Okay, this is just a copy/pasta from the wiki's....so you know it's 100% factual.
Not that this has anything to do with whether or not you find Conan funny. But just looking at his background...hey, not what I expected.
O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Thomas Francis O'Brien, is a physician, epidemiologist, and professor of medicine at Harvard.[14][15][16] His mother, Ruth O'Brien (née Reardon), is an attorney and partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray.[17] He is the third of six children. O'Brien's family is Irish Catholic; some of his Irish ancestors immigrated before the American Civil War.[16] In a Late Night episode, O'Brien paid a visit to County Kerry, Ireland, where his ancestors originated.
O'Brien attended Brookline High School, where he served as the managing editor of the school newspaper, The Sagamore.[16] In his sophomore year, O'Brien was an intern for Congressman Robert Drinan[18] and in his senior year, he won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest with his short story, "To Bury the Living".[19] After graduating as valedictorian in 1981, he entered Harvard University.[20] At Harvard, O'Brien lived in Holworthy Hall during his freshman year[21] and Mather House during his three upper-class years. He concentrated in history and literature and graduated magna cum laude[22] in 1985.[23] O'Brien's senior thesis concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.[24] During college O'Brien briefly served as the drummer in a band called "The Bad Clams", was a writer for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine,[25] and developed a spoof of the popular video game One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird in which the Boston Celtics play against a classical ballet troupe.[26] During his sophomore and junior years he served as the Lampoon's president.[27] At this time, O'Brien's future boss at NBC, Jeff Zucker, was serving as President of the school's newspaper The Harvard Crimson.[28]