conan-panda

Following the news of his move to TBS, Conan O’Brien began his nationwide tour of live shows with a performance in Eugene, Oregon. The Live Feed has a compilation of the gentle barbs Conan lobbed at NBC during the 20 minutes of stand-up that opened the show. A few highlights:

–A video clip of an “NBC executive” was shown stroking a cat before introducing a show called “I’m a Celebrity and I Eat Bark.” The executive then threw the animal, saying “I need a new cat!”

–O’Brien outlined the “eight stages of grief after losing your talk show”: “denial; blame myself; blame everyone else around me; anger; paranoia; 36 hours of Red Bull and Halo; buy everything Amazon says I would also like – I bought a Team Edward thong!; and get your ass to Eugene, Ore.!”

O’Brien also referenced the fact that he cannot take his former bits with him on his new show, bringing out Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, who did a bit, and the Masturbating Bear. Putting a hood over the bear, O’Brien said the character has been replaced by the “Self-Pleasuring Panda.”

In related Conan news, there are also more details about how TBS swooped in and picked him up for a late-night show. O’Brien was hesitant to do to George Lopez what NBC tried to do to Conan until Lopez called him personally and assured him that he wanted him to join the team. And that was nice of Lopez, but this F’s up my whole worldview. Having Conan and George Lopez on the same team is like Dave Chappelle opening for Jay Leno in Vegas, or Patton Oswalt hosting a show about cakes on TLC.