Conan O’Brien Jokes Jason Bateman Was to Blame for Parents’ Deaths

Conan O’Brien used a long-running bit with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett as a way of coping with his parents’ back-to-back deaths in December 2024.

“So I hear that your dad passes away, and I text you that day or the next day, and I said, ‘Hey, listen, I’m sorry to hear about your dad’s passing, sending love from our family to yours,’ Arnett, 55, recalled to O’Brien, 62, on his “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast on Monday, December 8. “And you wrote, ‘Thank you, Will, to be honest, I blame Bateman.”

Arnett said he wrote back to O’Brien, “It’s not a terrible theory,” to which the former Conan host bluntly joked, “He killed my dad.”

O’Brien then chimed in to say that, “in fairness,” his dad “would have loved” the joke.

Bateman, 56, didn’t seem to mind taking the fall for the death, as the Ozark star apparently joined in on the bit, too.

“I tell Bateman this, we’re dying. … The next day, Bateman texts you, and he says, ‘Arnett tells me you’re onto me.’ And Conan texts Bateman and says, ‘Bateman, do yourself a favor, turn yourself in.’”

Conan’s father, Thomas Francis O’Brien, died at age 95 on December 9, 2024. His mother, Ruthe Reardon, tragically died just three days later at age 92.

Conan continued his bit with Arnett and Bateman after his mom’s death as a way to cope and grieve.

“So I text you two days after, I knew you were in Boston, I said, ‘Bateman is asking for your sister’s street address. OK to give?’” Arnett said.

According to Arnett, Conan later responded to the text with an address and advised him that Bateman should “make it look like a robbery.”

“I swear to God, this is how I grieve,” Conan told listeners.

On a more serious note, the podcaster said that he didn’t know if he would want to do comedy after his parents’ deaths, so it was “comforting” for him to “screw around” with his friends.

“It just was. And so if that makes me a madman, then so be it,” he concluded.

Conan previously opened up about his parents’ deaths in an interview with NBC News in May. He had been filming his series Conan Must Go and had just agreed to host the Oscars for the first time when he learned about his father’s death. Additionally, just weeks after his parents’ deaths, wildfires tore through Southern California

“I was in Austria when my brother Luke called me and said, ‘Dad passed,’” he said at the time. “And I took a van to a plane to another plane, just different airport hubs, got to Boston. And walk in the room and my dad’s bed is empty, and my mom was in the bed next to him. And I could tell that she was going. Which was surreal. And she passed within three days of my dad passing.”

The actor then had to plan a double funeral.

“The scramble to get that together, and all the emotions that come with it,” Conan continued. “And the minute Christmas was over, I was like, ‘OK, you just have to get to work on the Oscars because there’s not much time.’ And the fires hit, and we were evacuated and we’re living in a hotel, very fortunately. The fire came very close and our house survived.”

He added, “You can do things when you don’t have a choice. And I think that’s an amazing thing.”