It began simple enough. With health care reform a major topic of debate among Americans, Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien aimed a softball joke at Newark, New Jersey, saying the city's new health care plan was a bus ticket out of town. Laughs ensued. All was forgotten.
Except for 40-year-old Newark Mayor Cory Booker. The Mayor is renowned for his no nonsense approach to turning around the once-beleaguered city - even appearing on talk shows like The Colbert Report to talk about the city's dramatic reduction in crime.
Mayor Booker responded to O'Brien's joke via a video on YouTube banning O'Brien from flying in to Newark Liberty International Airport.
O'Brien quickly fired back, joking that, having been banned from Newark, he was in good company. "Check out what else has been banned from Newark: deodorant, fresh water, college diplomas and cars in the possession of their rightful owner."
The talk show host then went so far as to ban Booker from Burbank airport.
Not to be outdone, Booker returned to YouTube and extended O'Brien's ban to all of New Jersey. He then challenged O'Brien to a race similar to the one in which the host hit his head and sustained a concussion.
O'Brien saw Booker's move and upped the ante - with a little help from Mayor Chris Bollwage of Elizabeth, NJ. Mayor Bollwage wrote O'Brien to tell him that his city would welcome the talk show host with "open arms" and, since Terminal A of the Newark airport receded in Elizabeth, Mayor Bollwage would rename the location Conan O'Brien Terminal if O'Brien chose to visit Elizabeth.
The host then said he'd make allies with all the cities surrounding Newark, effectively boxing Mayor Booker in.
The comic battle reached its zenith with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a "cease fire" between the two in early October.
Booker responded that there was too much division in America and that it was time for him to do whatever it would take to end the feud.
That has led to "talk show summit" on The Tonight Show, scheduled for Friday, October 16, 2009.
