These days, a self-pleasuring bear isn't enough

Wrong Conan, but just as amusing.

I watched the new Conan show on TBS last night. It was fairly engaging, but I can't shake the latent concern that Conan's weirdness, while an endearing quality, is also what drives viewers away. It's obvious that the target audience is my generation: The show was preceded by a Family Guy marathon, the guests were under-30'ers Seth Rogen (who told a bunch of weed jokes) and Lea Michele, as well as prodigal musician Jack White, and the cameos included pseudo-household names Larry King, Jon Hamm, Ricky Gervais and the teenage-boy-gag masturbating bear, among others.

But while it's amusing to revel in Conan's self-proclaimed awkwardness for awhile, the ruse can't last an hour every night of the week. My 20-something attention span, which has been ravaged for years by things with glowing screens, is over it after a few revolutions.

I hope Conan succeeds. I want him to, because he's sincere and cleverly droll, and I appreciate his brand of vaguely band geek humor. But at the end of the day, awkward is just awkward, and if the first show was supposed to wow me, I don't think they're quite there yet.