A Rhetorical Analysis Of Conan O Brien

Famously known for his sarcastic and awkward humor, Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show, Conan often depicts witty, satirical skits that often have larger social and even political significance. On one specific episode entitled, “Conan Korea,” Korean-American actor Steven Yeun of the critically-acclaimed AMC Drama The Walking Dead joins O’Brien in his skit. As O’Brien’s “cultural ambassador,” as he states in the recording, Yeun’s role is expanded into more than simply being a celebrity guest on O’Brien’s show. By being the representative for this culture and the performativity associated in his interactions with O’Brien, Yeun is thus identified as the “native informant” whose duty is to negotiate the relationship between O’Brien/American audience

With Yeun flustering and unable to produce that “authentic” explanation, O’Brien, as representative of the American audience, is then establishing himself as the authority to judge Yeun based off of the “native informant” expectations he sets in the beginning. To elaborate, Yeun’s helplessness to describe the side dishes is mocked and judged by O’Brien when he says, “You’re sort of like Anthony Bourdain if he knew absolutely nothing.” Here O’Brien is “performing acts of stranger fetishism by turning specific strangers into bearers of “authenticity” and [himself] into a subject who can evaluate this authenticity as well as distinguish between what is ‘too authentic’ and what is ‘not authentic enough.’” (Leer 324) It is unfair to compare the Korean-American actor to a critically acclaimed chef, simply because Yeun is

Why didn’t O’Brien go alone? It is through the cultural capitalism that Yeun has being of Korean descent that allows him to enter certain spaces freely, like South Korea, according to Westerners. Which is why Conan O’Brien, as a Westerner who lacks such cultural currency, needed to Yeun to also enter into such “exotic” spaces. Additionally, without the presence of Yeun, O’Brien would have been limited in his ability to fully exhort his comedic value due the lack of cultural capitalism being a Westerner. For example, when O’Brien says “Aren’t you supposed to use these (chopsticks) for everything?” And uses chopsticks to pick up a spoon which has food on it. Yeun then further extends the joke by becoming part of it by saying, “My way is better.” This reveals the importance of Yeun being a Korean-American over being a just native South Korean. Yeun is less likely to object O’Brien’s, what would be odd maybe even disrespectful to a native Korea, behavior, because being American Yeun is able to understand O’Brien’s humor join in on it. Yeun’s acceptance of the joke reveals the flaw in categorizing Yeun as the “native informant,” and the naivety of O’Brien to assume that Yeun has complete cultural capital and knowledge of the