In his last week on the Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien is spending NBC’s money like there’s no tomorrow. Anyone who’s ever been fired will appreciate this video:


I am reminded of a story from the biography Kovacsland: Way back in the 50s, Ernie Kovacs was doing a limited run of TV shows as a summer fill-in. For some reason, he believed that he’d keep any surplus cash that the network had given him to produce the show, so he was super-stingy with the money.

Kovacs discovered just before the last show that the money was to return to the network, so in his last show, he brought out elephants and dancing girls and all manner of expensive entertainments and then the demolished the set with either a sledge hammer or a chainsaw—I can’t remember which—and he spent every single penny of the network’s money. (If anyone knows where I can find this show online, I’d much appreciate the link.) I hope Conan does the exact same thing with his Friday night show.

34 replies on “This Is Pretty Funny”

  1. This sits kinda funny with me…considering the economy and Haiti and all. If he really truly did spend $1.5 mil on that bit, I wish he’d gotten the Stones to donate their royalty to charity or something. Kind of hard to hear “Hey, we just flushed $1.5 million down the toilet!” even though I do appreciate the joke…

  2. Yes, yes, because if people are spending their money on anything beyond sustenance-level food purchases, they’re killing people in Haiti.

    It was a joke; the car was borrowed from a nearby museum, and while NBC may have to pay for the royalties for Satisfaction on the initial broadcast, they won’t be paying any more for Hulu because they’ve pulled that segment from the “full episode”.

  3. Yes, yes, I’m humorless and don’t understand that it’s a joke. Thanks for the lesson.

    I didn’t say that anytime people spend money it should go to Haiti. But I do think the timing is a little off making a joke like that with people out of work and, yes, Haiti in the headlines. And I know they pulled it from Hulu, etc. I still think the joke was a misfire, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation…I’m not the only one who found it funny but a little off-putting, and many people in televisionland don’t understand that he didn’t run out and buy the car, etc.

  5. Who, me? Well, I’d say that making jokes about frivolously blowing huge sums of money would go over better in sunnier economic times not featuring huge natural disasters in the headlines. Not sure it’s being “liberal” to think the joke is a misfire. Or maybe you weren’t talking to me.

  7. If you didn’t find the joke funny, you didn’t find it funny. But, I feel like most people would realize that Conan didn’t actually go out and buy the most expensive car in the world. That the actual cost of the segment was probably not even one-tenth of $1.5 million. He’s been doing a lot of “screw NBC” humor in the past couple of weeks, so I thought this was not only funny, but in keeping with his ongoing tone.

  9. I don’t really care about the joke that much, though. I just had a thought and put it on the internets. Let’s move past this, everyone. Huzzah for Ernie Kovacs!

  10. The cost of the segment was mainly in licensing the Stones song. Which is greatly reduced since it’s not going online, etc. But it wasn’t an entirely-false joke. But anyway. Yeah. I like Conan. I thought the joke was funny, I just thought it was a little ill-timed. I am now done talking about my opinion of the joke.

  12. I think you guys are working with two different versions of the word “waste.”

    There’s a difference between “spending a show’s money frivolously” and “actually destroying money/expensive property.”

    In this clip, they took a nice car, put mouse ears on it, and played a song. Whatever money traded hands–royalty for the song, renting the car, sending an intern to buy fabric to make mouse ears–that’s just commerce, showbusiness, whatever. It’s no more morally reprehensible than producing a movie, filming a commercial, et cetera.

    From the way you guys are talking, it sounded like they actually destroyed value in a sketch–by smashing an expensive car, or buying and shredding the “Satisfaction” master, or literally burning money. That would have been a downer to watch.

    But what they actually did? No reason to fuss.

  15. @1 There’s no way the sketch actually cost $1.5M. If you think they actually bought that car, you’re nuts. Besides, life has to return to normal eventually.

  16. Virtually none of Kovacs’ TV shows still exist- the majority were live TV, made before Videotape was in use, and the later ones that were taped were largely lost.

  17. We’ve been over this. I realize it didn’t really cost that much, and now it seems like it cost very little at all. And the fake $1.5 mil tag never included buying the car…the car alone costs more than that. I just thought the joke appeared ill-timed. And since I’ve seen others talking about that, and now NBC specifying that the joke didn’t cost very much, I think I’m probably not alone. However, I like Conan and I did think it was funny, so bleah. Also, I am not nuts, except that I keep posting in this thread.

  20. When I watched the clip, I thought it was funny… but maybe I found it funny for the wrong reasons. Good god, I think I was tricked into laughing! Help me, internet – tell me how to feeeeeel

  21. @1 – You’re wasting your time complaining about Conan when you could be fundraising for Haiti. Also, you should quit smoking / drinking / lattes and send that money to Haiti too. Now get cracking!

  22. This is funny because like so many of us he is losing his job because his employers are morons. Seriously, NBC actually thinks Leno’s stale humor makes a better show? They actually thought he was worth that money and the prime time slot in the first place. Fuck em, I wish Conan really did spend $1.5 million on this skit. I would admire someone in that position more for donating and saying nothing than donating and declaring what a great person they are.

    In the context of “poor timing in light of the Haitian crisis”, if a millionare gives generously to Haiti and noone hears about it, did he or she actually donate?

  23. I have a whole collection of The Ernie Kovacs show that my grandpa left to me. Man, that guy was awesome. Conan is getting the best ratings ever and its because he’s finally back to his own material – being the underdog punchline that Late Night always was. Jimmy Fallon is now capitalizing on that.

  25. “Seriously, NBC actually thinks Leno’s stale humor makes a better show?”

    Leno was number 1 in the timeslot.
    Conan is not.

    You may not like America, but they have spoken.

  27. @25, if Carson had moved to 10 instead of retiring, I doubt Leno would have had good ratings in his first 7 months. And, really, he didn’t even without Carson, not at first.

    Speaking of all that, anyone remember when Carson died and Letterman revealed that he’d been supplying monologue jokes over the years? His whole monologue was Carson jokes that night. Nice moment.

  28. “Who, me? Well, I’d say that making jokes about frivolously blowing huge sums of money would go over better in sunnier economic times not featuring huge natural disasters in the headlines. Not sure it’s being “liberal” to think the joke is a misfire. Or maybe you weren’t talking to me.”

    God, you are such a bitch. Join the peace corps or shut up. Lord knows you’re not volunteering enough around here if you have such energy to judge.

  31. Tonight’s was even better, the premise being they bought Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, put him in a mink Snuggie, and had him watching restricted footage of the Super Bowl.

    Good times.

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