November 27, 2009

Taylor Lautner on Tonight Show

On Monday's Tonight Show (airdate: 11/23/09), Taylor Lautner was the first guest. I was curious to see if he'd say anything about his role playing a Quileute Indian.

Lautner got a big round of applause when Conan O'Brien mentioned his name. Lautner got an even bigger round of applause when O'Brien introduced him. I don't recall any guest getting as much applause--even Kristen Stewart, who was on the show the week before.

As it turns out, O'Brien and Lautner didn't say anything about Indians. In fact, they didn't say anything about wolves or werewolves. The talk was mainly about the Twilight fans' craziness. According to Lautner, the least enthusiastic fans are screamers; the most enthusiastic fans are fainters.

Wolf Boy appears again

With the popularity of vampires, O'Brien occasionally does a bit about his "personal assistant," a "brooding, handsome, misunderstood" vampire named Cody Devereaux. Another "personal assistant," a tanned shirtless guy called Wolf Boy, has joined Devereaux a few times. Wolf Boy even has a circular tattoo on his shoulder similar to the one sported by the wolf boys in New Moon.

With Lautner as the guest, it was probably inevitable that Devereaux and Wolf Boy would appear again. And so they did.

Fortunately, Conan hasn't called Wolf Boy an Indian. Although I love Indians in pop culture, I'd say that's a good thing. Anything that associates Indians with were-beasts is bad in my mind.

For more on the subject, see Twilight Reflects Sick Society and Native Aspects of New Moon.

Below:  A previous appearance of Cody Devereaux and Wolf Boy.

2 comments:

dmarks said...

It's probably just chance that Conan hasn't called Wolf Boy an Indian yet.

Rob said...

Could be. But note how Conan seems a bit reluctant to utter the phrase "Native Americans." I suspect he feels pressure to be "politically correct." That means not referring to Indians except in controlled situations like his scripted jokes.