Conan the Tactitian

More than three months after prematurely signing off as host of The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien broke his contractually mandated silence last night on 60 Minutes. Proving that just because you’re funny doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk, a subdued O’Brien refused to give in to interviewer Steve Kroft’s repeated attempts to get him to say something nasty about Jay Leno, though he did laugh at the prospect of Leno having been screwed over. (O’Brien is barred from saying anything disparaging toward NBC, but it’s unclear if that extends to Leno as well). All he would say was that he would have handled the situation differently, perhaps gone off to do something else instead of reclaiming the desk from a man he’d wished well just months earlier.

Among some of the more noteworthy quotes from the interview: On why he ultimately stepped down as host: “It started to get toxic.” On whether he was forced out: “If they wanted me to leave, it worked.” On any lingering hard feelings toward Leno: “Jay’s got The Tonight Show, I have a beard and an inflatable bat, and I’m touring city-to-city.” O’Brien says he’s happy with the decision he made, even if he disagrees wholeheartedly with NBC’s assertion that the network was losing money during his short-lived stint. This was a more serious, introspective Conan than we’re used to seeing, temporarily trading in his absurdist humility for a more down-to-earth version. He ended the interview by assuring fans that he’s doing just fine. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s captured more headlines than ever before, and in six months time, he’ll be back on the air at TBS, hosting a brand new show that will be seen Monday through Thursday at 11pm, with lower expectations (and a younger audience) than NBC could offer. That’s not to say he wouldn’t mind translating some of the respect he’s garnered into a few million more viewers.