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Conan O’Brien Goes Viral For Amazing, Decades-Old Prank

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | April 2, 2021 |

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | April 2, 2021 |


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Who says Harvard is full of privileged nerds?! (Not me, of course, because I’m concerned about my career.) No matter what you may think about grads from that esteemed place of higher learning, they can cause some mischief too. Not just “buy this magazine or we’ll shoot this dog” mischief either. Just ask Conan O’Brien!

Yesterday, on the day of fools that is April 1st, a story about Mr. O’Brien from a 2004 issue of the Harvard Magazine went viral. In the story, Conan allegedly (I say this here for legality’s sake) pulled a prank in downtown Boston that is really just… some top-notch stuff. It involves police officers, state police officers, hard hats, and a jackhammer!

I was in NO MOOD to hear, read, or witness any April Fools pranks yesterday and yet this demanded my attention. It’s not as simple as “we stole the other team’s mascot” or “we created a Bra Bomb” or “we hit the Dean of Admissions with our car.” There is actual sophistication to this joke. There are stakes! Conan even (allegedly) spent a night in jail because of it!

Also, I can’t think about people posing as construction workers without thinking of Ghostbusters 2, so I’m really the target audience here.

It’s incredible to know that Conan has been both smart and funny for most of his life. I can’t stress enough that this is not the prank of a normal college student. This is the type of prank that only a Harvard Nerd could concoct. From now on, when you see a construction worker arguing with a cop about who is and isn’t real, look for a large coif of red hair. You may be looking at Conan O’Brien.

(Allegedly. And yes, I am not presuming a narrative where he still pulls this same prank as some sort of annual tradition because THAT’S THE WORLD I WANNA LIVE IN.)