Do we like Conan O'Brien?
Our score: 8 out of 10. He has officiated a same-sex wedding on air and used a Harvard stage to speak up for the university and its foreign students, with only a settled joke-theft suit against him.
Conan O'Brien is a Harvard man who made good, and Harvard has now returned the favour with an honorary Doctor of Arts. He spent years as a late-night fixture, and his TBS show was celebrating its first anniversary at New York's Beacon Theater in 2011. He now works across podcasts, travel TV and awards hosting, and he's still the guy everyone seems to want in the room.
The main stoush on his record is the 2015 lawsuit from a San Diego writer, who alleged that five jokes from his Twitter feed and blog ended up in O'Brien's monologues. A spokesman said at the time that the suit had no merit. A federal court let the case head toward trial, and in 2019 O'Brien settled about three weeks out, saying he didn't want a “farcical and expensive jury trial” over five jokes. Terms weren't disclosed, and the writer said he was happy with the outcome.
On the harm check, nothing nasty turned up. In 2011 he was set to officiate a same-sex wedding for a longtime staffer on his show, just after New York legalised same-sex marriage. At Harvard he sarcastically defended foreign students against the administration's visa limits. The record on trans issues is honestly thin, so this is a pass built on what he's done, not a long paper trail.
The recent thing is the Harvard commencement speech on 28 May 2026. He joked he'd sue the university himself, saying his claims would have more merit than the President's lawsuits against it, and said, “Our current leadership in Washington believes that empathy is a weakness.” The White House replied that nobody cares what Hollywood celebrities say. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a fair jab at a government fight with a university or as a celebrity piling on.
He's also been a busy man in his day job. The Academy named him Oscars host for the third year running, with the 99th ceremony due on 14 March 2027. In a Hollywood Reporter interview, he said he thinks late-night shows are going away and will become something else, and he doesn't like outside forces leaning on networks to curry favour.
The good stuff is mostly honours, with little charity in what I found. The Kennedy Center gave him its Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in March 2025, and Harvard gave him an honorary degree in 2026. That's recognition, not charity, and I'd rather say so than pad the list.