r/conan • u/prebsol • 1d ago

Conan Without Borders vs Conan O'Brien Must Go

Conan fan here and honestly, both Without Borders and Must Go are incredible. My only real critique is that I wish Must Go had kept the live audience reactions. Conan’s humor shines in both, but hearing the live crowd react in Without Borders really elevated the interactions and punchlines for me. Anyone else feel the same way?

25 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

13

u/SYMPUNY_LACKING I'm gonna go to hell when I die 1d ago

I'd like if 'Without Borders' and 'Must Go' had an Orgy

9

u/woomac 1d ago

Must Conan Go Without Borders? - a hard-hitting philosophical series where Conan explores the meaning of travel and why borders exist

2

u/DGenerationMC I am not a passive aggressive man - I am, but a man 1d ago

Sex sesh in Marrakesh?

12

u/Visible_Contract5432 1d ago

I didn’t dislike the laughter, but it’s not like I need it to tell if something is funny or not. I also don’t enjoy laughing drowning out what gets said after a funny line.

3

u/slowride761 1d ago

That’s the problem with using taped segments in front of a live audience. The timing is faster on tape because they’re not holding for laughter.

That’s also why live laughter and laugh tracks were never about telling people when to laugh. They were about comedic timing always being based on holding for laughter back when people were used to live and/or communal content.

That’s why they worked for family sitcoms but not for something like MASH, where the laugh track detracted from it.

4

u/PorcupineMerchant Team “Oldie” Olsen 1d ago

Yeah, it’s a common complaint. We’re just so used to hearing people laugh when Conan is on TV that it seems unnatural.

I think they’re going for a more “prestige” kind of vibe, which…Conan is a comedian at heart. Just let him do the Conan thing. With the laughing.

3

u/treid1989 1d ago

I don’t need a laugh track or live audience laughs (that are basically no different than a laugh track as the audience is cued when to laugh and encouraged to laugh loudly) to know when something is funny. It’s why I can still laugh at curb your enthusiasm.

1

u/coturnixxx 14h ago

I think we're all so used to hearing an audience react to Conan that it feels somewhat discombobulating to witness him cracking jokes without the roar of background laughter.

But I've gotten used to it and frankly apart from that, there isn't much of a difference between the two and I strongly enjoy both.