Among the Hollywood's A-list members who commented on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo shooting in France is TBS late night show "Conan" host Conan O'Brien, who himself once wrote for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine.
In his opening monologue on the evening of Jan. 7, Wednesday, O'Brien described the terror attack a "terrible tragedy" and emphasized that no one should have to "think twice before making a joke."
For O'Brien, the story of 12 people killed because "a satirical newspaper made jokes that some group found offensive" really hits home for people who poke fun at political, religious and social and figures day in and day out.
O'Brien pointed out that in the United States the right to "poke fun at the untouchable or the sacred" is just taken for granted. However, the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris is a very visceral reminder that "it is a right that some people are inexplicably forced to die for."
"All of us are terribly sad for the families of those victims, for the people of France, and for anyone in the world tonight who now has to think twice about telling a joke," O'Brien said. "That's not the way it's supposed to be."
It only took minutes for the Charlie Hebdo shooting gunmen to wound 11 people and kill 12 others. Approximately half an hour before lunch break, the gunmen entered a building two doors down from the Charlie Hebdo offices. Apparently, the attackers had the wrong address.
Among those who survived the massacre was Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Corinne Rey, who goes by the name Coco for. Rey told French newspaper L'Humanite that the gunmen claimed to be with al Qaeda and "spoke French perfectly."