Entertainment

His Monologue Put us to Sleep

by Celeste Mora

Sunday night, Conan O'Brien started his MTV Movie Award monologue with fiery enthusiasm, but it quickly fizzled when he tried to cram too many jokes into a 15-minute window. While he was his usual silly self, he clearly overstayed his welcome onstage. Although his "50 celebrity cameos" intro was cute, and his quip about Grumpy Cat's front row seat was funny, he quickly lost steam as he went along. His quips directed at "the kids" definitely showed his age, but made the night a little bit less tween-tastic, if significantly more snooze-worthy.

A few of his jokes landed among the sea of solidly mediocre standup. Especially relevant was his self-deprecating jab about "fire, explosions and rap music, all things you associate with Conan O'Brien," which made us all shift uncomfortably on our couches, then laugh out loud. Also intriguing were his "improvements" to the awards, and his kiss fight with Will Arnett was adorably awkward. At the end of the day, Conan comes from an earlier generation than 90 percent of the awards' audience, and in his hokey monologue, it showed.

His performance tonight may have been a little stiff, but we still love Conan doing his nerdy thing all over the kids' stage.