When Conan O’Brien finally took the reigns of “The Tonight Show” this spring, many longtime fans couldn’t help but notice that he seemed uncomfortable toning down the gleefully unhinged humor that made his “Late Night” such a success. Gone were the joys of the Masturbating Bear and Vomiting Kermit the Frog and even his ritual “string dance.”
But I think Conan — and his writers — have finally grown into the new role. Several times this week, he’s had the sharpness and silliness of the old “Late Night” while managing to hold on to the more buttoned-up style “The Tonight Show” requires. Take, for example, the clip above: it’s the sort of juvenile, cheap laugh O’Brien excels at, but he lets the video do the work for him.
Naturally, this improvement won’t solve the present NBC ratings disaster caused by the Great Leno Plague, but it’s good to see one of the best hosts of late-night television grow into the show he inherited. More examples, including an excellent Sarah Palin clip, below:
Obviously, the credit for this masterfully edited segment featuring Sarah Palin’s appearance on “Oprah” goes to Conan’s creative team, but the success of a show is as dependent on its writers as it is the host’s charisma. Big points for this one.
Below is the second part of Jane Lynch’s appearance the other night. After she talks about working with Carol Burnett, Lynch talks about working with Andy Richter in the early ’90s, and it’s a delight to watch Conan revel in Andy’s embarrassment.
[top clip via The Live Feed]
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I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I don’t really like Andy anymore. He seems/is unnecessary.
So every time he transforms into a wolf, he loses a perfectly good pair of khaki shorts and sleeveless T-Shirt? That’s gotta get expensive. He probably buys them in bulk from Old Navy now.
Does it not concern the tards who see this that there are better graphics in Modern Warfare 2, and in sheer size, the wolves seem to be a solid 250 pounds heavier than their human originators? No, not as long as their shirts stay off? Gotcha.
DID CONAN GET HIS GROOVE BACK?
I was under the impression this involved having a torrid affair with a Jamaican dude. If so, still worth it.
The best part of that Palin clip is that her normal speech patterns are so disjointed, you can’t easily tell it was edited.
My dream is that in three years Conan’s ratings are higher than Leno’s ever were at 11:30, and Jay is on the schedule five days a week popping drain plugs at an InstaLube.
when we’re older we’ll be telling kids about the Great Leno Plague…”we lost a lot of quality TV time those days”
Strange Botwin: Modern Warfare 2 has no dedicated servers therefore we shouldn’t even consider mentioning anything in the game even casually or sexually.
My favorite Conan moment from this past week was when he told his audience that the brain dead duo Spencer and Heidi Pratt would be on and the entire audience booed loudly.