They’re With Coco! Cross-Country Rallies For Conan Flex Fan Muscle

They wore orange. They had signs, with slogans like “Jay Len-NO!” and “Viva Conando!” and “What About LaBamba?” They were cheering. They were yelling. They were the faithful, come to gather at the former temple of their leader, and you could hear them from down the block.

“What do we want?”

“Conan!”

“When do we want him?”

“11:35 p.m!”

They were enthusiastic but orderly, self-contained neatly behind a few metal barricades beside 30 Rockefeller Place in New York City, former home to Late Night With Conan O’Brien, before he made the ill-fated move to Los Angeles to take over The Tonight Show. seemingly presenting no threat to the at least four security guards stonily patrolling the scene, urging photo-takers to move it along and warning them away from the plate glass. “No standing!” they warned — one through a megaphone — perhaps not noticing that they were right at the corner of a plaza. Never mind; the crowd wasn’t there to make trouble. They were there to make a point.

Across the country and three time zones earlier, that point was being made ever more forcefully outside Universal Studios in Hollywood, where supporters of Conan O’Brien gathered outside in the rain in support of their deposed leader. Cheerfully &mdsah; literally, they are all cheering — they huddled under rain slickers and umbrellas chanting “Jay-walk away!” with their hand-made signs that said “Kookoo 4 Coco” “Retire Leno!” and “Jeff Zucker: Scientologist??”

Conan O’Brien is all but gone from “The Tonight Show.” According to multiple reliable sources, the two sides are putting the final touches on the agreement which will release the red-haired, awkward and clearly beloved comedian from his contract with NBC — and the top spot at the Tonight Show, which is arguably the top spot in all of late night, and the spot to which O’Brien has unabashedly aspired for years.

So these rallies don’t do much — nor do the ones in Chicao and Seattle, also going on outside NBC offices, presumably equally loudly. Or…do they? They may not rescue Conan’s spot or keep Jay Leno from retaking the Tonight Show, but wow are they ever loud. They’re loud in the place NBC likes a little noise — smack dab in the demo — and they’re loud in a place NBC should be paying attention to: The Internet.

But back to making that point. These rallies are filled with Conan’s friends and fans, which means they are filled with comedians and comedy nerds — which makes for a pretty hilarious rally, wherever the city. Listening to the live feed at TMZ and from L.A. and seeing it myself in New York, I cracked up frequently — at the signs, the chants, the tweets — but there’s seriousness behind the silly. If Conan’s Tonight Show had failed after two years, and he’d stepped down as per his contract, they would be sad but it wouldn’t be worth standing out in the rain for. And maybe if this hadn’t occurred so rudely, so abruptly, so publicly, with insult added to injury in the form of Jay Leno — Leno, always Leno, refusing to step down and go away, coming back to haunt his so-called successor, first with his failed 10 p.m. hour, somehow managing to go from the scourge of affiliates to the guy pushing Conan out of his timeslot and seat — precisely what Conan had been worried about back in 2004, and precisely what NBC and Leno had reassured him would never happen. Sheesh.

It’s not life and death — they know that. (I love this tweet from @BlackNerdComedy: “love the irony that on MLK Day, a group of protesters are marching for of the whitest people in the country! #TeamConan.”) Even so, the comedy community is pretty close-knit, and Conan and his team member are staples within it in a way that Leno and his team are not (when I asked Matt Besser if he had any comedy friends at Leno, he answered in the negative, and also not very politely). Whatever the reason, it’s clear that what’s happening to Conan is being keenly felt by his fans, not only in support for him but derision for Leno, NBC and Jeff Zucker, who was the beneficiary of a few specialty cheers (see below).

It’s also being felt by the real Team Conan, the one that suddenly, bewilderingly, is finding itself planning for its final week of shows, not even two weeks after the first inkling of news was leaked. Above the crowd in LA, up in their offices at Universal Studios, the real Team Conan was looking down at the ranks of #TeamConan and marveling. Longtime Conan sidekick and loyalist Andy Richter grabbed a megaphone and spoke to the crowd: “It’s been kind of a tough time, but also – a really fun time!” he said. Cheers and whoo!s. “So thank you so much and — the lawyers won’t let me say anything else. Thank you!” More cheers, and laughter — because how else to end but on a joke?

Back in New York, there was a different voice through a megaphone, with a different message. “No standing!” said the security guard, raising and lowering his megaphone every few minutes to make the point. It was a civil crowd — a chant of “Leno kills puppies!” was quickly shouted down, replaced with “Up with the hair! Down with the chin!” — but nonetheless the guy with a megaphone was somehow tussling with a shaggy-haired hipster with an orange crepe paper bandana. Apparently someone got a ticket for standing on the street and taking a photo. In a meta-moment, across the street, TV monitors on MSNBC showed the rally, and a cheer went up from the crowd. Point, made.

In LA, a masturbating bear showed up, making another, different point. The tweets were still coming, TMZ was still filming — and then, a sign: the rain stopped, and the sun came out. Cries of joy went up from within the crowd. “Conan stopped the rain!”

Were their hero to have such powers; alas, if so, he probably could have done something about that timeslot. But he did make something magical appear: pizza, delivered piping hot to the crowd, as a gift from the red-headed one; also donuts, and coffee. And then something even more magical: the man himself. Conan went downstairs to greet the crowd, and to thank them. “I’ve been here since 8:45, so that felt pretty good,” said a voice on the TMZ live feed. It didn’t last long, but it was enough. Conan knew he’d reached his team, and they knew they’d reached him right back. Even if neither of them could reach NBC, at least they had that.

Then Conan went back upstairs. He had a show to do.

*****

Photos: “I’m With Coco” Rally, New York and Los Angeles


Los Angeles photos were provided by an attendee; NY photos by Rachel Sklar unless otherwise noted.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.