Conan O'Brien Attacked by Boston Gang As a Teen

By Kiki Von Glinow Posted Apr 8th 2011 02:45PM

From the ungodly height of his floppy red hair to awkward movements that make him look more like a windstruck blow-up stick figure on a used car lot, the enigma that is Conan O'Brien just keeps getting better and better.

This week, 'WTF Podcast' host Marc Maron was able to fish glorious tales of broken bones and the Ivy League from this 6'4" beanpole behemoth like a magician pulling scarf after scarf out of his hand.

One piece de resistance was O'Brien's startling memory of a Boston beatdown as a high schooler; he was left with a nose broken beyond repair.

"This is not my nose," O'Brien said. "My nose was completely rebuilt ... I was beaten up -- I'm not kidding -- I ran into a street gang, and I was wearing a T-shirt that had the Irish flag on it, and they were Italian. This is late high school, and they beat the s**t out of me. I got hit so hard in the face I went to the emergency room. I said, 'Is my nose broken?' and [the doctor] said, 'Broken? Good god, man, it's a bag of bones!'"

Although Coco's face isn't any worse for the wear, the story, which the comedian told with alarming fondness, was only one of many pearls in the O'Brien/Maron conversation.

The 'Conan' host also took a trip down memory lane to compare his Harvard days to the sexier Harvard depicted in the Oscar-nominated flick, 'The Social Network.'

"The Harvard you saw in 'The Social Network' doesn't exist," the Harvard grad, who majored in history and American literature said. "We all had cold sores and we had diphtheria and it was cold and we wore s**tty clothes ... the women looked like Emily Dickinson after a bike accident."

O'Brien, who was at Harvard from 1981 to 1984, and Maron continued to make jabs in their demystification of Hollywood's version of the elite university. But O'Brien, who was a playwright by the age of nine, seems like he found the right place to hone his genius -- even if he did have to put up with Harvard Square's constant subway construction, which he continued to whine about to Maron 30 years later. Suck it up, O'Brien.

Listen to 'WTF With Marc Maron Podcast' for free on iTunes >>

Tags: conan obrien, WTF podcast

Comments

(23)

Saturday 09 April

By Nicole

Vote down Vote up Report this

Love Conan! I'm sure it was rough on him when it happened but he has a good sense of humor about it now! I liked the Harvard image he gave too Ha!

By chickie

This lowly 'writer' calls a vicious attack a 'beatdown' as an effort to sound cool.

By Melisa

I have to stick up for Conan. I happen to think he is wicked funny, and a nice guy to boot. Why all the hatred? No one deserves to just be beaten at the drop of a hat b/c of what they are wearing, or for any other reason. This goes to show why the poor guy at the baseball game recently was beaten and now has brain damage, simply b/c of his shirt!! I think a lot of people are walking around with "brain damage", thinking they can do anything that crosses their pitiful mind. GO CONAN!!

Page 2 of 2