Conan O’Brien, Zach Galifianakis say it’s a ‘misconception’ that comedy shows only target conservatives

There could never be a less self-aware conversation than the recent one between comedians Conan O’Brien and Zach Galifianakis.

It’s no secret that there’s a particular demographic that many comedy shows, and the entertainment industry in general, prefer to make fun of: the political right. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” A large number of so-called “funny” programs from the program are based on this preference. Watch “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” “The Daily Show” or “Saturday Night Live!” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” is amazing.

This is just a small example of how many left-wing comics make politics the centerpiece of their shows. And for the vast majority of their jokes, they have one target: the right, and more specifically, President Donald Trump.

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Criticizing or making jokes about Trump has become quite a career for many apparent “comedians.” But if you ask Conan O’Brien and Zach Galianakis, the “media” doesn’t want to make fun of conservatives.

Really.

Zach Galifianakis and Conan O’Brien take turns patting themselves on the back

While discussing Galifianakis’ show “Between Two Ferns,” O’Brien talked about his interviews with prominent politicians such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Both agreed that these interviews showed how comedians should behave by harassing politicians and making fun of their weaknesses.

“The podcasters who put the president on the air are not being court jesters… they’re not doing it. They’re just fawning over him,” Galifianakis said. “So comedians who are podcasters on Trump are not doing their job.

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“This is not a comedian’s job; you have to challenge, you have to disturb. You shouldn’t sit there and fake laugh, this is not the court jester’s job. Period.”

He went on to say that he was more interested in putting comedy above politics.

“People were actually talking to me about this yesterday, about political influence through comedy and things like that. I’m more interested in comedy, first of all…”

“Me too,” repeated O’Brien.

Referring to Hillary Clinton’s interview on “Between Two Ferns,” Galifianakis said that when they set up the interview, Clinton’s team told him he could not bring up the email scandal. He told them they didn’t need to be interviewed then and they withdrew. O’Brien related this exchange to politicians or powerful people needing to laugh at themselves in order to become more relatable.

“I see this all the time, and I’ve seen this for years, people don’t realize that when they go to a so-called vulnerable place and have a sense of humor about it, it’s magical for them,” he said.

“People see that they have a sense of humor, that they can take a joke. So no one walked away from your interview with Obama thinking ‘wow you really showed him.’ It must have been so funny, he sat there and entered your world of being willfully ignorant about who he is and what he’s done, interrupting him, being insanely rude, and he gave it back to you in equal measure. It’s great comedy, and I know that reflects very well on the president.”

O’Brien later relayed this to Trump, saying it would be “humanizing” for him to be the butt of a joke.

“And it would be good for our current president to understand that, to understand that allowing himself to be the butt of a joke is a humanizing act.”

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“That’s impossible,” Galifianakis replied. “You don’t do that with it, it won’t work.”

“There’s a misconception that the media only wants to go after conservatives,” O’Brien said. “And they don’t understand that when they laugh at themselves, everyone benefits. Everyone wins. If you laugh at yourself, it humanizes you.”

Conan O’Brien is seen smiling while sitting against a dark background. (Frank Micelotta/Disney via Getty Images)

Comedians can’t accept what they’ve become

All this is complete nonsense.

Of course the media just wants to go after conservatives, which is all they’ve done for years, if not decades. To claim otherwise is an absurd denial of reality. Galifianakis himself told Los Angeles Times In 2016, she said she wasn’t interested in hosting Trump on “Between Two Ferns” because he was “mentally disabled.”

“No. It doesn’t concern me,” he explained. “He’s the kind of guy who likes attention – bad attention or good attention. So you’ve got a bit of a weird psychosis here. I wouldn’t want someone this mentally retarded around me. I feel like I’m going to take advantage of him. And you can print it.”

Ah. So Trump needs to humanize himself and become the butt of jokes on a show he’s not allowed to participate in.

Galifianakis also said that he puts comedy before politics, but that he is so politically motivated that he has no interest in interviewing Trump. There’s also Jimmy Kimmel, who recently described Melania Trump as having “the glow of a widow in waiting.” Is this the kind of joke that will encourage the president to come and laugh at himself? This is just an example, of course there are much worse examples. Trump’s “Saturday Night Live!” Not to mention that he joined the program. several times. He has a much better sense of humor than Obama or Hillary Clinton. That’s not the problem. The problem is, none of these comedians are making jokes, they’re lecturing.

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Plus, Colbert, Kimmel and almost all of the others are interviewing Democrats. Republicans are not invited to participate because these demonstrations want to prioritize a particular political ideology. But they don’t want to just target conservatives, right?

What a surprise it was when Galifianakis was laughing and having fun with Kimmel on his show just a few weeks ago.

Zach Galifianakis and Jimmy Kimmel on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” appears on the set. During the episode aired on April 14, 2026. (Randy Holmes/Disney)

And of course, the same “comedians” who were an easy target for comedy last month instead went strangely silent. The Eric Swalwell scandal could provide weeks of material. Just this week, CNN He reported having meetings at Hooters. Seems like the perfect setup for a joke, right? You’ll never guess how many jokes Kimmel made on this topic, but it rhymes with zero. While Galifianakis and O’Brien ignore this missed opportunity, they say comedy should make powerful people uncomfortable. It’s not just powerful people on the political left.

Kimmel in particular has been extremely hypocritical; He told Michelle Obama in a recent podcast interview that it would be a shame to ignore political stories… then ignore a story that made him, his party, and his friend look bad.

Galifianakis and O’Brien are incapable of admitting their own biases and admitting that they would never joke about Obama or Clinton the way they joke about Trump. Or treat them the same way. They never joke about Kamala Harris the way they do about Trump. That’s because, no matter how much they try to pretend otherwise, they are Democrats first and comedians second.