Highlights
- Conan O’Brien was turned down by a fan he offered a selfie to.
- Fans felt bad for Conan, but eventually, the fan came around and snapped a photo with her idol.
- Fans still adore O’Brien and his ability to connect with people, proving that he is more loved now than when he was on late-night television.
Conan O’Brien connects with audiences arguably better than any other late-night host has been able to. This connection had scores of fans bidding O’Brien farewell when he decided to end his late-night television career. O’Brien does not seem to think it is an imposition to speak with fans who have supported him over the years, be it during his late-night career, his standup, or now, with his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
The podcast is an opportunity for O’Brien to speak to his fans weekly. He not only learns more about what is happening in their lives, which sometimes is extraordinary, but as the title of the podcast implies, may even make good acquaintances or friendships in the process.
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Despite how open O’Brien is to speaking with fans, be it for his podcast or just when he is out and about, there are times when the conversation takes an unexpected twist, as it did when O’Brien offered to take a selfie with a fan. Fans felt sorry for Conan O’Brien when a fan completely rejected his request. But as it turned out, not everything was as it seemed.
Why Conan O’Brien’s Fan Rejected Him
Conan O’Brien asked a fan to take a selfie with him and she said she was “good”
During the fall of 2023, O’Brien had a guest on his podcast named Kayla. Kayla had been a fan of O’Brien’s for years. As such, when he wound up at her place of business, it was quite a surprise, not to mention an encounter that Kayla would not soon forget.
“I was leaving work at this unusually late hour. I’m normally not there around dinner time. I was on the phone with one of my best friends, Olivia, and I was walking out the staff exit,” Kayla explained. “I’m in the revolving doors and I see this person peering in. I got out and in my head, I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
Kayla went on to say, “So I said to my friend, ‘Just hold on a second’ and I turned to you and I just wanted to say how much I love your work and the show. You were so generous and kind standing there to talk to me and everything. Then you said, ‘Do you want to take a selfie to show your friends?’ I felt at that point I was already such an imposition having stopped you guys looking for the Modern, which is the restaurant at the museum.”
“… You thought it was too much of an imposition on me?” O’Brien asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t want to impose. I sort of blacked out as soon as I saw you because you’re literally my hero,” Kayla stated.
“I didn’t remember anything that I said in that moment. I guess what I said was, ‘I’m good.’ Then your face just totally fell and I felt I really wanted a picture with you. I felt really sad and then I said, ‘Why? Do you want a selfie?’ Then you said, ‘I really do.’”
“So then you still didn’t take a selfie with him?” Matt Gourley asked.
“Actually, I think you blacked out too because we did get a selfie,” Kayla said as she held up her phone to show the selfie.
By and large, the fans thought that Kayla was really well-spoken and thought that the interaction between herself and O’Brien was entertaining. However, there were a few fans who felt back for O’Brien’s meeting with Kayla. They did not understand why anyone would turn down taking a selfie with O’Brien. Specifically, because he offered.
“If Conan wanted a picture with me I would totally go with it,” one fan wrote.
A second fan said, “WHY?! I met him once and wanted to take 1,000 selfies.”
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“She seems like she has a lot of self-importance,” a third fan stated.
But as it turned out, everything turned out well. Kayla got to meet her idol and the selfie was taken, making for a very entertaining segment on O’Brien’s podcast.
Conan O’Brien Interviews Fans Weekly On His Podcast
Conan O’Brien has included his fans in his weekly podcast, ‘Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend’
When O’Brien first started Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend it was done with the intention of getting to know the celebrities he had interviewed over the years on a level that was beyond the surface. The podcast was very well received both by fans and critics.
There were a few subseries that occurred from the podcast. One of which was Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan. This podcast was also very well received and O’Brien continued with this subseries to make it a weekly show where he gets to know fans who live very interesting lives or talks about encounters he has had with them, much like the episode with Kayla.
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O’Brien not only speaks with fans one-on-one, but he also takes questions from fans that he answers weekly. O’Brien allows fans to ask him anything. “No topic is off limits.” This is likely why the podcast has been downloaded over 230 million times since it started airing in 2018 and each podcast episode boasted more than one million downloads in 2019 alone.
What Fans Think Of Conan O’Brien Now That He Is No Longer A Late-Night Host
Fans may love Conan O’Brien more today than when he was on late-night television
O’Brien fans will always want him to come back to late-night television. Wanting O’Brien to return to his talk show has to do with O’Brien’s composure with uncomfortable guests. It also has to do with his ability to connect with just about anyone who came on Conan, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, or The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.
There was even an online petition to bring O’Brien back to The Tonight Show after the bombshell of a toxic work environment was revealed under Jimmy Fallon‘s Tonight Show, a work environment that Fallon had to answer for. This was because fans believe O’Brien is such a natural with people that he talks with, celebrity or not. More of this interaction is being seen on O’Brien’s podcast, and fans may just adore O’Brien more for it.
“Conan made so many random people famous on his show it’s actually unreal,” a fan explained. “He really didn’t need writers and was extremely creative. He made sure everyone was having fun. Unbelievable talent, the others were on bigger networks had bigger guests and were boring… with fake laughs.”
Others’ comments were similar in their praise for O’Brien.
“[O’Brien] is the best of them all, but especially when you gave him just a camera and put him somewhere with people,” a fan wrote. “Anywhere.”
Another fan stated, “[O’Brien] is naturally funny and can have hilarious interactions with anyone.”
It is safe to say that O’Brien is still very much adored by his fans, whom he now gets to interact with weekly, building his fan base even more since leaving late-night television.
Source: NewsFinale
