Nerd Man of the Month: Conan O'Brien

Nothing says sexy nerd like a tall, pasty Harvard grad named after a Schwarzenegger barbarian. Which is why we’ve selected Conan O’Brien as our February Nerd Man of the Month.


Not only is the "Late Night with Conan O’Brien" host wickedly funny, he also boasts some seriously strong nerd credentials. Wikipedia, our modern day Delphic oracle, tells me Conan was not only editor of his high school newspaper, he was also valedictorian. He went on to Harvard where he made funny with the Harvard Lampoon and even graduated magna cum laude. And he was a congressional intern which means he wore a skinny tie and no doubt lost his innocence to a lonely Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Best of all, the guy also wrote for The Simpsons. Writing for a cultural icon like The Simpsons earns automatic entry into the Nerd Man Pantheon, which I’ve also taken to calling the Nerd Man Pantherdome because it sounds like a place where sophisticates could sit back on a comfortable sofa, drink Cosmos and watch lab-coated male strippers debate red versus green kryptonite.

But back to Conan. He’s a talent juggernaut, having turned a struggling late night talk show into a cool-ly ridiculous must-see, thereby inflicting horrific insomnia on seekers of good comedy everywhere. And let’s not forget that if it weren’t for Conan, millions of us would never have found our plush human love toy, Andy Richter, Late Night’s former sidekick whom I adore with a passion usually reserved for puppies and candy-coated sunshine.

Recently, Conan endeared himself to millions more fans with his awesomely absurd feud with Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The three men fighting – quite literally – over who “made” Mike Huckabee is pure comedy gold. Check it out for yourself:



And if that’s not enough, check out the outtakes:



For being funny and bringing honor to America's gingers and for singing “Hunka, hunka burning love” not ten feet away from me one evening many, many years ago, The Park Bench is pleased to honor Conan O’Brien with its Nerd Man of the Month Award. We hope the success doesn’t go to his tall, barbarian head.