Conan O’Brien Warns College Students Studying Comedy and Television: ‘It’s a Terrible Waste of Your Time’

Comedian Conan O’Brien shared a message to college students on a recent episode of his podcast, warning them that studying comedy and television in college would be a waste of their time.

On the Sunday edition of his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, O’Brien was joined by fellow comedian Randall Park to discuss his journey with television.

At one point in the conversation, the pair discussed Park’s going to college at UCLA.

“You had a very good education. You studied history?” O’Brien began.

“Well, I was at UCLA. I studied, English, and then Asian American studies,” Park clarified.

O’Brien began, saying, “I’ve met so many young people who tell me they want to be in comedy, and then they mentioned that, ‘Yeah, In college I only thought — I only tried to study anything that was like TV related.'”

“And I always — it makes me a little sad because I think — no, you don’t need to know anything to be in television. You really don’t, you should — this is your last chance to know some things and to learn how to know some things. And then you’ll end up, that will be somehow reflected in your comedy,” O’Brien added.

“Yeah,” Parks agreed.

“But when I tell — when I talk to people who say, ‘Oh yeah, you know, I watched all the talk shows. I had a class called talk show, you know, talk show intricacies 505, and I was like, ‘No. No. That’s a terrible waste of your time.’ I mean you should be reading, like if you can, Middle English — Anything,” O’Brien said.

Listen above via Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend.

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