Late Night - Conan & Andy Drive an Ice Cream Truck

For the youtube re-release, the original music used has been replaced with new music. I think they should state that in the video description to alleviate confusion but they don't. At least you know that going in.



This is one of the pieces I was waiting for as it has special significance to me. This was the comedy remote that got me to start watching Conan*.

I was already a Letterman fan for years before this. I knew from the first episode of the "Late Show" I had watched that I loved the show. But because of Conan's bad press when he started, and basically just ignorance, I was under the impression that Conan "sucked" and that was the end of it.

In August of 1997**, I was on Summer vacation in between my sophomore and junior years in high school. I was off from school but still working part-time in my teen "first job" job. One night my friend Jake was staying over and we turned on Conan (I don't remember why, exactly). We tuned in as this piece was playing, we maybe didn't even see the whole thing and loved it.

In particular, it was the joke at the end. In describing the madness of the kids getting free ice cream, Andy says, "Somebody smashed Piggy's glasses too." That joke was like a nuclear bomb that exploded our brains. We couldn't stop quoting it and came to the conclusion that "Andy is awesome". From then on I'd start watching Late Night regularly, not for Conan, but to see Andy. And then eventually Conan grew on me as well.

Looking back, one of the things I was excited about was the wish fulfillment of having your own ice cream truck. It's funny how this remote is the Venn diagram overlap of adulthood and childhood.

* - This is the skit that got me to start watching Conan but it's not the first time I saw the show. The first time I saw Conan was during the "mustard set" era and it was an interview segment. I was sleeping over my friend's house and he insisted that Conan's laugh was fake - not just "put on" but that it seemed like a sound effect overdubbed later kind of "fake". I disagreed but if you watch early Conan interviews, that phenomenon can still be recreated. I'm afraid my first Conan segment/interview/episode has been completely lost to time as these things are the only things I remember about the experience.

** - This piece first aired August 21, 1997. But pinning "I remember exactly where I was when this first aired" can be extremely dangerous because of reruns. Especially with late night talk shows - the most memorable bits are the ones they re-air the most. I think my memory agrees with August enough that it just feels right. I think I can assume this was the day.