Despite numerous changes in networks and format over the years, Conan O’Brien and his writers have always remained admirably committed to bringing the most ridiculous sketch premises to life. From the Cactus Chef and FedEx Pope to the Masturbating Bear and Preparation H Raymond, the late night show has never met an absurd idea—and dumb costume—it doesn’t like.
With so many characters introduced, though, not all of them can be winners. Sometimes, even with great costumes and set designs to back up the concept, Conan might dress up two dogs in monster costumes to wreck a model city only for them to wander aimlessly around, eating kibble and refusing to sell the bit.
Inspired by the recent release of Godzilla: King Of The Monsters and its potential to bring about a new match-up between the giant lizard and his big monkey pal King Kong, O’Brien wanted to get his very own versions of the terrifying beasts—King Korgie and Dogzilla—to annihilate a small-scale replica of San Diego as part of the show’s stint at this year’s Comic-Con.
Uploaded to the Team Coco YouTube channel as a scrapped sketch, O’Brien introduces the segment by bringing out King Korgi (“a Cardigan Welsh—the most fearsome of all breeds of Corgi”) in a fuzzy coat and its nemesis, a Basset Hound in green plastic called Dogzilla, which we’re told “stands nearly 18 inches tall and he didn’t nap today so he’s really pissed.”
Little jets are swung above the model city on strings, bombing tiny San Diego with dog treats as the two creatures “battle” by basically just wandering around vacuuming up food and only occasionally knocking over a little building by accident. Even the addition of tiny toy mice in tanks doesn’t make the destruction any more exciting.
“There they go,” O’Brien says as the combatants unceremoniously exit the stage for a while. “They’ve had enough of this bullshit and they’re leaving...And you can see why we didn’t want to put this on the air necessarily.”
Summing up what makes Conan the best show in late night, he adds, “But we just thought, ‘fuck it, why not give it a shot?”
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