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Newark Mayor Bars Conan From NJ in Playful Feud

Booker fires back after O'Brien's Newark joke

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 1, 2009 5:51 PM CDT

(Newser) – Conan O’Brien and Newark Mayor Cory Booker have been lobbing insults back and forth—O’Brien on the Tonight Show, Booker via YouTube—for the past week. It started when Conan made a joke about Booker’s drive to improve Newark's health care—it "consists of a bus ticket out of Newark.” Booker responded in a jokey video post banning O’Brien from Newark—including the airport, notes the New York Post. “Try JFK, buddy," Booker said.

O’Brien fired back last night, challenging Booker to a debate and sarcastically listing the city’s virtues while showing video of slums. "There are other ways to get to your city," he said of the airport ban. "I can navigate the nation's sewer system because everyone knows all sewers lead to Newark." Booker then extended things with yet another YouTube video, extending his ban to all of New Jersey.

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Newark Mayor Cory Booker. (AP Photo/Mike Derer, File)

Conan O'Brien and Newark Mayor Cory Booker are shown in this composite headshot. (AP)

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Newark Mayor continues his feud with Conan O'Brien. (youtube.com)

Conan responds to Newark Mayor Cory Booker's Youtube video. (hulu.com)

Mayor Cory Booker responds to a joke made on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. (YouTube)

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Newark Mayor Bars Conan From NJ in Playful Feud