Thinking of the latter day post-Johnny Carson kings of late night TV today. In the God-forsaken 21st century, with late night TV and numerous other things we cherish clearly transitioning to the going-going-gone category, our favorite of the post-Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night With David Letterman shows is Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
While Joan Rivers, Arsenio Hall and Jay Leno certainly had their moments as late night TV hosts, the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog finds Late Night With Conan O'Brien funnier than just about all the competition, with the exception of Craig Ferguson.
Kicking this cornucopia of Conan clips off: appearances on Late Night With Conan O' Brien by the greatest standup comic not named Jonathan Winters, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Robin Williams, Bill Hicks, Gilbert Gottfried, Stephen Wright or Mitch Hedberg to ever appear on late night - Norm MacDonald!
Late Night With Conan O'Brien employed a bunch of the very best writers in late-night TV, featured some of the most unabashedly absurdist stuff the comedy and classic television mavens here have ever seen. It's not an accident that there's a photo of Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams on the wall behind Conan.
Often, the writers, all comedy performers from improv and stand-up, were featured in sketches. Two writer/performers we find devastatingly funny: the Brians, Stack (from Second City Chicago) and McCann.
There's something about Brian Stack's florid character The Interrupter that cracks me up.
While it's tough to pick a favorite from the many Brian McCann sketches, we particularly love his where's my kayak bit.
As much as we enjoy Ed McMahon from The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, unquestionably Andy Richter is, with apologies to John Candy as William B. Williams on THE SAMMY MAUDLIN SHOW, the funniest individual to be a late-night show sidekick BY FAR.
An Andy Richter fan has done us the favor of compiling his many great moments from Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
Andy Richter definitely is the SIDEKICK GOAT and his Three Questions podcast is always worth a listen.
This writer shall be needing laughs big time, with recent passings of old friends from the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the losses of musicians as founder of heavy metal Ozzy Osborne and flugelhornist Chuck Mangoine. Will be revisiting Conan's shows, ANY program featuring Brian Stack and Brian McCann, and also re-watching that very funny episode, the first of season 27, of South Park, the funniest comedy I've seen from Messrs Parker & Stone since that scene in Team America World Police involving Kim Jung II.
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