Conan O’Brien Slips Bill Cosby Joke into ‘Celebrity Survey’ Segment

Conan Is First Major Late Night Host to Make Bill Cosby Rape Joke (Mediaite)

The mainstream media may have gone all in on theBill Cosby rape allegations story this week, but over on late night television, there has been near-radio silence. At least that was the case until last night, when Conan O’Brien became the first major late night host to make a joke about the Cosby situation.

The moment was buried midway through O’Brien’s popular “Celebrity Survey” segment, in which he lets three celebrities finish the same sentence. In this case, “Where there’s smoke there’s usually…” was finished with “fire” by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Josh Brolin. But Bill Cosby “wrote”: “The smoke is lying.” O’Brien took a nice, long pause, whistling and looking around as the crowd’s laugh died down.