By Judy Berman March 2, 2025 11:40 PM EST N o one does self-deprecation like Conan O’Brien. His inexhaustible capacity for cracking jokes at his own expense is what made him so delightful to watch in the messy early years of NBC’s Late Night With Conan O’Brien , when the show’s low ratings were his favorite running joke and an excuse to air some of the weirdest talk-show gags ever. And it’s why he proved to be such an appealing host of Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards . Whenever O’Brien was onstage,