Nice write-up on Conan in the New York Times. Not sure I agree entirely. Conan still has his weak spots, such as his interviews. Letterman was the best interviewer ever, and I think Meyers is the best of the current bunch. But Conan is probably the only one left who still tries to be as silly and absurd as possible and is also the only one still doing frequent unscripted spontaneous remote segments (although Colbert did some great remotes from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions last year), both of which are reminiscent of Letterman during the 80s and 90s.
The Nut Spoon sketch is a good example of Conan's current strain of absurdist humor, which is pretty unique amongst the current batch of late night hosts.
Conan and Seth are my favorites now. Conan hardly ever gets political, and Seth is the complete opposite.
I think Conan lost some of his edge going to LA from NYC. When he goes back to NYC, the shows have more juice. I miss the old NBC segments he can't do anymore like In The Year 2000, Masturbating Bear, New Characters, and that thing where someone spoke through the face of some other celebrity:
Minty the Candy Cane who Briefly Fell on the Ground:
OH! When the holidays come around, You can hear the sound, of Minty the candy cane Who briefly fell on the ground. Minty fell on the ground, Now Minty's covered in poo. Cause Minty fell on the ground for just a moment or two. It's becoming evident, he landed in excrement, But never fear cause Minty's here, to make Christmas excellent!
The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true. Go Flames Go!
This could turn out to be a good thing. The interview portion of Conan's shows was regularly his weakest. I'm always puzzled about why Conan would rather bring on a cast member from "The Big Bang Theory" for the 20th time instead of inviting someone more obscure or someone outside of mainstream pop culture, like a writer or historian or scientist or politician or journalist or athlete or even a young comic (to talk, not to perform stand-up) like what Seth Meyers does. I find even the guests on Carson Daly are regularly more interesting than the ones on Conan. Conan is at his best when he is freewheeling and improvising so if this new format focuses on that, I will be happy.
This could turn out to be a good thing. The interview portion of Conan's shows was regularly his weakest. I'm always puzzled about why Conan would rather bring on a cast member from "The Big Bang Theory" for the 20th time instead of inviting someone more obscure or someone outside of mainstream pop culture, like a writer or historian or scientist or politician or journalist or athlete or even a young comic (to talk, not to perform stand-up) like what Seth Meyers does. I find even the guests on Carson Daly are regularly more interesting than the ones on Conan. Conan is at his best when he is freewheeling and improvising so if this new format focuses on that, I will be happy.
I think a half hour commercial free would do him well but 21 minutes of content is not enough imo
