The Best Comebacks in History

This week to me seems to be all about Comebacks. Keith Olbermann just started his new version of Countdown on Current, Rebecca Black removed ‘Friday’ from Youtube (no worries – it’s been reposted elsewhere) and has a role in Katy Perry’s new video (Last Friday Night) with a huge all-star cast, and Anthony Weiner is in need of a major comeback (my prediction? He’ll be offered an MSNBC contract by the end of the year. Just look at some of his speeches in congress).

So, here are my favorite comebacks. Maybe Anthony Weiner can find some inspiration this way…

• Conan O’Brien:Everyone is familar with the famous Tonight Show debacle of 2010. Conan was given the Tonight Show

  

  reigns by NBC, only to have them yanked away a few months later to give back to former host Jay Leno. Conan was depressed after losing his job, and battled his own demons with perfection as a preformer and failure as a host of an iconic comedy show. But he made it work for him – O’Brien came out of his dark place and became one of the most popular celebrity personalities on Twitter, got his new gig at TBS, and shot the the documentary about his tour after losing the Tonight Show which comes out this summer. His show at TBS has been very successful so far, with all of his famous pals on Team Coco stopping by for a chat and perchance a little bit of the string dance. Nicely played, Conan.

• Richard NixonOne of the most controversial figures in US Politics, but you can’t argue that Nixon did experience quite

  

  the initial comeback. As a Republican Senator in both the House and the Senate during the 1950′s, he contributed to the controversial Alger Hiss case and earned the nickname “Tricky Dick”. As Vice President in Eisenhower’s Administration, he gained alot of support from the Republican Party with the “Checkers Speech” and took trips of goodwill with his wife. However, when he ran for President in 1960 against John F. Kennedy Jr., he came off in the Kennedy-Nixon Debates as looking sweaty, nervous, and tired under the hot lights and TV cameras. The enthusiasm around the young Kennedy automatically overshadowed Nixon – but only 8 years later he was able to become President of the United States – a comeback if there ever was one. (Of course, the story of what happened later? Not so great of a comeback.)

• Christina Aguilera first broke out into the pop music scene on the 1990′s as an innocent star with songs like ‘Genie in a Bottle.’ Many felt that she was simply a Britney Spears imitation. and a passing phase. But with her next phase as an artist (the ‘Dirrty’ phase), Aguilera showed that she had some real edge with songs like ‘Dirrty‘, but also some real heart with songs like ‘Beautiful‘ – but she was able to shed that image in favor of the 40′s pin-up glamour put forward in her third album, withsongs like ‘Candyman‘. She was able to grow and shift with her audience and gain new fans with ever change that she made in her life – from pop star to legit artist. Today, Aguilera has starred in ‘Burlesque’ with Cher and  bounced back from a number of personal hardships to become the highest-paid judge on the NBC show “The Voice”, which has awesome ratings and a huge fanbase. Way to go, Xtina!

I doubt Anthony Weiner will find much inspiration in these, but I will add one more just in case he’s reading my blog (he’s not): Elliot Spitzer made his sex scandal work for him – he took time to be out of the spotlight and improve himself, and now he has his own show on CNN. Take the hint, Weiner: Don’t do anything for a bit and lie low.