Conan O’Brien has revealed that one of this year’s Best Picture nominees has defeated him and his entire writing team.
They admitted they wrote 5,000 jokes about Train Dreams and cut every single one of them.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on 11th March, just days before his return as Oscars host on 15th March, O’Brien shared the best joke they managed to come up with about the Joel Edgerton film.
“Train Dreams was nominated for Best Picture. Finally, a movie that proves being a Pacific Northwest lumberjack in the early 1900s wasn’t as fun as it sounds.”
The audience’s reaction was muted, with only a handful having even seen the film.
“No! No! No! Pity applause doesn’t work,” O’Brien shot back at the crowd. “You waited, you were sad, as I was. That’s why you’re not gonna see this joke.”
He had already flagged the problem to host Jimmy Kimmel earlier in the interview.
“There are times where there are certain areas we cannot crack. One of them is the movie Train Dreams. Can’t get a good joke for Train Dreams, which means there is no good joke for Train Dreams.”
He was quick to add, with characteristic self-deprecation directed elsewhere: “And these are very good writers, so I blame Train Dreams. It’s a beautiful movie, but no joke sticks to it.”
