Conan O’Brien’s the best talk show host we’ve still got, but he sees the writing on the wall. As we previously reported, his TBS series will pivot to 30-minute episodes when it returns next year, focusing less on guests and music than comedy. That means no more musical guests and, sadly, no more La Bamba or Mark…
Conan O’Brien’s proven himself remarkably resilient over the years, maintaining his own brand of surreal, off-kilter comedy even after hopping across networks and formats. Next year, his TBS talk show will evolve yet again, dropping to a 30-minute format and eliminating musical acts in an effort to put the host’s…
On Tuesday’s Conan, Loving Pablo star Javier Bardem told host Conan O’Brien about the most chilling line he gets to say in the film about infamous Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. From the former Anton Chigurh (he of the deadpan coin flips of doom), that’s saying something, but, indeed, Bardem successfully wigged…
Yesterday, surrealist British web series Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared posted the first trailer for their upcoming episode—or, more likely, episodes. For those that haven’t experienced the frightening horror show firsthand, DHMIS presents itself as a children’s show, complete with puppets, claymation, and catchy songs about …
Twenty-five years ago today, a fresh-faced, floppy-haired Conan O’Brien started regularly hosting his very own late night TV show. A quarter century (and a few network changes) later, he’s still going strong with the kind of weirdo sketches and affable celebrity interviews that garnered such a devout following over…
Comedy fans let forth a hearty hurrah earlier this year when Brooklyn Nine-Nine was saved from cancellation by NBC, the very same network where star Andy Samberg came of age on Saturday Night Live. While one might imagine this would be a cheery reunion for the Lonely Island member and his formative network, it turns…
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the debut of Late Night With Conan O’Brien. NBC rolled the dice on the veteran Simpsons and Saturday Night Live writer, plucking him from relative obscurity to take over for no less a luminary than David Letterman. But after a famously rocky start, the series became a springboard…
While it’s understandable that late-night hosts need to take a few weeks off and recharge their satirical batteries in the summer (or, in Jimmy Fallon’s case, think up new ways to fart around with movie stars and Silly String or whatever), that leaves the rest of us looking for some comedic relief from the daily crush…
When you book 88-year-old comedy icon Bob Newhart as a talk show guest, you imagine you know what you’re going to get. By the time someone lik Newhart has reached his sixth decade in show business, it’s pretty much a given that they’ve reached either the “greatest hits” or “forbearing pity applause” stage. Especially…
On Monday’s Conan, host Conan O’Brien noted that his late-night, on-camera relationship with first guest Marc Maron goes back a full quarter-century. Well, nearly, as Conan joked, “You know, the first year we weren’t sure about you.” Maron replied, “And then you realized I could alienate people over and over again,”…
Conan O’Brien’s various late-night shows have always skewed a little absurdist, a fact underlined by the host’s recent decision to start dropping the traditional talk show format from Conan on TBS, but it turns out that his dream guest—the one he’s been trying to get for years—is actually more of a “smart guy” than an…
In the blasted, blustering, hacky hellscape of TV Donald Trump impressions, finding a fresh take on the current occupant of the White House is harder than finding a Trump administration figure not under criminal investigation. You’ve got your high-profile, wig-dependent pickers of low-hanging fruit (Alec Baldwin,…
On a day when a real-life shady lawyer appears to be headed for his own personal Cinnabon franchise after possibly flipping on his powerful criminal associate, it’s nice to reflect on everyone’s favorite morally suspect attorney, Saul Goodman. Or Jimmy McGill. Or Gene Takavic. Look, when you’re laundering drug money…
It’s 3 p.m.! Let The A.V. Club briefly make use of a few precious minutes of your rapidly depleting leisure time with some pop culture ephemera pulled from the depths of YouTube.
Aubrey Plaza’s droll sense of humor helped cut the sometimes-twee sensibilities of Parks And Recreation, and she’s gone further afield as the gonzo sorta-antagonist of Legion and in dark comedies like Ingrid Goes West. As the above montage demonstrates, there’s nowhere she’s more at home than in the anodyne setting of…
Showing a little intra-lowlife solidarity tonight, the hosts of three major late-night talk shows eschewed network affiliations to team up for a bit taking aim at Donald Trump, who devoted time during a recent rally—as is his shambling wont—to critiquing their performances in a variety of insulting terms. Hence, then,…
In the current stable of late-night hosts, no one has been in the game longer than Conan O’Brien. That feels weird to say because, once upon a time, he was the sweaty, wide-eyed rookie in a field of veteran showmen. But after 25 years behind the desk at Late Night, The Tonight Show, and Conan on TBS—which will soon…
Anyone familiar with Andy Daly’s singularly impressive body of work knows there’s no one better at portraying outwardly chipper everymen whose beaming geniality barely conceals an existential cistern teeming with all manner of squirming, submerged frustrations, insecurities, and outright madness. From his cavalcade of…
Early last year, we reported on a rumor that Conan O’Brien’s Conan show on TBS was considering a move to a weekly format instead of airing every night. TBS denied the story, and Conan remained a nightly show, but now it is getting a change to its format. As announced in a press release, Conan will switch to a new…
Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump impression isn’t particularly funny and hasn’t been for a while, but part of the reason Saturday Night Live dumps Baldwin in orange paint every week is because it drives the real Trump crazy—which, to be fair, is a little funny. Apparently, though, Trump’s predecessors in the White House…
