Conan O’Brien poked fun at his Irish roots as he was honored at the US-Ireland Alliance pre-Oscar party.
He asked a merry crowd at director J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot studios in Santa Monica, “How many people here are Irish, really Irish? I am the most Irish person in this room, I mean it on a genetic level — I am the most Irish person here.” The comic explained: “Let me tell you why, my people come from Dungarvan, County Waterford. Don’t pretend you know where the hell that is.”
Conan — who was honored along with YouTube founder Chad Hurley at the event, and was introduced by Joel McHale — said, “My people came to this country in 1850, but we went straight to central Massachusetts . . . and there for 160 years we married only other 100 percent Irish people in this very tiny farming community, which means, ladies and gentlemen, I am dangerously inbred! I can’t go out in the sun, I shouldn’t have children. I am telling my wife that tonight.”
When sirens were heard in the distance, he joked, “This is such an Irish event the cops are coming!”