The "time travel" to Ancient Greece episode. Conan and Andy dressed in somewhat Roman-looking togas and presented jokes on theme. To that end, the bit was they sent a group of their writers over to the Late Show with David Letterman theater in a Trojan Horse and were going to try to get brought inside. Just after they all get inside and the last guy knocks on the door, a garbage truck rams the horse and dummies of the writers go flying everywhere along with broken 2x4s and plywood. Scorsese talked about making the classic film Taxi Driver for a million dollars in 40 days and nights in New York to which Conan was amazed joking that that night's episode cost a million dollars. Later, Conan said they'd wanted to show a clip from Taxi Driver but had blown the budget on the togas and couldn't afford the rights to show a clip; therefore, the show had re-created a scene from Taxi Driver and cut to it instead. Scorsese had a huge smile on his face in anticipation of pay off after the setup and they cut to none other than Tony Randal in an army fatigue jacket and saying, "Were you addressing me? Were you addressing me? Well there's no one else here is there?" and he whips his body around to look around, but even that is funny because he's in the corner of what appears to be a tiny kitchen with a pathetic shelf and dirty plates on the counter. The clip continues, Tony whips back around and says, "Unless I'm sadly mistaken, there's no one else here," and then he whipped his neck around again saying, "ooh. you made me hurt my neck, you ruffian! You hooligan! Were you addressing me?" And then finally pulls out a revolver and points it into the camera. They returned to Scorsese gave the clip genuine applause and laughter. Finally Conan asked, "This begs the question, 'why didn't you cast Tony Randal in the first place?'" Continuing on the theme of the show, a messenger came running in after running 26 miles in to announce the guests on the following show. Before doing so, Conan announced that, of course, in Ancient Greece, when the messenger brought bad news, he'd be killed on the spot, and they cut to Max holding a sword ready to kill the messenger. Seizing on the expected bit, the audience started booing the guests, but Conan admonished the audience saying, "That's not how this works! You are just booing to get this man killed!" They repeated this through all three guest announcements, but Conan announced they were all great guests and that the messenger should live. Then we follow the messenger as he gets on the elevator and leaves the building and walks out into the street...only to be run down by the same trash truck from the Trojan Horse bit before. And just as before, the messenger's body was replaced by an obvious dummy before getting run down. The second guest, Richard Belzer tagged onto a story that Scorsese told about actors in his films adding dialogue from their real lives, specifically, Joe Pesci's classic line from Goodfellas, "What am I a clown to you?" Belzer claimed that he was the guy Pesci had been talking to in the original exchange. Belzer said he'd told Pesci that he thought he was funny, and that's when Pesci got all serious and said, "What kind of funny?" I suppose there's no way to know if that was true, and add to it Belzer was a comedian for a long time before he originated the Munchiverse, he could have just been making a joke. Then again, it may just be one of those 'urban legend' stories that someone decides to tell and claim for themselves. I wrote up the two best bits from the Ancient Greece theme not because they were particularly funny, but because the producer decided to include them and bumped Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories! Poor Lisa Loeb showed up for 10 seconds at the very end as Conan thanked the audience and said goodbye...not even an apology to Loeb for bumping her...she just waved at the camera. Adding insult to injury, they decided to run the full credits with a replay of the same Trojan Horse getting hit by truck bit. Pretty disappointing that LL&9S didn't get to perform that night, but overall, it was a pretty good show.
Review by ChrisKingVIP BlockedParent2023-12-18T02:51:35Z
The "time travel" to Ancient Greece episode. Conan and Andy dressed in somewhat Roman-looking togas and presented jokes on theme. To that end, the bit was they sent a group of their writers over to the Late Show with David Letterman theater in a Trojan Horse and were going to try to get brought inside. Just after they all get inside and the last guy knocks on the door, a garbage truck rams the horse and dummies of the writers go flying everywhere along with broken 2x4s and plywood.
Scorsese talked about making the classic film Taxi Driver for a million dollars in 40 days and nights in New York to which Conan was amazed joking that that night's episode cost a million dollars. Later, Conan said they'd wanted to show a clip from Taxi Driver but had blown the budget on the togas and couldn't afford the rights to show a clip; therefore, the show had re-created a scene from Taxi Driver and cut to it instead. Scorsese had a huge smile on his face in anticipation of pay off after the setup and they cut to none other than Tony Randal in an army fatigue jacket and saying,
"Were you addressing me? Were you addressing me? Well there's no one else here is there?" and he whips his body around to look around, but even that is funny because he's in the corner of what appears to be a tiny kitchen with a pathetic shelf and dirty plates on the counter.
The clip continues, Tony whips back around and says, "Unless I'm sadly mistaken, there's no one else here," and then he whipped his neck around again saying, "ooh. you made me hurt my neck, you ruffian! You hooligan! Were you addressing me?" And then finally pulls out a revolver and points it into the camera.
They returned to Scorsese gave the clip genuine applause and laughter. Finally Conan asked, "This begs the question, 'why didn't you cast Tony Randal in the first place?'"
Continuing on the theme of the show, a messenger came running in after running 26 miles in to announce the guests on the following show. Before doing so, Conan announced that, of course, in Ancient Greece, when the messenger brought bad news, he'd be killed on the spot, and they cut to Max holding a sword ready to kill the messenger. Seizing on the expected bit, the audience started booing the guests, but Conan admonished the audience saying, "That's not how this works! You are just booing to get this man killed!" They repeated this through all three guest announcements, but Conan announced they were all great guests and that the messenger should live. Then we follow the messenger as he gets on the elevator and leaves the building and walks out into the street...only to be run down by the same trash truck from the Trojan Horse bit before. And just as before, the messenger's body was replaced by an obvious dummy before getting run down.
The second guest, Richard Belzer tagged onto a story that Scorsese told about actors in his films adding dialogue from their real lives, specifically, Joe Pesci's classic line from Goodfellas, "What am I a clown to you?" Belzer claimed that he was the guy Pesci had been talking to in the original exchange. Belzer said he'd told Pesci that he thought he was funny, and that's when Pesci got all serious and said, "What kind of funny?"
I suppose there's no way to know if that was true, and add to it Belzer was a comedian for a long time before he originated the Munchiverse, he could have just been making a joke. Then again, it may just be one of those 'urban legend' stories that someone decides to tell and claim for themselves.
I wrote up the two best bits from the Ancient Greece theme not because they were particularly funny, but because the producer decided to include them and bumped Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories! Poor Lisa Loeb showed up for 10 seconds at the very end as Conan thanked the audience and said goodbye...not even an apology to Loeb for bumping her...she just waved at the camera. Adding insult to injury, they decided to run the full credits with a replay of the same Trojan Horse getting hit by truck bit.
Pretty disappointing that LL&9S didn't get to perform that night, but overall, it was a pretty good show.