Earlier on Thursday, Rolling Stone published allegations from two current and 14 former employees, including production crew and writers, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Rolling Stone claimed they had approached an additional 80 current and former employees, but “not a single one agreed to speak on the record or had positive things to say about working on the Tonight Show”.
According to Rolling Stone’s report, multiple sources alleged Fallon had a history of “outbursts” and lashing out at staff when under pressure; that previous senior staff on the show had bullied and belittled them; and that guests’ dressing rooms were commonly known as “cry rooms”, where employees could go let out their stress.
Nine showrunners have worked on the Tonight Show since Fallon took over from Jay Leno in 2014; a much faster turnover than comparable late night shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
I’ve loved Conan for decades, but a certain point the bits with him and Jordan Schlansky started to make me uncomfortable. Like yeah, he’s a weird, possibly neurodivergent guy who does odd things that are funny and Conan wanted to make a bit out of it and obviously Jordan was on board. But as it progressed Conan did seem to get a little mean at times, and when you have a national platform like that, you aren’t just being silly-mean to your quirky buddy, you’re opening the door to making it acceptable to ridicule people with autism spectrum disorder.
He’s not abusing an autist. Jordan plays in to it as much as Conan plays in to being mean. Listen to Jordan on Inside Conan. It’s entertainment. Jeremy Clarkson doesn’t try to fix everything with a hammer; Steve Martin and Martin Short aren’t in jealous competition with each other; Gordon Ramsey doesn’t SHUT IT DOWN!
You can’t convince me Clarkson doesn’t at least try to fix everything with a hammer at first
Yeah… that’s exactly what I said. He’s ribbing his buddy. BUT every single thing he’s making fun of in Jordan could be seen as an autistic trait. When sweet old, aw shucks Conan O’Brien has a running gag where he makes fun of autistic traits, it harms people on the spectrum.
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NO! He’s being abused. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmRouEds_2A
Then you should be upset with Jordan for pretending to be “on the spectrum”. *EDIT TO ADD: Conan is mocking Jordan’s stilted, self-protective camera persona.