“This is very hard for me though, you know I’ve been with NBC for a really long time. A really long time.” It doesn’t matter that it’s followed by a punchline, as are all the sentimental moments in tonight’s Tonight Show. By now, we all know that he thinks that it sucks.

late night wars

Yes, there were barbs — but tonight, the sign that Conan O’Brien is done with NBC and The Tonight Show was less about twisting the knife in his rivals than hilarious and extremely dirty porn puns. Put it this way: If you were trying to recapture Jay Leno‘s demo, would you do it with “”The Fistahood of the Traveling Timeslots?” I don’t think so.

Here is the full text of the statement released by Tonight Show Conan O’Brien this afternoon, confirming that he would not accept a 12:05 a.m. time slot for his show and would not follow Jay Leno at 11:35 p.m.

Conan O’Brien’s kiss-off letter to NBC is going to make him a hero, not only to people who started off loving him, but because he’s been cast as the underdog here, unfairly subject to the failings of Jay Leno and fickleness of NBC. But Leno wants a bit of that victim spotlight, too.