Late Night with Conan O'Brien/Show 2503

Show 2503
Season 15, Episode 41
Airdate	January 2, 2008
← November 2, 2007 Show 2502	January 3, 2008 → Show 2504
Late Night with Conan O'Brien — Season Fourteen

This is the forty-first episode of the fourteenth season of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and the two thousand five hundred and third overall.

Guests: Bob Saget (Himself), Dwayne Perkins (Himself), Robert Gordon & Chris Spedding (Musical Guest)

Episode Breakdown

• Monologue: Two months after the Writers Guild of America strike, Conan appears on stage sporting a beard grown in solidarity of the striking writers. He starts off talking about the strike and the circumstances surrounding his return to the air. He particularly it very clear that he supports the writers and that nearly everything on the show depends on writing. He cites examples like the Masturbating Bear and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as being works of writers. With no writers, Conan decides to start the show by talking about his beard. He comments that he looks like Young Kris Kringle in Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
• Spin the Ring: Conan asks production assistant Susie Santamora to time him on spinning his wedding ring on his desk in order to break a rehearsal record of 41 seconds. Conan manages to get 36 seconds. Someone from the audience shouts "Again!" but Conan decides that enough's enough for the night.
• Conan's Life During the Strike: In a taped bit from Conan's office, Conan explains what his life has been like since the strike first started in November. He shows off Christmas cards from people like Cheap Trick and Pee Wee Herman, a sudoku book, pictures on the wall, his Conan O'Brien and Abraham Lincoln dolls and an old telephone (among other things). After a while, he straps on a small guitar amp and a guitar to mobilly annoy people with his playing. He wanders around the office playing "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream while the talent booker is attempting to book Kate Hudson for an upcoming show. He also plays "Creep" by Radiohead while other crew members are playing Rock Band to the same song, just to be an ass. He eventually puts down the guitar to play with them, singing "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys as Edith Bunker.
• Bob Saget Interview: Saget struggles with adlibbing the interview, talking about the various unions he's in because he supports the writers and, earlier in the month, the Broadway stagehands. He mentions being part of a meat cutters union and how he was offered a job at a deli while he was shooting a bit for CBS. Every time he tells a joke that bombs, he comments on the water or talks about his beard that doesn't exist. Eventually Conan pulls him towards talking about the play Drowsy Chaperone, on which Saget played an ambiguously gay man. Saget also tries once again to explain 1 vs. 100 but Conan doesn't get it.
• Spin the Ring: Conan spins his ring one more time and only gets 28 seconds.
• Dwayne Perkins Stand-Up: Perkins does a stand-up comedy routine about how he's going to be cutting out people who he only text messages out of his life. But he figures this is dangerous because you can't be sure how the person getting the text will take your message contextually. Perkins talks about how to bring everyone together, giving the example of a Japanese girl dating a Korean and making her parents feel better by briefly dating a black guy so that they'll feel better about the Korean guy. He suggests that she date Flava Flav to soften the impact of dating a normal black guy. Perkins references the NAACP burying the "N word" and how white people are put into a quandary of using it when singing along to rap songs. Perkins tells white people that they can say it if they're alone as long as they don't enjoy it. He ends by talking about how much he hates hearing athletes talk after the games because they say things like "this is about who doesn't want to go home," which doesn't make sense because the Oakland Raiders would beat a bunch of abused kids and they definitely don't want to go home.
• Devil In Disguise: Robert Gordon & Chris Spedding song.

Notes

Music

• "(You're the) Devil in Disguise," performed by Robert Gordon & Chris Spedding: The musical performance for the show was "Devil in Disguise," a song originally performed by Elvis Presley. The song was a #1 hit for Presley in 1963 and has remained popular over the years. The performers on the show, Robert Gordon and Chris Spedding, recorded a tribute album (including the song) called It's Now or Never and went on tour to support it in honor of Presley's death 30 years ago.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Writerless: This is the first episode of Late Night to go on the air without writers. In order to keep his non-writing staff employed, Conan agreed to go back to work after a two-month hiatus without the writers. Although speculation indicated a change of format may have been necessary to facilitate the writerless circumstances, the show went on as usual ad libbed with no extra guests.