The Late Late Show had another of its ‘positive’ shows on Friday.
We’re calling it emotional engineering.
Ryan Tubridy: “Do you think we have – we’ve been celebrating, as you know, and we’re trying to, and news of the president of America coming to see us, and we’re trying to –”
Edna O’Brien: “Very good, yes.”
Tubridy: “Well, it’s good, we’re trying to drum up a little bit of, I suppose, positivity, breathe it back into the country again. And do you think we have much to celebrate?”
O’Brien: “Well we’re here. Of course we have. We’re alive, there’s music. That music was wonderful. It would be absurd of us to think we haven’t. That is not to omit or disregard or be ignorant or closing one’s eyes to what problems. But of course there is, celebrate. If you think – and I was told I was to be optimistic and upbeat -”
Tubridy: “You don’t have to be if you don’t feel that way.”
O’Brien: “Oh I do feel it. I’m thrilled to be here.”
Tubridy: “No no.”
O’Brien: “I do feel it.”
Tubridy: “No no but if you’re feeling… otherwise, say so.”
O’Brien: “If you think about what’s happening for instance in Japan. We have to have a sense of perspective. The land is still here. It’s not penal times. There’s so much. Plus people being tested know this; I’m sure everyone in this audience – you’re young but maybe you know it too. Oh you’re looking peculiar there.”
Tubridy: “That’s my normal face.”
O’Brien: “Being tested is a very significant thing. Life, whoever lives it, is not easy and of course people will have to come through it. What else do you do?”