Conan O’Brien Returns To Late Night, Pokes Fun At NBC

Conan O’Brien is back.

The redheaded funnyman made his return to the late night schedule on Monday evening with the premiere of his brand new show, “Conan,” on TBS, nearly 10 months after departing NBC’s “The Tonight Show” back in January.

Due to the time off, Conan opened his first monologue on his new show, by reminding people who he is.

“Thank you and welcome to my 2nd Annual first show,” he said to rapturous applause. “Yes, I know what you guys are thinking, ‘Hey, it’s the guy from Twitter’,” he said referring to months of funny Tweets, which became one of the star’s outlets for his comedy while he was contractually prohibited from television appearances.

In addition to his time on Twitter, Conan also poked fun at his move from network television (NBC) to basic cable (TBS).

“This is an exciting night. I’m glad to be on cable. The truth is, I’ve dreamed of being a talk show host on basic cable ever since I was 46,” he said to a host of laughs.

Conan went on to poke a little fun at his former home – the Peacock network.

“I’m going to be honest: It’s not easy doing a late-night show on a channel without a lot of money and that viewers have trouble finding. So that’s why I left NBC,” he said.

The funnyman even touched upon what lead to his departure from NBC – the network’s request that he move “The Tonight Show” to midnight, once again following a show fronted by Jay Leno.

“The weird thing is this: I put myself and my staff through a lot because I refused to go on at midnight. So, I get this job at 11. Then, yesterday, Daylight Savings Time ended — so right now it’s basically midnight. In fact, it’s 12:05,” he said, referring to the time NBC wanted to move him and “The Tonight Show” to, something he refused to do.

Conan went on to give his loyal fans a recap of the celebrity headlines since he departed late night earlier this year.

“A lot’s happened in the news since I went off the air — and I was hoping I could cover it all in one joke. But then I realized that’s like trying to keep an Icelandic volcano from wearing Lady Gaga’s meat dress while a trapped Chilean miner cleans up the BP oil spill… Brett Favre’s penis,” he said to even more laughs.