For his first Thanksgiving in LA, Conan sits down to Thanksgiving Dinner with his closest acquaintances Jordan Schlansky, Pierre Bernard and Wing Peng. There are two certainties in life anytime Conan hangs out with Jordan. 1) There will be pretension and 2) Conan's gonna meet Jordan's pretension head-on with "alcohool". Drink up, Squanto.
I really hope this becomes a holiday tradition. This is eerily similar to an another LA talk show host who also gathered his assorted gang for Thanksgiving Dinner Roundtable...
Ahhh, I so wish I had more of these on tape. It was a Thanksgiving tradition that I looked forward to every year. RIP - Rod Roddy.
#11. Guest: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. His intro music is some bass and drums and the following rant: "Don't miss it. Now through Monday only, a wide array of furniture has been reduced 35% -86% off!" etc. This is a reference to commercials for Levitz Furniture, from Lebanon, PA. Joseph Gordon-Levitt... Levitz.
#12. Guest: Elvis Costello. The Roots play a few bars of "Radio, Radio" and then suddenly stop. Questlove says, "Whoah! Whoah! Whoah! Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm really sorry, there's no need for us to do this tonight." and then they play "Pump It Up". It was done so well that they actually succeeded in fooling Elvis Costello with his own shtick.
This is a reference to the famous incident when Elvis Costello was the musical guest on SNL. A last-minute replacement for the Sex Pistols, he was specifically told to play "Less Than Zero"and not "Radio, Radio" because the latter was seen as critical of the media. Him and his band played a few seconds of "Less Than Zero", but Elvis stopped, gave the "No reason to do this song" line and launched into a loud version of "Radio, Radio". The stunt caused Lorne Michaels (famously not a fan of such ad libbing / blatant disrespect) to ban Costello from SNL for life.
By 1999 however, all was forgiven and for the 25th Anniversary SNL Show, the incident was playfully (and gloriously) relived with a little help from the Beastie Boys.
Bit 'O Trivia: Friday, Elvis Costello and Jimmy Fallon were both on the same show. Not only are they both talk show hosts, but they also can attribute getting their own talk show, in no small measure, to the fact that they both were guest-hosts on the Late Show during the period where David Letterman was out with the Shingles. Eh? Eh? Eh? Ehhh.
"What Up With That?" returns with a new episode. As always they tackle the complex issues and difficult problems facing the world today. Leading off the show is internet inventor Al Gore, probably to attempt to explain why "Global Warming" isn't a load of old toss. I'm not sure 'cause I got Pac-Man fever and I got it good.
With special appearance by Jake "The Snake" Roberts!
People who are "experts" in extremely narrow subject matter are like morticians: It's nice to know they're there, but I don't really want to go into any detail. It's reassuring that if someone needed to know about, say, a particular antique barometer, there's someone out there who's the "goto" antique barometer expert and will have an answer for all your antique barometer queries. At the same time though, you know that your interaction should be strictly restricted to the antique barometer subject matter - digging any deeper into the matter will reveal a depressing portrait of a man with an unhealthy obsession. A guy that can't stop collecting antique barometers. A guy who needs antique barometers. A guy whose house is in permanent darkness because the stacks of piled up antique barometers have blocked out the windows. A man who used to be married but his wife left him because she could no longer deal with the antique barometers. A man who's barely functioning within any societal norms at all until one day he stops showering just so he can use the tub for more storage... All for the sake of the antique barometers.
This depressing and overly ominous intro leads us to the video at hand. One day the folks at "Late Night" decided to throw caution to the wind and interview a man who is an expert on bread. Yes, a bread expert. A man who has devoted his entire life to the study and appreciation of bread. The talk show interview format being what it is, it's the guaranteed "look down into the cellar" that one would normally avoid. What follows is one of the funnier and more unusual interviews ever on the show.
