race'' released in 2010.

Early life

Stewart was born into a Jewish family in New York City. He and his older brother, Larry Leibowitz (currently Chief Operating Officer of the New York Stock Exchange), grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where they attended Lawrence High School. Jon's mother, Marian, is an educational consultant and teacher. His father, Donald Leibowitz, was a professor of physics at The College of New Jersey from 2001 through 2008; he now teaches an online course at Thomas Edison State College. Jon's parents were divorced when Stewart was eleven years old, and Stewart no longer has any contact with his father.

Stewart has said that he was subjected to anti-Semitic bullying as a child. He describes himself in high school as "very into Eugene Debs and a bit of a leftist."

Stewart graduated in 1984 from the College of William & Mary in Virginia, where he majored in psychology and played on the soccer team. While at W&M;, Stewart became a brother of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. After college, Stewart held numerous jobs. He was a contingency planner for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, a contract administrator for the City University of New York, a puppeteer for children with disabilities, a caterer, a busboy, a shelf stocker at Woolworth's, and a bartender at the Franklin Corner Tavern, a local blue-collar bar. In college, Stewart was friends with future Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is the only politician to have received campaign donations from Stewart.

Career

Early work

With a reputation for being a funny man in school, Jon Stewart moved to New York City in 1986 to try his hand at the comedy club circuit, but he could not muster the courage to get on stage until the following year. He made his stand-up debut at The Bitter End, the same place where his comedic idol, Woody Allen, began. He began using the stage name "Jon Stewart" by dropping his last name and changing the spelling of his middle name "Stuart" to "Stewart." He often jokes this is because people had difficulty with the pronunciation of Leibowitz or it "sounded too Hollywood" (a reference to Lenny Bruce's joke on the same theme). He has implied that the name change was actually due to a strained relationship with his father with whom Stewart no longer has any contact.

Stewart became a regular at the Comedy Cellar, where he was the last performer every night. For two years, he would perform at 2 a.m. while developing his comedic style. In 1989, he landed his first television job as a writer for ''Caroline's Comedy Hour''. In 1991, he began co-hosting Comedy Central's ''Short Attention Span Theater'' along with Patty Rosborough. In 1992, Stewart hosted the short-lived ''You Wrote It, You Watch It'' on MTV, which invited viewers to send in their stories to be acted out by the comedy troupe, The State. When David Letterman left NBC in 1993, Stewart was a finalist to replace him, but Conan O'Brien was hired instead.

''The Jon Stewart Show''

Later in 1993, Stewart developed ''The Jon Stewart Show'', a talk show on MTV. Despite the quick cancellation of his previous MTV show, the network was still eager to work with him. ''The Jon Stewart Show'' was the first talk show on that network and was an instant hit, becoming the second-highest rated MTV show behind ''Beavis and Butt-head''. In 1994, Paramount pulled the plug on ''The Arsenio Hall Show'' and, with new corporate sibling MTV (through MTV parent Viacom's acquisition of the studio), launched an hour-long syndicated late-night version of ''The Jon Stewart Show''. Many local affiliates had moved Hall's show to 2 a.m. during its decline and Stewart's show inherited such early morning time slots in many cities. Ratings were dismal and the show was canceled in June 1995.

Amongst the fans of the show was David Letterman, who was the final guest of ''The Jon Stewart Show''. Letterman signed Stewart with his production company, Worldwide Pants. Stewart then became a frequent guest host for Tom Snyder on ''The Late Late Show'', which was produced by Letterman and aired after ''Late Show'' on CBS. This led to much speculation that Stewart would soon replace Snyder permanently, but Stewart was instead offered the time slot after Snyder, which he turned down.

''The Daily Show''

In 1999, Stewart began hosting ''The Daily Show'' on Comedy Central when Craig Kilborn left the show to replace Tom Snyder on ''The Late Late Show''. The show, which has been popular and successful in cable television since Stewart became the host, blends humor with the day's top news stories, usually in politics, while simultaneously poking fun at politicians and many newsmakers as well as the news media itself. In an interview on ''The O'Reilly Factor'', Stewart denies the show has any intentional political agenda, saying the goal was "schnicks and giggles." "The same weakness that drove me into comedy also informs my show," meaning that he was uncomfortable talking without hearing the audience laugh.

Stewart has since hosted almost all airings of the program, except for a few occasions when correspondents such as Stephen Colbert, Rob Corddry, and Steve Carell subbed for him. Stewart has won a total of fourteen Emmys for ''The Daily Show'' as either a writer or producer. In 2005, ''The Daily Show'' and Jon Stewart also received a Best Comedy Album Grammy Award for the audio book edition of ''America (The Book)''. In 2000 and 2004, the show won two Peabody Awards for its coverage of the presidential elections relevant to those years, called "Indecision 2000" and "Indecision 2004", respectively.

The September 20, 2001, show, the first show after the attacks of September 11, 2001, began with no introduction. Before this, the introduction included footage of a fly-in towards the World Trade Center and New York City. The first nine minutes of the show included a tearful Stewart discussing his personal view on the event. His remarks ended as follows:

On April 4, 2006, Stewart confronted US Senator John McCain about his decision to appear at Liberty University, an institution founded by Jerry Falwell, whom McCain had previously denounced as one of the "agents of intolerance." In the interchange, Stewart asked McCain, "You're not freaking out on us? Are you freaking out on us, because if you're freaking out and you're going into the crazy base [politics] world—are you going into crazy base world?" McCain replied, "I'm afraid so." The clip was played on CNN and created a surge of articles across the blogosphere.

In 2007, ''The Daily Show'' was involved in former correspondent Stephen Colbert's announcement that he would run for president in 2008. In 2008, Stewart appeared on an episode of the show ''Democracy Now!'' A 2008 ''New York Times'' story questioned whether he was, in a phrase originally used to describe longtime network news anchor Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America".

On April 28, 2009, during a discussion on torture with Clifford May, Stewart expressed his opinion that former President Harry S. Truman was a war criminal for his use of the atomic bomb on Japan during World War II. Moments later, Stewart defended his assertion:

On April 30, 2009, Stewart apologized on his program, and stated he did not believe Truman was a war criminal:

}}

In April 2010, Comedy Central renewed Stewart's contract to host ''The Daily Show'' into 2013. Stewart is paid a reported $1.5 million for one season of ''The Daily Show''. According to the Forbes list of Celebrities, he earns $14 million a year.

On September 16, 2010, Stewart along with Stephen Colbert announced a rally for October 30, known as the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. It took place on the National Mall in Washington D.C. and attracted an estimated 215,000 participants.

In December 2010 Stewart was credited by the White House and other media and political news outlets for bringing awareness of the Republican filibuster on the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to the public, leading to the ultimate passing of the bill which provides health benefits to first responders whose health has been adversely affected by their work at Ground Zero.

The January 10, 2011 Stewart began the show with a personal monologue about the shootings in Tucson, AZ. During the monologue, Stewart described how he wished that the "ramblings of crazy people didn't in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on television". Before commercial break, Stewart told viewers that the show would continue as usual the next night. After commercial break, the show featured a rerun of a field piece done by Jason Jones two years earlier.

As a result of such high-profile political stands, Stewart is being recognized as a political force rather than merely as a comedian. ''The New York Times'' suggested that he is "the modern-day equivalent of Edward R. Murrow" and the UK national newspaper ''The Independent'' called him the "satirist-in-chief".

In the middle of 2002, amid rumors that David Letterman was going to make a switch from CBS to ABC when his contract ran out, Stewart was rumored to be the person who would take over Letterman's show on CBS. Ultimately, Letterman renewed his contract with CBS. On the March 9, 2002, episode of ''Saturday Night Live'', hosted by Stewart, a "Weekend Update" sketch poked fun at the situation. In the middle of the sketch, "Weekend Update" anchor Jimmy Fallon said that he could not continue doing the broadcast and he brought Stewart in to replace him. Stewart glowed with excitement and chattered to himself about this chance to prove himself on network television. His pep talk went on too long, however, and before Stewart could deliver any headlines, Fallon returned and said he would be able to finish out the broadcast himself.

Later that year, ABC offered Stewart his own talk show to air after ''Nightline.'' Stewart's contract with ''The Daily Show'' was near expiring and he expressed strong interest. ABC, however, decided to give another Comedy Central figure, Jimmy Kimmel, the post-''Nightline'' slot.

Books

thumb|Stewart at the launch of his book, ''[[Earth (The Book)|Earth'', in New York, September 27, 2010.]]In 1998, Stewart released his first book, ''Naked Pictures of Famous People'', a collection of humorous short stories and essays. The book reached ''The New York Times'' Best Seller List.

In 2004, Stewart and ''The Daily Show'' writing staff released ''America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction,'' a mock high school history textbook offering insights into the unique American system of government, dissecting its institutions, explaining its history and processes, and satirizing such popular American political precepts as "one man, one vote", "government by the people," and "every vote counts." The book sold millions of copies upon its 2004 release and ended the year as a top fifteen best-seller.

In 2005, Stewart provided the voice of President James A. Garfield for the audiobook version of Sarah Vowell's ''Assassination Vacation''.

In 2007, Stewart voiced a role on friend Stephen Colbert's audiobook version of ''I Am America (And So Can You!)''. He plays Mort Sinclaire, former TV comedy writer and Communist.

On September 21, 2010, ''Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race'' was released, also written by Stewart and other writers of ''The Daily Show''.

Acting

Although best known for his work on ''The Daily Show,'' Stewart has also had roles in several films and television series.

His first film role was a minor part in ''The First Wives Club'' but his scene was deleted. In 1995, Stewart signed a three-year deal with Miramax. He played romantic leads in the films ''Playing by Heart'' and ''Wishful Thinking''. He also had supporting roles in the romantic comedy ''Since You've Been Gone'' and in the horror film ''The Faculty''. Other films were planned for Stewart to write and star in, but they were never produced. Stewart has since maintained a relationship with Miramax founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein and continues to appear in films they have produced including ''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'', ''Doogal'' and the documentary ''Wordplay''.

He also appeared in ''Half Baked'' as an "enhancement smoker" and in ''Big Daddy'' as Adam Sandler's roommate; he has joked on the ''Daily Show'' and in the documentary ''The Aristocrats'' that to get the role he slept with Sandler. Stewart often makes fun of his appearances in the high-profile flop ''Death to Smoochy'', in which he played a treacherous television executive, and the animated film ''Doogal'', where he played a blue spring named Zeebad that shot a freeze ray from his mustache. In 2007, Stewart made a cameo appearance as himself in ''Evan Almighty'', which starred former ''Daily Show'' correspondent Steve Carell. In the movie, Stewart was seen on a television screen in a fictional ''Daily Show'' episode poking fun at Carell's character for building an ark.

Stewart had a recurring role in ''The Larry Sanders Show'' in which he played himself as an occasional substitute and possible successor to late-night talk show host Larry Sanders (played by Garry Shandling). In 1998, Stewart hosted the television special, ''Elmopalooza'', celebrating 30 years of ''Sesame Street''. He has guest-starred on other sitcoms such as ''The Nanny'', ''Dr Katz, Professional Therapist'', ''Spin City'', ''NewsRadio'', ''American Dad'', and ''The Simpsons''. He has also made guest-appearances on the children's television series ''Between the Lions'', ''Sesame Street'' and ''Jack's Big Music Show''.

Producing

In the mid-1990s, Stewart launched his own production company, Busboy Productions. The name of the company is a reference to Stewart's previous job as a busboy. The company's production logo features the sound of a glass being knocked over followed by a voice whispering "Oops. Sorry." Stewart signed a deal with Miramax to develop projects through his company, but none of his ideas were ever produced. After Stewart's success as host and producer of ''The Daily Show'', he revived Busboy Productions with ''Daily Show'' producers Ben Karlin and Rich Korson. In 2002, Busboy planned to produce a sitcom for NBC starring Stephen Colbert, but the show did not come to fruition.

In 2005, Comedy Central reached an agreement with Busboy to finance the production company. Comedy Central has a first-look agreement on all projects, then Busboy is free to shop them to other networks. The deal spawned the ''Daily Show'' spin-off ''The Colbert Report''. Other projects include the sitcom pilot ''Three Strikes'', the documentary ''Sportsfan'', the series ''Important Things with Demetri Martin'', and the film ''The Donor''.

In March 2010, Stewart announced that he had optioned rights to the story of journalist Maziar Bahari, who was imprisoned in Iran for 118 days. On June 6th's episode of The Daily Show the following year, Stewart again hosted Bahari and confirmed that the two would be collaborating on the project.

Awards show hosting

Stewart has hosted the Grammy Awards twice, in 2001 and in 2002. In the middle of the 2001 broadcast, after laying a number of comedic duds, Stewart did what he encourages most public officials to do: he recognized his lackluster performance, saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to say I feel your scorn and accept it." When Stewart returned to host the next year, his comedy was more successful. Joking about the performance of the song "Lady Marmalade", he said, "Our next performance is from the movie ''Moulin Rouge!'', a film about a time when the whorehouses were about the music!" When the award winners for Album of the Year walked up on stage, many in number, Stewart quipped, "I don't know what you may have heard, but you were only supposed to go on stage if you worked on the ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack, not if you heard it."

On January 5, 2006, Stewart was officially announced as the host of the 78th Academy Awards, which were held March 5 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Responding to press questions at the time of his selection, Stewart remarked: "As a performer, I'm truly honored to be hosting the show. Although, as an avid watcher of the Oscars, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the choice. It appears to be another sad attempt to smoke out Billy Crystal." (According to ''The New York Times'', Oscar producer Gil Cates knew Crystal was going to be performing ''700 Sundays'' during the time period and was not able to host.) On the Monday before the Oscars, Stewart told Larry King that he was more "excited" than nervous about the job and joked that if he turned out a failure, he could be "bumped down to public access". When asked what the opening would be, the comedian chastised himself by comparing a Stewart opening to a "Gene Rayburn homage". Instead, the opening segment, preceding Stewart's monologue, featured several recent hosts "declining" to host the show.

Critical response to Stewart's performance was mixed. Roger Ebert compared him favorably to legendary Oscar host Johnny Carson. Other reviewers were less positive; Tom Shales of ''The Washington Post'' said that Stewart hosted with “smug humorlessness.” James Poniewozik of ''Time'' said that Stewart was a bad host, but a great “anti-host” in that he poked fun at parts of the broadcast that deserved it, which lent him a degree of authenticity with the non-Hollywood audience. Stewart and correspondent John Oliver later poked fun at his lackluster reception on ''The Daily Show'''s coverage of the 79th Academy Awards by saying that the "demon of last year's Oscars had finally been exorcised."

Stewart also hosted the 80th Academy Awards on February 24, 2008. Reception this time, however, was far more positive.

Criticism of journalists

''Crossfire'' appearance

In a televised exchange with then-CNN personality Tucker Carlson on ''Crossfire'' on October 15, 2004, Stewart criticized the state of television journalism and pleaded with the show's hosts to "stop hurting America," and referred to both Carlson and co-host Paul Begala as "partisan hacks." When posted on the internet, this exchange became widely viewed and was a topic of much media discussion.

Despite being on the program to comment on current events, Stewart immediately shifted the discussion toward the show itself, asserting that ''Crossfire'' had failed in its responsibility to inform and educate viewers about politics as a serious topic. Stewart stated that the show engaged in partisan hackery instead of honest debate, and said that the hosts' assertion that ''Crossfire'' is a debate show is like "saying pro wrestling is a show about athletic competition." Carlson responded by saying that Stewart criticizes news organizations for not holding public officials accountable, but when he interviewed John Kerry, Stewart asked a series of "softball" questions (Stewart has acknowledged he voted for Kerry in the 2004 presidential election). Stewart responded that he didn't realize "the news organizations look to ''Comedy Central'' for their cues on integrity." When Carlson continued to press Stewart on the Kerry issue, Stewart said, "You're on CNN! The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls! What is wrong with you?" In response to prods from Carlson, "Come on. Be funny," Stewart said, "No, I'm not going to be your monkey." Later in the show when Carlson jibed, "I do think you're more fun on your show," Stewart retorted, "You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show." In response to Stewart's criticisms, Carlson said, "You need to teach at a journalism school," to which Stewart responded, "You need to go to one!"

Stewart discussed the incident on ''The Daily Show'' the following Monday: }}

In January 2005, CNN announced that it was canceling ''Crossfire''. When asked about the cancellations, CNN/US' incoming president, Jonathan Klein, referenced Stewart's appearance on the show: "I think he made a good point about the noise level of these types of shows, which does nothing to illuminate the issues of the day." Soon after, Stewart quipped on ''The Daily Show'' that "I fought the law, and the law lost!"

When asked about his relationship with Tucker Carlson on CNN's ''Larry King Live'' in February 2008, Stewart said: "It became this idea that it was personal between the two of us, and it wasn't… If there's one thing I regret about that thing, it was probably the idea that it was personal, that there was something I was saying about Tucker to Tucker, but actually it was about the show."

On March 18, 2009, Carlson wrote a blog entry for ''The Daily Beast'' criticizing Stewart for his handling of the CNBC controversy (see below). In this article, Carlson discusses the CNN incident and claims Stewart remained backstage for at least "an hour" and "continued to lecture our staff", something Carlson described as "one of the weirdest things I have ever seen."

Criticism of CNBC

Stewart again became a viral internet phenomenon following a March 4, 2009, ''The Daily Show'' sequence. CNBC cancelled Rick Santelli's scheduled appearance but Stewart still ran a short segment showing CNBC giving bad investment advice.

Subsequent media coverage of exchanges between Jim Cramer, who had been featured heavily in the original segment, and Stewart, led to a highly anticipated face-to-face confrontation on ''The Daily Show''. The episode received a large amount of media hype and became the second most-viewed episode of ''The Daily Show'', trailing only the 2009 Inauguration Day episode. It had 2.3 million total viewers, and the next day, the show's website saw its highest day of traffic in 2009. Although Cramer acknowledged on the show that some of Stewart's criticisms of CNBC were valid and that the network could "do better," he later said on ''The Today Show'' that Stewart's criticism of the media was "naïve and misleading."

Criticism of Fox News

For years, Stewart has regularly accused Fox News of distorting the news to fit a conservative agenda, at one point ridiculing the network as "the meanest sorority in the world." In November 2009, Stewart called out Fox News for using some footage from a previous Tea Party rally during its report of a more recent one, making the later rally appear larger than it was. The show's anchor, Sean Hannity, apologized the following night. A month later, Stewart criticized ''Fox & Friends'' cohost Gretchen Carlson – a former Miss America and Stanford graduate – for claiming that she googled words such as "ignoramus" and "czar." Stewart said that Carlson was dumbing herself down for "an audience who sees intellect as an elitist flaw."

Stewart stepped up his criticism of Fox News in 2010; as of April 24, ''The Daily Show'' had 24 segments criticizing Fox News' coverage. Bill O'Reilly, host of ''The O'Reilly Factor'', countered that ''The Daily Show'' was a "key component of left-wing television" and that Stewart was a fan of Fox News because the network was so interesting to watch.

WGA strike of 2007–2008

Stewart was an important factor in the unionization of the writers for Comedy Central. ''The Daily Show'' writers were the first of Comedy Central's writers to be able to join the guild, after which other shows followed.

He supported the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, commenting on ''The Daily Show'' episode just before the strike in a sarcastic manner about how Comedy Central had made available all of the episodes for free on their website, but without advertising, and said 'go support our advertisers'. The show went on hiatus when the strike began, as did other late night talk shows. Upon Stewart's return to the show on January 7, 2008, he refused to use the title ''The Daily Show'', stating that "The Daily Show" was the show made with all of the people responsible for the broadcast, including his writers. During the strike, he referred to his show as ''A Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' until the strike ended on February 13, 2008. Stewart, as well as several other late night talk shows, returned to TV early in January even though the strike was not over, because their stage crews and production teams were suffering much more than the writers from the financial crunch, and by that point had been out of work for two months.

The Writers Guild Strike of 2007–2008 was also responsible for a notable mock feud between Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Conan O'Brien in early 2008. Without writers to help fuel their banter, the three comedians concocted a crossover/rivalry in order to garner more viewers during the ratings slump. Colbert made the claim that because of "the Colbert bump", he was responsible for Mike Huckabee's success in the 2008 presidential race. O'Brien claimed that he was responsible for Huckabee's success because not only had he made mention of him on his show, but also that he was responsible for Chuck Norris' success (Norris backed Huckabee). In response, Stewart claimed that he was responsible for the success of O'Brien, since Stewart had featured him on ''The Jon Stewart Show'', and in turn the success of Huckabee. This resulted in a three-part comedic battle between the three pundits, with all three appearing on each other's shows. The feud ended on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' with a mock brawl involving the three hosts.

Honors and awards

Stewart and the rest of the members of ''The Daily Show'' have received two Peabody Awards for "Indecision 2000" and "Indecision 2004", covering the 2000 presidential election and the 2004 presidential election, respectively.

Stewart's ''The Daily Show'' has received Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program Emmy Awards in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009. The show has also received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

Stewart won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 2005 for his recording, ''America (The Audiobook): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction''.

In the December 2003 New Years edition of ''Newsweek'', Stewart was named the "Who's Next?" person for the coming year of 2004, with the magazine predicting he would emerge as an absolute sensation in that year. (The magazine said they were right at the end of that year.)

''Entertainment Weekly'' named Stewart as its "Entertainer of the Year" for 2004.

In 2004, Stewart spoke at the commencement ceremonies at his alma mater, William and Mary, and received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree. Stewart was also the Class Day keynote speaker at Princeton University in 2004, and the 2008 Sacerdote Great Names speaker at Hamilton College.

Stewart was also named one of the ''2005 Time 100'', an annual list of 100 of the most influential people of the year by ''Time'' magazine.

In addition, Stewart and ''The Daily Show'' received the 2005 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language.

Stewart was presented an Honorary All-America Award by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) in 2006.

Asteroid 116939 Jonstewart, discovered April 15, 2004, is named in his honor.

On April 21, 2009, President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made Stewart a chief.

On October 26, 2010, Stewart was named the Most Influential Man of 2010 by AskMen.com.

Personal life

In 2000, Stewart married Tracey McShane, his girlfriend of four years. The couple met on a blind date set up by a production assistant on Stewart's film, ''Wishful Thinking''. On June 19, 2001, Stewart and his wife filed a joint name change application and legally changed both of their surnames to "Stewart." He proposed to his future wife through a personalized crossword puzzle created with the help of Will Shortz, the crossword editor at ''The New York Times''. The couple had their first child, Nathan Thomas Stewart (named after Stewart's grandfather), in July 2004. Their second child, a daughter, Maggie Rose Stewart, was born in February 2006. They also have a cat named Stanley and two pit bull terriers, Monkey and Shamsky (named after former Major League Baseball player Art Shamsky).

In 2000, when he was labeled a Democrat, Stewart generally agreed but described his political affiliation as "more socialist or independent" than Democratic. While interviewing David Barton in 2011, he said to be a secular humanist.

Stewart is an avid fan of both the New York Giants and the New York Mets and occasionally brings this up on his show. He gave an impassioned rant to open his show on February 4, 2008, immediately after the Giants had defeated the Patriots in the Super Bowl, about the Giants victory, noting his satisfaction in having bragging rights over Patriot and Red Sox sports fans who worked with him and had tormented him for years. Additionally he has mentioned his fandom on his show during interviews with Tiki Barber and David Wright.

Filmography

! Year!!Title!!Role!!Notes
1994	''Mixed Nuts''	Rollerblader
1996	''The First Wives Club''	Elise's lover	Scenes deleted
	''Wishful Thinking''	Henry
''The Nanny''	Bob
''NewsRadio''	Andrew	Episode 18
Space Ghost Coast to Coast	Himself	Guest
	''Half Baked''	Enhancement Smoker
	Todd Zalinsky	TV film
''The Faculty''	Prof Edward Furlong
''Playing by Heart''	Trent
1999		Kevin Gerrity
	''The Office Party''	Pizza Guy	Short film
	Party Guest
2001	''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back''	Reg Hartner
	''Death to Smoochy''	Marion Frank Stokes
''The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina''	Godfrey	Voice
		Zeebad	Voice
	Himself
''American Dad''	Himself
2007	''Evan Almighty''	Himself
	''The Simpsons''	Himself
''The Great Buck Howard''	Himself
2011	''The Adjustment Bureau''	Himself

Bibliography

''Naked Pictures of Famous People'' (Rob Weisbach Books, 1998) ISBN 0-688-17162-1

''America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction'' (Warner Books, September 2004) ISBN 0-446-53268-1

''Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race'' (Grand Central Publishing, 2010) ISBN 978-0-446-57922-3

References

External links

in 2010 in 2005 in 2004

Jon Stewart at WN

Collected news and commentary at ''The New York Times''

Category:1962 births Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:Actors from New York City Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American media critics Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American political pundits Category:American satirists Category:American stand-up comedians Category:Criticism of journalism Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish comedians Category:Living people Category:Male comedians Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey Category:New York Democrats Category:William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players

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Coordinates	12°58′0″N77°34′0″N
name	Conan O'Brien
birth name	Conan Christopher O'Brien
alias	Coco
birth date	April 18, 1963
birth place	Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
medium	Television
nationality	American
active	1985–present
genre	Improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, physical comedy, surreal humor, self-deprecation
subjects	Self-deprecation, pop culture
influences	Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Robert Smigel
spouse	Elizabeth Ann Powel (since 2002; 2 children)
notable work	''The Simpsons''(writer, producer, 1991–1993)''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''(host, 1993–2009)''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien''(host, 2009–2010) ''Conan'' (host, 2010–present)
education	Harvard University
signature	Conan O'Brien Signature.svg

}} Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted ''Conan'', a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS.

O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts and raised in an Irish Catholic family. He served as president of the ''Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, and was a writer for the sketch comedy series ''Not Necessarily the News''. After writing for several comedy shows in Los Angeles, he joined the writing staff of ''Saturday Night Live'', and later of ''The Simpsons''. He hosted ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' from 1993 to 2009, followed by seven months hosting ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'', the only person to serve as host for both NBC programs.

Early life

O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston) to Thomas O'Brien, a physician, epidemiologist, and professor of medicine at Harvard, and Ruth O'Brien (née Reardon), an attorney and partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray. He is the third of six children. O'Brien's family is Irish Catholic and descends from pre-Civil War era immigrants. In a ''Late Night'' episode, O'Brien paid a visit to County Kerry, Ireland, where his ancestors originated.

O'Brien attended Brookline High School, where he served as the managing editor of the school newspaper. In his senior year, O'Brien won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest with his short story, "To Bury the Living". After graduating as valedictorian in 1981, he entered Harvard University. At Harvard, O'Brien lived in Holworthy Hall during his freshman year and Mather House during his three upper-class years. He concentrated in history and literature and graduated ''magna cum laude'' in 1985. His senior thesis concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. Throughout college, O'Brien was a writer for the ''Harvard Lampoon'' humor magazine. He also briefly served as the drummer in a band called "The Bad Clams". During his sophomore and junior years, he served as the ''Lampoon'''s president. At this time, O'Brien's future boss at NBC, Jeff Zucker, was serving as President of the rival ''The Harvard Crimson''.

Career

''Saturday Night Live'' (1987–1991)

O'Brien moved to Los Angeles after graduation to join the writing staff of HBO's ''Not Necessarily the News''. He was also a writer on the short-lived ''The Wilton North Report''. He spent two years with that show and performed regularly with improvisational groups, including The Groundlings. In January 1988, ''Saturday Night Live'''s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, hired O'Brien as a writer. During his three years on ''Saturday Night Live (SNL)'', he wrote such recurring sketches as "Mr. Short-Term Memory" and "The Girl Watchers"; the latter was first performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz. O'Brien also co-wrote the sketch, "Nude Beach", with Robert Smigel, in which the word "penis" was said or sung at least 42 times. While on a writers' strike from ''Saturday Night Live'' following the 1987–88 season, O'Brien put on an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow ''SNL'' writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel called ''Happy Happy Good Show''. While living in Chicago, O'Brien briefly roomed with Jeff Garlin. In 1989, O'Brien and his fellow ''SNL'' writers received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series.

O'Brien, like many ''SNL'' writers, occasionally appeared as an extra in sketches; his most notable appearance was as a doorman in a sketch in which Tom Hanks was inducted into the SNL "Five-Timers Club" for hosting his fifth episode. O'Brien returned to host the show in 2001 during its 26th season. O'Brien and Robert Smigel wrote the television pilot for ''Lookwell'' starring Adam West, which aired on NBC in 1991. The pilot never went to series, but it became a cult hit. It was later screened at ''The Other Network'', a festival of unaired TV pilots produced by Un-Cabaret; it featured an extended interview with O'Brien and was rerun in 2002 on the Trio network.

''The Simpsons'' (1991–1993)

From 1991 to 1993, O'Brien was a writer and producer for ''The Simpsons'' and was credited as writer or co-writer of four episodes. Of all the episodes he wrote, he considers "Marge vs. the Monorail" to be his favorite. Along with this episode, he has sole writing credits on "New Kid on the Block," "Homer Goes to College," and "Treehouse of Horror IV," on which he wrote the episode wraparounds. He was an active producer during seasons 4 and 5 as well, meaning he would frequently contribute to scripts from those seasons as well as come up with story ideas, plot points, and jokes. The style of the show's comedy during this period was also influenced by his sensibilities, with "Marge vs. the Monorail" being cited by several former writers as the turning point in the show's history where more absurd and visual comedy became acceptable. He also developed a reputation as a "room guy," or a writer who performs comedy bits throughout the day to entertain other writers.

In his speech given at Class Day at Harvard in 2000, O'Brien credited ''The Simpsons'' with saving him, a reference to the career slump he was experiencing prior to his being hired for the show.

During his time at ''The Simpsons'', O'Brien also had a side project working with former writing partner Robert Smigel on the script for a musical film based on the "Hans and Franz" sketch from ''Saturday Night Live''. The film was never produced.

''Late Night'' (1993–2009)

As executive producer, Lorne Michaels invited O'Brien to audition to host the successor show to ''Late Night with David Letterman''. Premiering on September 13, 1993, ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' received generally unfavorable critical reviews during its first few years. The show remained on multiweek renewal cycles while NBC decided its fate. O'Brien later poked fun at the first three years of the show, when on his 10th Anniversary Special Mr. T appeared to give O'Brien a gold necklace with a giant "7" on it. When O'Brien tried to point out that he had actually been on the air for ten years, Mr. T responded, "I know that, fool; but you've only been funny for seven!"

Beginning in 1996, O'Brien and the ''Late Night'' writing team were nominated annually for the Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series, winning the award for the first and only time in 2007. In 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004, he and the ''Late Night'' writing staff won the Writers Guild Award for Best Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series. In 2001, he formed his own television production company, Conaco, which subsequently shared in the production credits for ''Late Night''.

A long-running joke, which stems from the recurring segment "Conan O'Brien Hates My Homeland", is that O'Brien resembles the first female president of Finland, Tarja Halonen. After joking about this for several months (which led to his endorsement of her campaign), O'Brien traveled to Finland, appearing on several television shows and meeting President Halonen. The trip was filmed and aired as a special.

O'Brien ad-libbed the fictional website name "hornymanatee.com" on December 4, 2006, after a sketch about the fictional manatee mascot and its inappropriate webcam site. NBC opted to purchase the website domain name for $159, since the website did not previously exist. The network was concerned that the Federal Communications Commission would hold NBC liable for promoting inappropriate content if a third party were to register the domain and post such material. For a period of time, the website hosted material concerning Conan's initial manatee joke and other ''Tonight Show'' references, but today the site just redirects to NBC's main web page.

A popular recurring bit on the show was "Pale Force", a series of animated episodes in which comedian Jim Gaffigan and O'Brien are superheroes who fight crime with their "paleness". As Gaffigan introduced each new episode, O'Brien protested the portrayal of his character as cowardly, weak, and impotent. , ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' had for eleven years consistently attracted an audience averaging about 2.5 million viewers. O'Brien is an avid guitarist and music listener. When Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band appeared on the show as musical guests, O'Brien joined the 17-piece band, along with the Max Weinberg 7 and guests Jimmy Fallon and Thomas Haden Church, playing acoustic guitar and contributing backup vocals for the song "Pay Me My Money Down". On the June 13, 2008, episode of ''Late Night'', O'Brien simply walked onto the stage at the start of the show. Instead of his usual upbeat antics and monologue, O'Brien announced that he had just received news about the sudden death of his good friend, fellow NBC employee and frequent ''Late Night'' guest, Tim Russert. O'Brien proceeded to show two clips of his favorite Russert ''Late Night'' moments. On February 20, 2009, NBC aired the last episode of ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. The show consisted of a compilation of previous ''Late Night'' clips and included a surprise appearance by former sidekick, Andy Richter. Will Ferrell, John Mayer, and the White Stripes also appeared. O'Brien ended the episode by destroying the set with an axe, handing out the pieces of the set to the audience, and thanking a list of people who helped him get to that point in his career. Among those thanked were Lorne Michaels, David Letterman, Jay Leno, and O'Brien's wife and children.

The Colbert / O'Brien / Stewart mock feud

During the writers' strike in 2008, O'Brien staged a mock feud with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart (of ''The Daily Show'') and Stephen Colbert (of ''The Colbert Report'') over a dispute about which of the three were responsible for giving a "bump" to Mike Huckabee's campaign to become the Republican presidential nominee. This feud crossed over all three shows during the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike.

''The Tonight Show'' (2009–2010)

In 2004, O'Brien negotiated a new contract with NBC. As part of the deal, O'Brien would take over ''The Tonight Show'' from Jay Leno in 2009. O'Brien was a guest on Jay Leno's final episode of ''The Tonight Show''. On June 1, 2009, Will Ferrell became Conan's first ''Tonight Show'' guest on the couch and Pearl Jam appeared as his first musical guest.

During the taping of the Friday, September 25, 2009, episode of ''The Tonight Show'', O'Brien suffered from a mild concussion after he slipped and hit his head while running a race as part of a comedy sketch with guest Teri Hatcher. He was examined at a hospital and released the same day. A rerun was aired that night, but O'Brien returned to work the following Monday and poked fun at the incident.

Departure from ''The Tonight Show''

On Thursday, January 7, 2010, NBC executive Jeff Zucker met with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien to discuss how to get Leno out of prime time, where his ratings were lackluster, and back into late night. A proposal was made that would see O'Brien remain as host of ''The Tonight Show'', which would be moved to 12:05 am with Leno hosting a 30-minute show at 11:35 pm On January 10, NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed that ''The Jay Leno Show'' would indeed end at the start of the Winter Olympics on February 12, 2010, and be moved to 11:35 pm following the Olympics coverage. Sources familiar with the situation told the ''New York Post'' that O'Brien was unhappy with NBC's plan.

On January 12, O'Brien released this statement: "I sincerely believe that delaying ''The Tonight Show'' into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. ''The Tonight Show'' at 12:05 simply isn’t ''The Tonight Show.''" On January 21, 2010, it was announced that Conan had reached a deal with NBC that would see him exit ''The Tonight Show'' the next day. The deal also granted him $45 million, of which $12 million was designated for distribution to his staff, who had moved with Conan to Los Angeles from New York when he left ''Late Night''.

The final ''Tonight Show'' with Conan aired January 22, 2010, and featured guests Tom Hanks, Steve Carell (who did an exit interview and shredded Conan's ID badge), Neil Young (singing "Long May You Run"), and Will Ferrell. For Ferrell's appearance, Conan played guitar with the band and Ferrell sang "Free Bird" while reprising his ''SNL'' cowbell. Ferrell's wife, Viveca Paulin, together with Ben Harper, Beck, and ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, also joined the band for this final performance.

Jay Leno returned to ''The Tonight Show'' following NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Under the $45 million deal with NBC, Conan was allowed to start working for another network as soon as September 2010. Conan's rumored next networks ranged anywhere from Fox to Comedy Central.

After ''Tonight''

On February 8, 2010, it was reported that O'Brien was attempting to sell his Central Park West penthouse in New York with an asking price of $35 million. He purchased the apartment in 2007 for $10 million. Two years earlier, O'Brien had purchased a home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles for over $10.5 million. Some industry insiders have speculated that O'Brien had chosen to stay on the west coast in order to facilitate a return to late night television and because he did not want to put his children through another move.

On February 24, 2010, O'Brien attracted media attention for starting a Twitter account. His tweets, although primarily jokes, amounted to his first public statements since leaving ''The Tonight Show'' one month earlier. After about one hour, O'Brien's subscriber list had rocketed to over 30,000 members and approximately 30 minutes later, he was on the brink of passing 50,000 followers, already 20,000 more than the verified @jayleno account. After 24 hours, O'Brien had well over 300,000 followers. In late May 2010, he surpassed the one million mark for number of Twitter followers, and he has over 3.3 million followers.

O'Brien has been named to the 2010 Time 100, a list compiled by TIME of the 100 most influential people in the world as voted on by readers. After being prohibited from making television appearances of any kind until May, O'Brien spoke about the ''Tonight Show'' conflict on the CBS newsmagazine ''60 Minutes'' on May 2, 2010. During the interview with Steve Kroft, O'Brien said the situation felt "like a marriage breaking up suddenly, violently, quickly. And I was just trying to figure out what happened." He also said he "absolutely" expected NBC to give him more of a chance and that, if in Jay Leno's position, he would not have come back to ''The Tonight Show''. However, Conan said he did not feel he got shafted. "It's crucial to me that anyone seeing this, if they take anything away from this, it's I'm fine. I'm doing great," said O'Brien. "I hope people still find me comedically absurd and ridiculous. And I don't regret anything."

The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour

On March 11, 2010, O'Brien announced via his Twitter account that he would embark on a 30-city live tour beginning April 12, 2010, entitled "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour". Co-host Andy Richter, along with members of the former Tonight Show Band, joined O'Brien on the tour. Max Weinberg, however, was not able to join, except for a guest appearance at one of Conan's New York City shows. VIP tickets for $695 offered the opportunity to meet O'Brien in person. On the same day, teamcoco.com—an apparently official website—was launched.

On April 12, 2010, O'Brien opened his two-month comedy tour in Eugene, Oregon, with a crowd of 2,500 and no TV cameras. The tour traveled through America's Northwest and Canada before moving on to larger cities, including Los Angeles and New York City, where he performed on the campuses that house both of the NBC-owned studios he formerly occupied. The tour ended in Atlanta on June 14. With ticket prices starting at $40, "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour" was effectively sold out.

''Conan'' (2010–present)

On April 12, 2010, just hours before the start of his tour in Eugene, Oregon, O'Brien announced that he would host a new show on cable station TBS. The show debuted on November 8, 2010, and airs Monday through Thursday beginning at 11:00 pm ET/10:00 pm CT. O'Brien's addition moved ''Lopez Tonight'' with George Lopez back one hour to midnight ET/11:00 pm CT. Refusing at first to do to Lopez what had happened to him at NBC, O'Brien agreed to join the network after Lopez called to persuade him to come to TBS. In Canada, CTV will air the show and in Turkey, CNBC-e will air the show.

Other networks that were reportedly interested in O'Brien include TBS' sister networks TNT and HBO, Fox, FX, Comedy Central, Showtime, Revision3, and even the NBC Universal-owned USA Network.

On September 1, 2010, O'Brien announced via his Twitter account and Team Coco YouTube page that the title of his new show on TBS would simply be ''Conan''.

Television writer/producer (2002–present)

In 2004, O'Brien apologized to Canadians for engaging in Quebec bashing, something which some felt reflected prejudice against Francophones. On March 7, 2006, NBC announced a new adventure/comedy series entitled ''Andy Barker, P.I.'', starring O'Brien's former sidekick, Andy Richter. O'Brien was executive producer and co-wrote the pilot. After six episodes and low ratings, the show was canceled despite being named by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as one of the Top Ten Shows of 2007. USA Network has handed out a 90-minute, cast-contingent pilot order to the medical-themed ''Operating Instructions'' from O'Brien's production banner. O'Brien will serve as an executive producer through his Conaco label. The script comes from ''Just Shoot Me'' veterans Judd Pillot and John Peaslee who will also executive produce." NBC ordered two pilots from Conaco in January 2010, the one-hour courtroom drama, ''Outlaw'', and a half-hour comedy. ''Outlaw'' was later green-lit to series and premiered on September 15, 2010.

Voice work and guest appearances

O'Brien's first guest appearance after beginning his late-night career was on the show he used to write for, ''The Simpsons''. He played himself in the season five episode "Bart Gets Famous", interviewing Bart Simpson during his rise to fame as a catchphrase comedian. The episode was produced after O'Brien's audition to replace David Letterman, but before he was hired for the show. O'Brien recorded his part after his own show went on the air, though he believed his show would be canceled by the time "Bart Gets Famous" aired. In 2006, he voiced himself in a short ''South Park'' scene as part of the opening of the 2006 Emmy Awards. In 2005, he provided the voice of Robert Todd Lincoln in the audio book version of ''Assassination Vacation'' by Sarah Vowell.

O'Brien has made multiple voice appearances on the Adult Swim series ''Robot Chicken'', including the specials ''Robot Chicken: Star Wars'', and ''Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II'' as the voice of the bounty hunter Zuckuss. On the TV show ''30 Rock'', O'Brien is depicted as an ex-boyfriend of lead character Liz Lemon, who works in the same building. In the episode "Tracy Does Conan," Conan appears as himself, awkwardly reunited with Lemon and coerced by network executive Jack Donaghy into having the character Tracy Jordan on ''Late Night'', despite having been assaulted in Jordan's previous appearance.

O'Brien made an appearance on ''Futurama'' in the second-season episode "Xmas Story". O'Brien plays himself as a head in a jar and still alive in the year 3000. O'Brien performs a stand-up routine at a futuristic ski lodge while being heckled by Bender the robot.

O'Brien also made a cameo appearance on the U.S. version of ''The Office''. In the episode "Valentine's Day", Michael believes that he spots former ''SNL'' cast member, Tina Fey, but has actually mistaken another woman for her. In the meantime, Conan has a quick walk-on and the camera crew informs Michael, when he returns from talking to the Tina Fey lookalike.

In January 2010, O'Brien appeared in ''The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice!'' to honor the show he had written for in the early 1990s.

O'Brien created a superhero character with veteran DC Comics animator Bruce Timm during one episode of ''Conan''. Named "The Flaming C", the superhero bears a likeness to O'Brien, with a typically muscular superhero body and costume with chest insignia, but also with idiosyncrasies arbitrarily suggested by O'Brien like an oven mitt, a jai alai glove, marijuana leaf buckle, golf shoes, sock garters and fishnet stockings. O'Brien later aired a clip in which the character appears in ''Young Justice''.

Emmy host

O'Brien hosted the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards on August 27, 2006, to critical acclaim. He had previously hosted the Primetime Emmys in 2002, and co-hosted in 2003.

Commercials and product placements

According to Marketing Evolutions, the company that produces Q Scores measuring the familiarity and appeal of celebrities and brands, almost 74% of U.S. consumers are familiar with O'Brien. In spite of that high score, O'Brien hasn't done many commercials for corporate America; two recent examples are a 2009 appearance in a Super Bowl XLIII commercial for Bud Light, and one for American Express, which debuted on the same day as ''Conan''. He donated his proceeds from the Super Bowl commercial to the Fresh Air Fund, a charity which sends inner-city New York children to the country for vacations. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', O'Brien was paid more than one million dollars to do the American Express commercial, which required him to spend three days in Jaipur, India filming it.

While O'Brien has done few commercials, he "does do plenty of promoting, weaving product pitches into his show"; he has said "it's increasingly incumbent to help with tie-ins [but] if it can't be funny, I'd rather go hungry."

Comedy and mannerisms

On ''Late Night,'' O'Brien became known for his active and spontaneous hosting style. He started off every show by saying, "We have a great show for you tonight" and ended nearly every show with a quick, quirky "Bye, everybody, bye!" His stage habits included, but were not limited to, mime, self-deprecation, dramatic expressions, various impressions, use of awkward pauses or responses, moving his hair and scalp back and forth and constantly buttoning and unbuttoning his suit jacket. He frequently made fun of and interacted with the audience and commonly made light of his own appearance, including his hairstyle, his pale skin, his clumsiness, and his height. He continued many of these themes into his position as host of ''The Tonight Show''.

One of O'Brien's trademarks is to perform the "string dance." He also does intentionally poor and exaggerated impressions of celebrities that are often reduced to a specific characteristic, phrase, or gesture that represents that person.

Personal life

O'Brien met Elizabeth Ann 'Liza' Powel in 2000 when she appeared on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' in an advertising skit involving Foote, Cone & Belding, where she worked as senior copywriter. The couple dated for nearly 18 months before their 2002 marriage in Powel's hometown of Seattle. O'Brien and Powel have a daughter, Neve (born in 2003) and a son, Beckett (born in 2005).

O'Brien repeatedly affirms his Irish Catholic heritage on his show. On a 2009 episode of ''Inside the Actors Studio'', he stated that both sides of his family moved to America from Ireland in the 1850s, subsequently marrying only other Irish Catholics, and that his lineage is thus 100% Irish Catholic.

He has been a staunch Democrat since casting his first vote for President in 1984 for Walter Mondale, although he considers himself a moderate on the political spectrum. O'Brien's longtime friend and former roommate at Harvard is Father Paul B. O' Brien, with whom he founded ''Labels Are For Jars'', an antihunger organization based in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and helped open the ''Cor Unum'' meal center in 2006. The two are not related.

In January 2008, after his show was put on hold for two months owing to the strike by the Writers Guild of America, he reemerged on late-night TV sporting a beard, which guest Tom Brokaw described as making him look like "a draft dodger from the Civil War." After leaving ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'' on Jan. 22, 2010, O'Brien again grew a beard, which he kept until May 2, 2011, when it was partially shaved on the set of his TBS talk show, ''Conan'', by Will Ferrell with battery-operated clippers (and completely shaved off-screen by a professional barber). The event was dubbed on the show as "Beardocalypse," and included a contest for fan-submitted artwork.

O'Brien purchased a $10.5-million mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, to prepare for his move there in 2009 from New York City to host ''The Tonight Show'' at Universal Studios Hollywood. As part of a long running gag, he brought his 1992 Ford Taurus SHO with him to California, showcasing it on both the inaugural episodes of ''The Tonight Show'' and ''Conan''.

Victim of stalking

It was reported that since September 2006, O'Brien had allegedly been stalked by Father David Ajemian of the Archdiocese of Boston, who, despite multiple warnings to stop, had been sending O'Brien letters signed as "your priest stalker" and coming in contact with O'Brien's parents. Frustrated that he had been denied a spot in the ''Late Night'' audience, Ajemian sent a letter to O'Brien stating that he flew to New York "in the dimming hope that you might finally acknowledge me." He stated in another letter, "Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans??? You owe me big time, pal." In another letter, Ajemian seemed to make a death threat, saying, "Remember Frank Costello once dodged a bullet in your building and so can you." Ajemian then tried to forcefully enter a taping of ''Late Night'' but was caught and arrested. He was previously warned by the NBC security team to stay away from the studio. After a psychological evaluation, he was deemed fit to stand trial. He has since been bailed out of jail. He was then reported missing by his father on November 10, 2007. He was found and underwent evaluation at a hospital. It is known that the two had attended Harvard University at the same time. He was found fit to stand trial on April 4, 2008. On April 8, 2008, Ajemian pleaded guilty to stalking, stating that he "never meant to cause anxiety or to upset anyone." He was ordered to pay a $95 US$ court charge and to sign a two-year restraining order barring him from coming near O'Brien. On September 11, 2008, Ajemian checked himself out of his treatment at a hospital against the wishes of his bishop, Seán Patrick O'Malley. Cardinal O'Malley then released a statement saying that because he violated his bishop's wishes, Ajemian could no longer serve as a priest in the Catholic Church. As of late 2010, Ajemian has moved on to stalking Anthony Everett.

Nicknames

Conan acquired the nickname "Coco" after its use in the first "Twitter Tracker" sketch during the second episode of his ''Tonight Show'' run. Guest Tom Hanks used the nickname during his subsequent interview, even getting the audience to chant it. In reaction to the moniker, Conan remarked to Hanks in jest, "If that catches on, I'll sue you."

In a March 23, 2011, interview with WWE Champion The Miz on ''Conan'', The Miz dubbed Conan "The Ginja Ninja", a reference to Conan's red hair and the fact that he came back fighting to get his new late-night talk show. A week later, "Team Ginja Ninja" T-shirts were available on TeamCoco.com.

Filmography

;Appearances on talk shows: Guest appearance on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' (1993, 2007, 2008, 2009)

Guest appearance on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' (1993)

Guest appearance on ''The Jon Stewart Show'' (1993)

''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (1993–2009)

Guest appearance on ''Last Call with Carson Daly'' (2002)

Guest appearance on ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' (2007, 2008)

Guest appearance on ''The Colbert Report'' (2007, 2008)

''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' (2009)

''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'' (2009–2010)

Guest appearance on ''Lopez Tonight'' (2010, 2011)

''Conan'' (November 8, 2010–)

;Other shows:

''Saturday Night Live'' (1991, 2001)

''The Simpsons'' (''as himself'') (1994)

''Space Ghost: Coast to Coast'' (''as himself'') (1999)

''Mr. Show with Bob and David'' (1995)

''The Single Guy'' (1996)

''Arli$$'' (1996)

''Spin City'' (1999)

''Futurama'' (1999)

''Storytelling'' (2001)

''Vanilla Sky'' (2001)

''Sugar & Spice'' (2001) ''(cameo in end credits)''

''Dr. Katz'' (''as himself'') (2002)

''Andy Richter Controls the Universe'' (2003)

''End of the Century'' (2003)

''Bewitched'' (''as himself'') (2005)

''Robot Chicken'' (2005)

''The Denial Twist (The White Stripes music video)'' (2005)

''O'Grady'' (2006)

''The Office'' ''(cameo)'' (2006)

''Queer Duck'' (''as himself'') (2006)

''30 Rock'' (''as himself'') (2007, 2009)

Robot Chicken Star Wars (as ''Zuckuss'') (2007)

''Sesame Street'' (2008)

''Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II'' (as ''Zuckuss'', Star Wars nerd) (2008)

''The Backyardigans'' (2009)

''60 Minutes'' (interview) (2010)

''Eagleheart'' (himself) (2010)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	Category	Result
1989	Emmy Award		Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1990	Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1991	Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1996	Emmy Award		Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
1998	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
People's Choice Award	Favorite Late Night Talk Show Host
Telvis Award	For the color spot of the year	Special Telvis
Writers Guild of America Award		Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
People's Choice Award	Favorite Late Night Talk Show Host
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
2008	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
			Outstanding Comedy, Music or Variety Series
Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series
Writers Guild of America Award	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) – Series
	People's Choice Award	rowspan="4"	Favorite TV Talk Show Host
	Outstanding Comedy, Music or Variety Series
Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series
Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series
American Express	Outstanding Commercial

References

Further reading

External links

in 2006 in 1998

TMZ page on Conan O'Brien

I'm With Coco Facebook

Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:American comedians Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American television writers Category:Emmy Award winners Category:The Groundlings Category:Harvard Lampoon people Category:Harvard University alumni Category:American comedians of Irish descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Late night television talk show hosts Category:Late Night with Conan O'Brien Category:People from Brookline, Massachusetts Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:Massachusetts Democrats

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