This Documentary Takes a Look at Conan O’Brien After ‘The Tonight Show’
The Big Picture
- Conan O’Brien’s comedy tour after
The Tonight Show
fiasco explores his resourcefulness amidst career setbacks. - O’Brien’s dedication to his team highlights his underappreciated integrity and personal struggles.
- The documentary showcases O’Brien’s vulnerability, perfectionism, and commitment to delivering quality entertainment to fans.
There’s been no shortage of great celebrity documentaries in recent years, and it’s easy to understand why. Popular culture fanatics are often keen to learn more about their heroes and seek an understanding of the critical events that shaped their careers. While celebrity-focused documentaries can occasionally offer important contextual information, they often present a more sanitized approach to their subject’s life that is reliant on a reflective approach to their achievements. However, celebrity documentaries that capture history in the making offer a rare opportunity for highly publicized figures to be vulnerable in a way that they are not generally perceived to be. By examining the immediate and lasting ramifications of the 2010 The Tonight Show controversy, the documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop examines Conan O’Brien’s integrity and hard work as an artist.

Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
A documentary on Conan O’Brien’s comedy tour of the U.S. and Canada after leaving The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien (2009) and severing his relationship with NBC.
Release DateJune 24, 2011
DirectorRodman Flender
Runtime89
What Is ‘Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop’ About?
Conan O’Brien’s career has been dominated by pushing the boundaries of comedy by breaking into new fields. Between his groundbreaking work as a writer on Saturday Night Live and penning the iconic The Simpsons episode “Marge vs. The Monorail,” O’Brien has rarely failed to find an audience for his radical sense of humor. However, O’Brien’s trajectory as a late-night host was thwarted by a 2010 public relations disaster involving the time slot of The Tonight Show. After he was refused a primetime slot after inheriting the late-night program from Jay Leno, O’Brien left television for the first time in almost three decades due to the feud with NBC. Considering how much of a staple he was of the late-night circuit, it was a situation that forced O’Brien to address how his skills could best be utilized for the rest of his career.
While it dedicates some time to explaining the context behind The Tonight Show controversy, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop explores O’Brien’s rejuvenation within a worldwide comedy tour when he was barred from appearing on television. Although the stipulation of his contract with NBC held that he could not make any television, radio, or internet appearances for six months, O’Brien dubbed his new endeavor as “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.” Essentially, the live show consisted of all the sketches, songs, and stand-up routines that were quintessential to O’Brien’s sense of humor. The complication was that instead of being able to edit the footage for a late-night broadcast, O’Brien’s tour was performed live in front of a massive audience. As the documentary shows, delivering such a complex entertainment experience for an avid crowd of enthusiastic fans can be challenging when done on such a consistent basis.
Although it’s unquestionably O’Brien’s perspective that is at the center of the documentary, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop explores the efforts made by every member of the Conan team. The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour employed many of O’Brien’s longtime staffers, including his executive assistant Sona Movsesian, and long-time co-host Andy Richter. The documentary highlights that for O’Brien, the slight made by NBC was detrimental to both him and his team. By engaging in a different form of comedy, O’Brien was able to help support the same staffers who had been loyal to him throughout his career. It both underlines why O’Brien is such an underappreciated late-night host and suggests a deeper personal integrity than he’s generally credited with.
‘Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop’ Shows Conan’s Addiction To Performing
Although the stipulations of The Tonight Show controversy left him with a fairly significant settlement deal, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop shows that it was never just about the money for O’Brien. Being denied the opportunity to appear on television meant that, for the first time in his career, O’Brien was denied the opportunity to connect with his fans regularly. The documentary does not shy away from the mental anguish that the situation placed him in. Robbed of a platform in which his skills could be appreciated, O’Brien was left feeling like he lacked purpose. While self-depreciation is an integral part of his sense of humor, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop does not shy away from showing his mental health struggles.
Although it’s evident that performing live challenged O’Brien in a way that he felt was exciting, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop shows how emotionally taxing perfectionism can be for artists within the media spotlight. Maintaining such a high level of energy in his performances is not an easy task for O’Brien, particularly when he’s faced with the reality that the rest of his career may be reliant on the reaction that his new tour gains. Although O’Brien’s obsession with perfecting every joke within his act leads to his own exhaustion, it also puts his team in an uncomfortable position. O’Brien sacrifices his own health to commit to the performance, and his staffers can’t help but feel that they are obliged to do the same thing.
‘Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop’ Shows Conan’s Vulnerability
Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop incorporates many of O’Brien’s celebrity friends, as guests like Jon Hamm, Jack Black, Jon Stewart, and Jim Carrey all appear to congratulate him on the success of his new tour. Although he appreciates the support that his high-profile collaborators have given him, O’Brien’s reluctance to spend time away from working on his show speaks to his commitment to the audience. It’s evident that O’Brien feels obliged to deliver to his audience the best show possible—a trait that has remained consistent within his work up until the finale of his follow-up show on TBS in 2021.
The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny Tour resulted in O’Brien’s successful return to television in TBS’s Conan, which he began working on in the mere weeks following the tour’s conclusion. O’Brien has certainly not been lacking in working, as he’s had cameos in shows like Murderville and Curb Your Enthusiasm, among others. However, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop offers a more sensitive look at the career of one of Hollywood’s quintessential “nice guys.” It shows that the persona O’Brien crafted was not created overnight, and certainly was not one that didn’t have its drawbacks.
Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop is streaming on Tubi in the U.S.