Conan O’Brien: It Is ‘Very Hard to Find a Joke That’s More Absurd Than What’s Actually Happening’ in Trump Era

Friday on CNN’s ” The Lead,” comedian Conan O’Brien said the biggest challenge in the age of President Donald Trump was “to find a joke that’s more absurd than what’s actually happening.”

O’Brien said, “Comedians usually in a normal era are supposed to take these serious situations and find the comedy in them and stretch them a little bit. In the Trump era we’re essentially dealing with—I mean, every day there is such a mother lode of, I don’t know how else to say it, surreal news, that it can be very hard to find a joke that’s more absurd than what’s actually happening.”

He added, “It’s really hard to take what’s happening right now and make it somehow more absurd than it really is. So it’s a challenge for comics. People think it’s easy, but it’s actually a little more difficult I think right now.”

 

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