Conan Vs. Newark, NJ

Last week, sometime before his triathlon-related injury, Conan delivered one of the Tonight Show's better opening monologue jokes -- a finely crafted two-liner that just happened to take aim at the city of Newark, New Jersey.

After Newark's Mayor Cory Booker heard about the barb, he shrewdly recognized his own opportunity for a smaller-scale Palin-Letterman feud, set up his video camera, responded, and then uploaded said video to his established YouTube account (CoryBookerdotcom). To see the back and forth that followed, included the latest video posted this afternoon, follow us after the jump.

First, the inciting joke:

"The Mayor of Newark, NJ wants to set up a city wide program to improve residents health. The health care program would consist of a bus ticket out of Newark."

Booker's Response

The Newark Mayor issued a response that was part Newark video brochure, part playful barb at Conan and part shameless attention grabber, launching the city into smaller headlines and jokingly banning Conan from the Newark Airport. Booker: +2

Conan's Response

Conan reciprocated with a smoothly produced video montage poking fun at all the city has to offer and remarking that even though he is banned from the Newark's airport, there are other ways he could get enter, like the sewer system "because everyone knows that all sewer pipes lead to Newark." Conan: +1

Booker's Response

Having garnered a response from Conan, the Mayor once again took to his video camera for another shout-out posted this afternoon in which Booker concedes that "Fine," he will appear to settle this feud on the Tonight Show IF Conan agrees "to come to the great city of Newark and really see how truly fantastic this American city is." Booker: +1

Your play, Conan.