Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend

Zach Galifianakis Returns

64 min
May 4, 202627 days ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Conan O'Brien hosts comedian and actor Zach Galifianakis, discussing his career trajectory from busboy at a strip club to Hollywood success, his philosophy on staying grounded despite fame, and his new gardening show. The episode explores how success magnifies existing personality traits, the importance of comedy over politics, and Zach's passion for gardening as an antidote to entertainment industry toxicity.

Insights
  • Success acts as a magnifying lens—amplifying existing traits like insecurity, anger, or gratitude rather than fundamentally changing a person
  • Comedians who refuse to laugh at themselves project weakness rather than strength, while self-deprecation humanizes public figures and builds connection
  • Disconnection from food production, death, and nature represents a generational loss of primal human knowledge that affects mental health and resilience
  • Technology addiction is deliberately engineered by design, requiring intentional friction (like app blockers) to restore human agency and mental health
  • Gardening and outdoor work provide therapeutic benefits that counteract the toxicity of entertainment industry pressures and social media culture
Trends
Celebrity mental health tied to disconnection from nature and grounded activities; gardening/farming as therapeutic practice gaining tractionBacklash against over-communication and constant connectivity; growing adoption of digital minimalism tools and phone-free practicesPolitical polarization reducing comedy's ability to punch up at power; comedians increasingly self-censoring rather than challenging authority figuresAI and tech industry leadership lacking wisdom component; math-driven innovation without ethical guardrails creating societal riskRegulation of social media and tech platforms becoming inevitable; early-stage 'Wild West' phase of internet giving way to governance frameworksFood security and climate anxiety driving interest in home gardening and food sovereignty among affluent demographicsGenerational mental health crisis linked to smartphone adoption and social media; boredom and unstructured time recognized as developmentally necessaryEntertainment industry toxicity driving high-profile figures toward rural/remote living and non-performance creative outlets
Topics
Success and its psychological effects on personality and mental healthComedy ethics and the role of comedians in challenging power structuresTechnology addiction and social media design manipulationAI regulation and the wisdom gap in tech leadershipFood production and human disconnection from agricultureGardening as therapeutic practice and climate adaptationMental health impacts of constant connectivity and notification culturePolitical correctness in comedy and audience accountabilityEntertainment industry burnout and grounding practicesGenerational differences in technology adoption and mental healthSaturday Night Live writing culture and competitive dynamicsBetween Two Ferns format and political interview comedyRural living and lifestyle choices of successful entertainersBoredom as developmental necessity for creative thinkingArmenian cultural heritage and community engagement
Companies
AMC
Network airing Zach Galifianakis's new series 'The Audacity'
Facebook
Referenced via whistleblower book documenting intentional addiction design in social media platforms
CNN
Criticized for reporting on social media harms while simultaneously promoting their own social media accounts
Saturday Night Live
Discussed as Conan's early writing experience and contrasted with late-night show collaborative culture
People
Zach Galifianakis
Guest discussing career, philosophy on success, and new gardening show on Vancouver Island
Conan O'Brien
Podcast host conducting interview and discussing shared experiences in entertainment
Sonam Obsession
Co-host engaging in running bit about favors and Armenian community engagement
David Hopping
Co-host mediating discussion between Conan and Sonam about favors
Tommy Blotcher
Discussed as exceptionally talented writer who worked on Conan's show and later wrote for professional wrestling
Tina Fey
Mentioned as showing kindness to Zach during difficult SNL table read experience
Greg Daniels
Zach's writing partner during early SNL experience
George Harrison
Referenced for using gardening at Friar Park as antidote to 1960s-70s celebrity chaos
Barack Obama
Subject of Zach's famous 'Between Two Ferns' interview demonstrating comedy's power to humanize leaders
Andy Richter
Connected Tommy Blotcher to Conan's show from Chicago comedy scene
Quotes
"Success is a magnifying lens. It just magnifies things. So if you're insecure, you will become more insecure. If you tend to be angry, you'll become a rage-aholic."
Conan O'Brien~45:00
"I'm hard-pressed to think of anybody who's been less altered by success. You just seem like if all of it went away tomorrow, you'd be very happy and contained doing whatever you're doing."
Conan O'Brien~35:00
"The BS of this business or whatever is always been laughable to me. I'm from a small town. I think I have a chip on my shoulder."
Zach Galifianakis~40:00
"If you laugh at yourself, it humanizes you. And like pheromones are released and humans think that's a good human."
Conan O'Brien~90:00
"We're at the okay corral phase where drunks are punching each other through the swinging doors of the bar. That's where we are with technology."
Zach Galifianakis~120:00
Full Transcript
Keep the cuddles and lose the mess with Advantage Chewable. Just one tasty tablet kills fleas and ticks for a whole month. No mess, no stress. Just one tasty chew. Advantage Chewable. Flee and tick protection made easy. Find out more at advantagechewable.co.uk. Easy to love, easy to protect. Advantage Chewable. Hi, my name is Zach Galifianakis and I feel... Zach Galifianakis about being Conan O'Brien's friend. I have to say... I feel up, Zach Galifianakis. You don't seem up. Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brandy shoes, walking blues, climb the fence, books and pens. I can tell that we are gonna be friends. I can tell that we are gonna be friends. Hey there and welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, joined by Sonam Obsestion. Hi. And, wow, let's pump it up a little bit. Hi, hi. I wish you were a voice on Siri. And you're just like, hey. Hi. No one would... There'd be no follow-ups for Siri. What else can I help you with? Forget it, Siri. And David Hopping, you're a cheery chap. Hello. Good to see you. You too. Sonia, you asked me to do a lot of favors. What? And I want to talk about this. What? Yeah, you do. You asked me to do a lot of favors. It's, can you do this for me? Can you do that for me? You know, it's Armenian this week and it's Armenian that week. Can you do a thing for me? And it's... Sometimes I want you to know that it's a little much. You take advantage. Can you do a blurb for my book? Can you also write an intro, then an outro? I mean, what's going on? Do you see me and just see a doormat? Is that what you see? Oh my God. Hey, what if I get you a doormat and instead of saying welcome, it's just my face because you walk all over it all the time anyway. That's so unfair. I'm so mad. I hate asking you for favors. I know. Well, you don't hate it that much. I'm sorry. How could you hate it that much? Why are you tackling so hard about it? You're like a bird saying, I hate building a mess. How many times do I tell you Conan agreed to do something for me? Like, never. Hey, guess what? I'm an owl saying, I hate hooting. Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo. I sure hate it. Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo. Twenty-three hours later, hoo, hoo. I sure hate it. Hoo, hoo. Oh my God. I mean, that's my impression. You were an owl and asking a favor was hooting. You'd be hooting a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's good for you to explain it. I hate asking you for favors. There are so many things people ask me to ask you that I specifically say. You filter stuff out? Yeah. How could there be more? What are you talking about? Do you know how much stuff? First of all, it's your fault because you made me, you put me on this podcast. People know who I am now. I'm attached to you for the rest of your life until you die. Please, that's not for months. Oh, come on. But it comes with, I'm sorry, you did it. It's your fault. Your speech champion? Yeah. Oh, come on. Listen, I don't begrudge you anything. Yes, you do. I do. Of course I do. I just made it the whole front of the show. Yes. It's a lot. And David, do I do a lot of favors for people? You do a lot of favors for everybody, not just Sona. What the fuck, David? I'm just supporting. I don't ask for that many favors. You do favors forever. You do favors. Raise your hand if Don't have ever done a favor for you. Yeah. The only, I actually never asked for favors. When your Aquaman figurine got stolen from your apartment, you asked me to put up posters, and I did. I never asked. Then when your Iron Man got stolen, I put up posters for that. That's right. He offered. Then when your several hundred of your other figurines were stolen, you asked me to call the police for you, and I did. That's right. It was very nice. I was just saying, I never asked for favors, but I know that you would help me out. The only favor I've ever asked you for is when you were in my short film, and you did it. And it was great. So don't say you never asked me for favors. But that was, but in 25 years, I've asked you for one thing. Can I ask you a question? Yeah, it's a Vienna movie you made. That's a big favor. When you... I'm just saying, you can't start by saying I never asked for favors except for that one time when you did me a huge favor. I'm trying to help you in your argument with Sona. Why are you attacking me? Because when I see you, I just see red. Yeah. I'm a bull and you're a giant red blankie that's flopping around in the wind. You do a lot of favors for everybody. And I don't know that you've ever asked any of us for a favor. You know, Baskin Robbins famously, I think, had 38 flavors. Our whole job... I think I do more than 38 favors a day. Our whole job was doing stuff for you. That's our whole job. You get paid for that. I know, baby. I got you your lunch today. I ordered you a leave. Can we talk about that? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, if people know out there that I occasionally take a leave. I don't know what you like to keep secret. No, that's a secret. I think we've all made... No one must know of my leave. You know, that's why I always, when I throw out my leave bottles, I always try to throw them out in someone else's trash can because no one can know that I occasionally have some muscle stiffness. I don't have time for this bit. I'm angry right now. I'm so mad right now. Are you really mad? Are you done with the leave thing right now? Because I want to address this accusation you... I'll leave it for now. Home run. Okay, wait a minute. There's too much to unpack here, as the kids say these days. I hate that saying, but my wife uses it all the time. And sometimes she says it while we're unpacking on the trip. And then I think, okay, whatever. Anyway, let's revisit this later on in the show and get to our next guest. Okay. My guest today is a very funny actor and comedian who starred in the Hangover movies. Now you can see him in the new AMC series, The Audacity. And he has a new gardening show called This Is a Gardening Show. How does he come up with these names? He's truly one of the funniest people I know. Zach Galifianakis, welcome. When I walk into a room I'm used to people, I mean even pretty big stars, are like, whoa, it's him, you know? And then I walk in today and your heart beats like one beat every two hours. You were just sitting there totally unimpressed that Conan O'Brien had walked into the room. What would you like one to do when you enter a room? Jump up. No, I've not seen since sincere. Whoa, look at that guy. What up, brah? So good to see you. Yes. Hey, brah! Yes. That's the real me. Well, I mean, we go way back. I've known you for many years. In a showbiz way. Early, early days, you used to come on my show and you were always hilarious and... Don't look at your watch. Oh, Jesus! What the fuck was that? Time is moving slow. So rude. We can cut this short. I was trying to compliment him about how funny he was. And this is before America had Zach Galifianakis fever. This is back when they had Conan fever and I lent some of my fever to Zach Galifianakis and then America had the very contagious Zach Galifianakis fever. Yeah, I like to call it sizzle. I still have a sizzle. You sizzled and sazzled all the way to the late 90s, 2000s. Did you guys get my sizzle reel? I sent it over. We got your sizzle reel. Past tense. The past tense of sizzle. You sazzled back in the day. I used to sizzle. In the early 2000s, no one sazzled like you. You're not going to like this, but I adore you. I think you're a wonderful fellow. One of my favorite comedy pieces of work is your work on Between Two Ferns. I think it's absolutely hysterical and endures. And I resent you for that. Why are you resentful? It does seem, I know you joke about it, but I do think there's a tin. Oh, it's all real. Yeah, I do think there is a... You're terribly, because you are very funny and you are, but also... Is it my height? Is that what you... Is that what you wish you were more like me about? I do. I wish I was closer to the... Is my size of my head? Is that what you wish you had? Parking meter head, parking meter body, whatever this is. Do you get that when you're upset about it? Do people try and put time in your head so that they can keep their car there a little longer? Is that what happens? Do you wish you had a seven-syllable last name? I do. No, you are very funny. You're one of the funniest people I know. And yet, you seem grounded. And I don't know how to do that. I mean, this guy, he is of the earth. He seems like he's got it all together. He seems like he emotionally wants for nothing. That doesn't seem fair. I mean, yeah, I get some chops, but... But I'm constantly wracked with these roiling seas inside me. Does every podcast turn into like a one-man show? I know. Like, the light should shift. We don't need you to talk during this part. In fact, you don't have to be here for this. You're just here to get it started, and then I do the rest. Have you listened to the podcast? It's pretty much me, Yimran and Yamran. I mean, really, it is... You're really taking the floor here. Yeah, I am. But I appreciate all that stuff. I don't know if it's true or not, but I... I'm grounded. He's a good... He's an interesting word. I'll be serious for a second, and then we'll go back to my one-man show. You are hilariously funny, and then very... I'm hard-pressed to think of anybody who's been less altered by success. You just seem like if all of it went away tomorrow, you'd be very happy and contained doing whatever you're doing, and I love that about you. I think that second part is correct. I am one of these people that feels very fortunate to be working, but the first part about having success or whatever being known, that threw me for a... That really messed me up. Not in a woe is me, but I just... No one ever asked me any questions until I was in a movie with a monkey. Yeah. So I just... I found that to be odd, that switch, and I was older, and I think I just... The BS of this business or whatever is... It's always been laughable, too. I'm from a small town. I have... I think I have a chip on my shoulder when I moved here, and I don't know. I think that's kind of healthy. But it affected me for a while, and I feel kind of embarrassed by it, actually. But yeah. I remember at the height of Hangover Mania, I always went to some event someplace, and there are a bunch of... It might have been like on the Hollywood Boulevard, or I had to go into some event, and there were all these people outside the venue. There was like a Spider-Man, and there was a Superman, whatever, a Batman. And there was a guy who I thought it was you for a second, and I thought, oh, there's Zach. I'll say hi. And then I realized it's not you. It's a Zach Galifianakis impersonator with a fake baby and a baby Bjorn. Truths do come true, don't they? From the movie, and it's so... I had the idea that you thought maybe that was me in the outfit from the movie. Can I tell you something? I didn't clock the outfit right away. I just saw out of the corner of my... And by the way, you were known to promote that movie very hard, and all the sequels. But no, I just had a moment of thinking, because I know you, I know that that would have bummed you out to your core. That would have, yeah. But what you know what's interesting is, as a... I wanted to do this experiment once, and I had the wardrobe. This was many years after we did the Hangover Movies. I had the wardrobe sent to me because I was in Vegas, and I wanted it to look like how pathetic it was that the actor got into his outfit and was trying to get recognized. And I did it, but no one came up. It was so embarrassing. No one did it. The experiment failed. But yeah, the Hangover was big. That was a big change. Right, but I do think it's good for people to hear from you that... And we talk about this a lot on the pod, but... Are you too busy to say podcast? I am. Yeah. You should do a doc about that. I don't have the tie to do it. I'm fascinated by this idea that there's a lot of envy surrounding this crazy weird business, and people thinking, oh my God, all your dreams would come true. And what I've found is that it's a magnifying lens. It just magnifies things. So if you're insecure, you will become more insecure. If you tend to be angry, you'll become a rage-aholic. If you are someone who's capable of feeling gratitude and appreciate the people around you, those things can be enhanced. But I do think there's a... Maybe so. That's a good way of looking at it, yeah. But I was angry about it, to be honest. I was intimidated by it because I thought as a comedian to not be able to observe... Because you had too many distractions of trying to hide or whatever. It intimidated me and I got weirded out by it. But now that I'm old, none of it matters, and who cares? But it was a change. It was a change. Yeah. I've always tried to picture it because I know that your success didn't happen right away. And I knew you for a bunch of years where you'd come on our show and be really funny. But the whole thing hadn't quite gelled or clicked yet. And then... And I was this busboy at a strip joint till I was 28. Yes. I was gonna get to that. Yeah, you were. And I try to picture you in these real jobs. In these... I hope so. Wait with my briefcase. Yeah. I do think that's a real job. My canteen. Going to work, honey. No, but I had to wear like a cumber button. It was like a fancy... And it was a strip joint. Yeah, on park. You were in New York probably at this time. It was called String Fellows. Yes. So I worked there. I had a table there. Yeah. I never saw you come in, thank goodness. No, I was... But yeah, it was... And the guy that I moved to New York with, who we went to college together, he was the cashier at the strip joint, and he ended up being Jimmy Fallon's head writer. What? 80 miles, if you know 80 miles. That's where all the best head writers come from. School. Yeah. And then weird. And well, I'm curious because I'm trying to picture you in a situation where you have the comedy mind that you have, but you're doing a job like that. You're working at a strip club. You were a busboy, Bill Boy. Busboy. Busboy. So you ring a cumber button. And I had a crumber. Do you know what a crumber is? No. It's a little metal stick that you take out of your pocket and you get the crumbs off the table for... Oh, yeah. Well, Chamberlain. If Will Chamberlain had gone. I think he came in a lot. Maybe it was another seven foot two legend. His name was Will Chamberlain. He was seven feet two inches tall, but it wasn't that Will Chamberlain. Yeah. This guy was an accountant. Yeah. And a very good one. So were you funny at that job? And I bring it up because I know that when I did jobs that weren't comedy related early on, I was deadly serious to the point where when they found out later on, oh, I just got a job writing. I'm leaving. They said, oh, there's no way you're a comedy writer because I was just dead serious, never made a joke, just did my work. That makes sense. I think it comes with maybe being depressed. I don't know. What was your situation? The strippers were not nice to me at all. I was really intimidated and the men that went in there were not the men that I would want to hang out with anyway. So it was a weird situation. I don't remember trying to be funny. I'm sure with the others, with Miles that was working there. I'll tell the story. I think I've told this story, hopefully not here before, but it's a fractured media. No one's heard it. Go ahead. And no one will. But. Miles and I. Miles and I were getting ready for work. There was a snowstorm in New York. It was a blizzard. I'll never forget. And it was in the mid 90s. And I'm putting my cummerbund on. Miles had just lost a thousand dollars from the register. It's it's mafioed or was I think. And so he was so worried he's had to go in and face the music. He'd lost this lost it. He wouldn't have taken it. He lost it. So I'm putting my cummerbund on and as I'm looking over, I lived in his closet and I look up and Miles is tying his shoe and he says to himself, didn't want me to hear it. Knowing he had to go face the music. This is worse than Bosnia. Bosnia was going on at the time. Yeah. And that's what he compared. And I'll never forget how. Not wrong. Dramatic. He's not wrong that owing string fellows a thousand dollars is worse than anything that happened in Bosnia. If you know that the mafia might have. And then what happened, I think what happened, we go to work and the feds came in, they closed it down that day and that was it. A mysterious tipped call came in. Yes, from a bus boy. That's friendship. Yeah. But no, I was I was very serious at that job, I think. Yeah, we shot a bit once in Houston at like two in the morning at a strip club. We'll be right back with the world's worst braggers. We were there to shoot some piece. And so I'm there. I think we were just trying to figure out because my show in Houston at the time, this is like 1995, 96 aired like three in the morning. So I went to places at three in the morning to figure out if I could see anybody watching our show and and who's up and watching TV at three in the morning. And that it ended up being very funny. I went to a bus station. I went to an emergency room and I went to a strip club and you walk in and you see these beautiful naked women and, you know, just my my head turned into a jukebox cartoon where all the cherries come up and it's like ding ding ding ding ding ding ding and coins came out my mouth. I was like, like all the cartoon stuff like steam coming out of the ears. I can't believe it. Within 15 minutes, we had a problem with the camera and we're trying to figure it out. And this completely naked, beautiful woman who would have been my fantasy of every way of 16 completely naked, wearing a stitch of clothing comes up and starts to talk to me. And I'm like, I'm sorry, can you just give us some room? I got it. We got an issue with this camera. And I asked you mean who me and your balls. No, no, me and I am not that polite to my to my balls. I imagine you were there by yourself. He said, can you give us some room? Yeah. And pardon me, testicles. No, I have a very different relationship with my testicles. But no, I was remembered being kind of irritated, like, can she step back? We're trying to fix this lens. And I was realizing that, oh, my God, you get inured. You get used to this right away. Like you're in there for 10 minutes and suddenly it's like, come on, naked, gorgeous woman. Can you give me a break? We need to get this shot. And behind the scenes, there's nothing like the women are talking about how much they hate the men that they have to be like, you know, so it's not. It's not thrilling backstage. It's a whole different scene. So that's where strippers love me. They just love me. Oh, huh. Yeah. What? I just I think I'm the one guy that when I go into strip club, they're just like, wow, I love him. Conan, when is the last time you've been in a strip club? 1969. Right. I was six years old. Right. I was conceived at one. We won't go further into that story. You know what I didn't know? I why did I not know that you were you were at Saturday Night Live? You worked at Saturday Night Live for a very two that two week. Don't they do a two week trial thing sometimes? They do. Well, I hear I don't know if that's not how I came in. But I remember thinking that we were on a two week trial, my writing partner, Greg Daniels, and I thinking that was a two week trial. But then later on, someone said, no, you weren't a two week trial. But you were a two week trial. I honestly, when I got there, I thought I was I thought I got hired as a cast member, honestly, because I'd auditioned twice. Right. And I was told you're going to go and be a feature person. And I said, great. And I got there. And they said, no, you're you're actually going to write, which either way, it did matter to me. I was just so thrilled that I had that opportunity. It was it was a tough two weeks. Yeah. Because the table reads, I think even if you're, you know, no people there, the table reads can be kind of brutal. Yeah. I just remember I wrote a sketch and it was you could only hear the air conditioner in the room. Yeah. I mean, I've been like that on stage, you know, so I'm kind of used to it. But there it was just and I remember for some reason, I was sitting next to Tina Faye, and I just remember her patting my shoulder in a very calm, not even in not in a sarcastic way. It was really calming. And I'll never forget that. It was actually meant a lot to me, but it was rough. But I was thrilled to be there. Yeah. But you don't know what you're doing when you get there, right? Like it takes a second to figure it out. And it's not so many shows I've worked on since. And I, you know, obviously loved my time at SNL and was so formative for me. But I've very much liked working in late night all those years because it felt like we were all working together a little more. You know, there's so much show to fill. There's for years, it was, you know, five hours a week, you've got to fill. There's no elbowing for room or real estate. Do you know what I mean? There's just if someone has a good idea, everyone's like, oh, my God, that's great. Let's do it. No one's. I don't know. That's a fairly funny idea, but I'm not going to laugh because and that's so SNL definitely much more competitive. I don't know if it's like that as much anymore. Might not be. Because when I went back to host, I noticed, oh, it seemed much more loose and friendlier. Not that it wasn't friendly in the beginning when I was there for writing, but but yeah, it was an honor to do it. I didn't have any bad feelings about it, except for, you know, the tumbleweeds going across the writer's room. Yeah. And that feeling of when you put a sketch in, if it's not working at read through, you can see everybody flipping to see how many pages this is. So you'll have that moment. I'm supposed to do that. I do that all the time at table. I'm always like, do I have any more parts? Scanning for my name. When life gets hectic, energy ups and downs are all you need. If you're seeking energy reassurance, Eonnext can help. From regularly updating our tariffs to get you our best value to smart tech that helps you take control of your energy future, we're here for whatever's next. Just one of the reasons why we're rated excellent on TrustPilot by our customers. Find out more about how we can help at yournext.com. Eligibility and T's and C's apply. TrustPilot February 2026. You're bringing something that popped in my head, and I don't know if you and I've ever talked about this connection and maybe he doesn't want us to. But Tommy Blotcher wrote on Conan, right? Yeah, Tommy. One of my favorite writers of all time. Yeah, I think he happens to be the funniest person I think I've ever met. Like he's that funny. And I knew that he left your show to go right for professional wrestling, right? Yes, he worked with us back in the 90s. And I knew him through Andy Richter from Chicago, Chicago. And he brought and for a while, Tommy didn't say anything and he was super quiet. And I just thought, well, I wonder if this guy's going to work out. I don't know. And then he revealed himself in the writers room and on paper to be the funniest guy. I gave him a shout out on Stern once because I was on Stern and Stern was kind of talking to me about so you must just hire like Harvard lampoon guys. And I said, no, it was like an army guy. Yeah, I said one of the funniest guys I've ever one of the funniest writers I've ever known, I don't think went to college. Are you talking about Tommy? And I was talking about Tommy and he said, who is that? And I said, Tommy Blotcher. So he really brilliantly funny guy. He's he's on a level that I I mean, the same level I would put you on, which is this we used to do this bit back and forth to each other. Where it was just really this just the dumbest person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And because Tommy's really good at dumb and and it would be like what about drinking coffee or something? Like it was always the most obvious and it always filled up follow with or something. Yeah. So one night, Tommy's had to spend the night at my house and we were both working together. We had to get up early the next morning for work and he's in the next room over and it's seven in the morning. I'm up and I'm just kind of basically waking up. And I hear Tommy say under his breath as he's waking up. What am I awake or something? And I fell in love with him. Yeah, I fell in love with it. Yeah. Yeah. And I used to beg. Like he would make me laugh so hard. Like I didn't want to leave him. It was so he he this is one of my proudest happy moments. He for I would do all these riffs in the writer's room that outrageous over the top where I would almost play this over the top host who's incredibly abusive. And I would come into a room and someone would start to talk and I would say play. Yeah. But I remember at a time I was on this jag of seeing like, why don't you have a big tall glass of shut up juice? And it was just a really stupid childish put down that I was doing. And I would do it whenever someone was taking a swig of something. I'd be like a little more just after they had pitched something. I'd be like, oh, a little more shut up juice, huh? Wet the whistle with some and they Tommy left because he was going to go right for professional wrestling. And he told me, hey, you got to tune in. I wrote this for the rock. He's taunting one of his opponents and he tells him, why don't you go have a tall class to shut up juice? And I was so thrilled and I watched it. And sure enough, the rock was like, hey, I'll tell you something. And he's got that. And he's like, maybe you should just go have a long two glass, tall glass. Shut up juice. And then they cut your people in the arena and they're like holding their heads like the rock got him. And then I think the following week, someone had a sign that said shut up juice. And I was in heaven. Oh, that's a payoff. No one knew. I didn't care if anyone knew that was me or not. And then those are the kind of things that make me super happy. And so, so Tommy. One of the funniest. Yeah. Such a funny guy. I'm curious, like you and these other jobs, it's interesting to me that which I totally understand you're not being the Zach Galifianakis that people would know you're just grimly doing your job and trying to do it well, which would describe probably you. And I mean, I know that you were a nanny for a while doing. I was a house cleaner. House cleaner. Clean departments in New York for a couple of years. Yeah, I was pretty. You know, I'm pretty I'm pretty quiet, I think. And then the comedy scene kind of maybe broke me out of my shyness, I think. Somewhat I performed more. I got a little bit more comfortable with that stuff. But yeah, those jobs will humble you. I mean, I I I moved to New York wanting not my I didn't want my parents to have to like send me anything, right? And they never did. And I was pretty independent. But my father, he would send me things in the mail. I'm like, I'll go run to the mailbox. Oh, God, I hope this is food. I hope this is food. And I open it and it was always irregular underwear. I just open it in the post office. Like it was light. I mean, maybe he was sitting there to be potato chips. But it was always irregular. Irregular underwear. But was wrapped in it, you know, I don't know. Irregular underwear. Yeah, it's it's cheap. My dad was cheap. Cheap. I also think there's something to I used to think about this a lot when people get to know me and know my rhythm, this will be a little easier. And I think that would be very true of you. I mean, I always thought you would come on our show back in the day and people didn't know you. And you'd sit at a piano and you would tell these great jokes. But you never winked. You never, you know, shot them a look like you never ingratiated yourself with the crowd. You just completely went in and they had to accept you as you were. And I think you have to do that for a while in order to have people meet you halfway. I think that's a think you're right. I also think of comedically, I should say only. I've always thought it's more interesting if you're just doing a stand up bit like that to have kind of a disdain for the audience. You know, I never was like, hi, I'm going to tell you like that. Friendly. All right, let's tell them see stand ups come out like, what's up, Miami? I'm like, God, that's a lot of energy. You don't want to know how Miami's doing. I mean, there's no concern or I respect you. I respect the audience, but I the the relation and now performance have a performers have a real relationship with the audience via social media that that too, I've never participated in. I don't. That's a weird. I don't know how to do that. Yeah, you have something that I'm not too familiar with called dignity. And I can tell you a lot of stories that would go against that. Yeah. Well, I mean, we've talked about it. I won't go into it, but I do think that was particularly helpful to you when you did your famous between two ferns interview with Obama, because you're the only person that that gave him. I mean, you know, I know that this in any way was just you doing your comedy. But you were so rude as that person. And it's hilarious because I don't think anyone's talked to certainly a sitting president or even in this time, no one's. Well, all the pastors that have had the president on now, they don't do their court gesture. They don't do it. They just they suck up to him. Yeah. So the comedians that have had that are a podcast that I have had Trump on, that's they're not doing their job. Yeah. Yeah. They're that's not the job of a comedian. You are to challenge. Yeah. You are to make uncomfortable. You're not to sit there and fake laugh. Yeah. That is not the job of the court gesture. Yeah. Period. So there is a difference. People were actually somebody yesterday was talking to me about that, about, you know, political influence through comedy and all that stuff. I'm more interested in the comedy first. Me too. You know, yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, whatever there, whatever their motive is. Fine. But you but but the comedy has to come first. I remember when I interviewed Hillary Clinton and I could tell she didn't want to be there. And I totally get that. I get it. But before we had set that whole thing up, they they wrote back, well, you can't bring up those emails. And I go, well, we don't have to do the interview. I totally that's fine. We won't do it. When you tell powerful people, no, it's crazy. They were like, OK, we'll do it. Well, you can ask because it's not that important to me to do it the way they want to do it. You have to if you're going to come in the comedy, you got to wait. We want to do it. Also, I see this all the time and I've seen it for years and years and years and years. People not understanding that if they go to the supposedly vulnerable place and have a sense of humor about it, it is magical for them. People see they have a sense of humor. They see that they can take a joke. I mean, no one walked away from your interview with Obama and thought, wow, you really showed him. He got to be hilarious. He sat there and entered your world of, you know, being intentionally ignorant about who he is, what he does, cutting him off, being insanely rude and gave it back to you in equal measure. And you looked at this is a great piece of comedy. And I know it reflects well back on the president and our current president would do well to understand that, to understand that, you know, if he let himself be the butt of the joke, that's impossible. It's humanizing. I know it is impossible. You wouldn't do it with him. And it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work. I I had just saying in an alternate universe, if we're talking about a different human being, they would see that there's this misconception that, oh, the media just wants to go after conservatives. And they don't understand that everyone benefits when they laugh at themselves. That's right. Period. Yes. Everyone wins. Yes. If you laugh at yourself, it humanizes you. And like pheromones are released and humans think that's a good human who and when you refuse to let that happen, that's not projecting strength. It's projecting weakness. I agree 100 percent. There's also the math of comedy to me sometimes where the punching down that the right seems to do something. And I don't want to get political here, but the that's not as funny to me as taking on the powerful. Like the math of it doesn't work for me. Like to take on some people's marginalized people, make fun of that. Listen, I'm all for humor. I can defend it, but that mathematically. So that's why you don't see a lot of comedy that comes out of the like the. I mean, the right. You just it's hard to do. I don't I'm not saying suggest that you cannot. It's just difficult to do because of the dynamics. Yeah. Yeah. Greg Gutfeld. What a hilarious. You got him. I don't know. They'll show up to work again. I always love imagining these people being completely unhinged by a comment on a podcast or, you know, someone did a sketch about them on SNL, and they're just completely unhinged. I'm sure they can no longer go. I'm sure that's all for that's all for clicks. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's it's fake. Well, that's boring. The whole the whole everyone commenting on everything. Outright. Yeah. And everyone has to wait. It's Sabrina Carpenter just slightly misspeak at a performance at Coachella. Or does can we make that into something? Yes, we can. And then she'll apologize. And I think she's a fantastic performer. She makes a lot of people happy. I actually don't think she did anything wrong. She couldn't hear what the person in the audience was saying. There was no harm, no foul here. But people got a 24 hour news cycle out of it. And it's just I mean, it's strange. You know, the other thought of that, too, is it's interesting. People from the right or whatever you want to say, they're always like, you shut up, entertainers, you're just entertainers. And I kind of get that because I'm from the South and you know. But I always think, yeah, but you guys say that to us entertainers. But you elect the entertainers. Clint Eastwood, Donald Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fred Thompson, Gopher from the Love Boat. I mean, I could go. His name is Fred Grandy. I could go on and on. Sonny, Sonny Bono. I mean, it goes on and on. Yeah. So it's always interesting to me that they point that out. But then they they fall. Then they they're the ones that hire or elect the entertainers. Yeah. Yeah. I think even more so than the other side. So I don't know what it's very, very odd, all of it. But it was a good run. Oh, no. We're wrapping it up. Are we calling it? We're calling it. Well, two fifty is a good time to call it. Oh, man. Yes, two fifty, two hundred. I don't feel any. Is anybody celebrating? I think they're going they're going to. Well, there's plans to build giant monuments. I think the triumphal arch was going to be for the two fifty. I think. OK, good. We just got to get that thing built. This is going to sound controversial. And I don't want to. When Trump did that Jesus thing, I was the turning point for me. I was like, I kind of like him. Oh, like him. Yeah. Oh, you. OK. What do you think? Am I off? No, I think you're off at all. He was a doctor. I mean, well, he. Yeah, his excuse was I'm those. I was a doctor who wears a robe and a red set. And that's like a little light behind it. He was a red cross worker. Oh, man. He's a very good nightclub comic. You know what? I I was watching your gardening show and I want to mention this because it's called This is a Gardening Show. And one of the. Like, yeah, he was up all night thinking of that title. And actually, we spent about four hundred titles back and forth. Oh, really? Between two farms. I mean, it was like, you know, all these play on words. It was so been. Then the producer emails me and goes, the first thing you say is this is a gardening show. Yeah. Why don't we just call it? And I say, OK, but yeah, that's how we get to the title. You know what? I love because I've known for years that you hang out on Vancouver Island and then to get to see you in your habitat is very cool. I mean, first of all, it's beautiful. But getting to see you, I knew that you were a very sort of an outdoorsy guy. I didn't know specifically how important gardening was to you. The show is really funny and you get to be you, obviously, because you are you. And there's no fixing that now. But the. But just getting to see you in that world, I totally get it. I you like to get up in the morning and tend to plants. I love it. I it's strange how much I mean, I've been always been a hobby. It's been my hobby, I guess, for 20 plus years. But now that I have some some space, I've been building a garden. And I just do. I mean, I have a hundred little pumpkin seedlings in my greenhouse right now. But when I get back to Canada, I'll put in the ground. And that'll probably produce 200 pumpkins for the year. I that kind of stuff. It's I I can't tell you how much I love it. It's it's a feeling that I feel like as humans, it's part of us, but we got away from it. Yeah, we we we just because because technology and convenience has over taken everything, we're pushing buttons is soulless. Yeah, there's nothing there for me. And I I wanted to do this show for several reasons. One, you know, when you watch documentaries about where we are climate wise, you hear there's 64 harvests left. OK, maybe that's not true. But what if it is right? What, you know, this is these are there's these are scientists that are saying this. 64 harvests left. So I see some people acting like, oh, my God, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And then I see some people don't care. So I don't know. I'm just going to go with what my gut feeling is, which is maybe kids need to know this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Why till the Russians shoot down the satellites, motherfucker? Just a quote from the South, I heard recently. That I was like, yeah, I believe you. I actually believe that. That would I believe. And think about that. Yeah. Right. So all of these I feel like the safety might not be there for the next generation. So I'm and this is not an altruistic thing. I'm trying to say it's just a practical thing. Our food, even if nothing happens, even let's say everything stays normal. Well, our food and where we get it and and how what we know about it is we don't have a relationship with food. A lot of us don't. Right. Right. You think about it, birth, death, food and where it's coming from. We're primal parts of our existence for so long. I mean, they're just, you know, printed into our DNA as we evolve. And then within the last few generations, we've completely removed ourselves from it. And I'm going to be completely honest with you. Like I know nothing about gardening. I know nothing about where my food comes from. I say to David, I want to get that. And you were like, all right, and you get it. And it comes and I shove it in my face really quickly and with great hate. And but it's the same thing about death. Like we're not we're not people used to live and die in their home and people used to be there for it. And now everything's kind of farmed out. So yeah, it's. But it's a medicine, too. It's not just it's just not. It's not altruistic. You do it for yourself. Yes, absolutely. I mean, look, I'm a little chubby guy, but I love eating fresh vegetables and fruits out of the garden. It's like it's it's a high for me. It just is. So there's there's many elements to it. But I'm saying it's a medicine to be in the garden. Yeah, it's healthy to be. It's also when you talk about you've spoken about this for a while and you mentioned it today, the kind of allergic reaction you have to the bullshittery of show business. Well, and in some of it, there's obviously great parts of it. And then there's parts of it which can actually feel like a toxin. It's poison and honey. Yeah. I felt this. I got a chance. Danny Harrison, George's son, invited me to come see George's home, Friar Park, and I went and so much of it are George Harrison's. What were his gardens where he grew things? And I've seen footage of him in various documentaries, just tending to his gardens and tending to his sunflowers and tending to the things he was growing. And I thought, oh, and you know, he, Danny said, yeah, he told him once, you know, then he said, oh, let's go into town. Let's leave Friar Park and go into town. And his father said, why would we do that? Why would we go out there? It's insane out there. If you look at all the footage of his life in the 60s and 70s, it was screaming and madness. This was the antidote. Interesting. And I think you've experienced being in the nose cone of the rocket. And there are people who are making a living, pretending to be you hanging outside of Planet Hollywood. That, you know, that's and like, we got to get us a set gelf and neck is for the party. I got one. I got one, too. Well, bring them both, you know. So you're the, it's such a nice antidote to find those places where you can grow apples. Well, I also think it's possible in the cities. I mean, when you guys all leave today, I want you to pay attention to how much concrete is around you versus greenery. Just just just just think about it. Yeah. It's as it's crazy. It's really crazy. I mean, I think humans biggest mistake was fighting nature instead of working with we're going to conquer it. Well, no, you're not. No, you're not. It's going to win. And it looks like it's definitely going to win. So you have to respect it and honor it. If there's a God that made all this stuff, why would why not respect it? And the other things that this God has made, that's coming from someone that has no idea if there's a God or not. But if there is, why is it the simplest thing to respect the earth and the humans and the animals on it? Other than that, what is there? Yeah. I mean, this where humans are going with AI? I mean, I guess I don't know if I'm old fashioned or I'm maybe it's because I'm 56 now, but I think this whole AI thing and I don't mean for medicine. I don't it's got a lot of great things. Otherwise, though, I think it's another like biblical in the biblical term, abiding the apple again. I just am very afraid of it. Yeah. The dudes that are designing it. Mm hmm. Yeah. There's a real problem because these dudes, how do I say it? They have math minds. Fuck. They have math minds. You know what I mean? They have math minds and that's good. But there's very little wisdom coming out of that pocket of the world. Almost none. Yeah. And we're just running. All of us are running in that direction. The media, the media loves AI. The media loves social media because it causes more of this. Yeah. I love when CNN, they'll have a reporter on, but they'll do a report on social media and how bad it is for someone. And then after the report, Jake Tapper gets on and go, follow me on Twitter. Plebos. Asinine. Have you no self-reflection? Well, even how we communicate through text, there's not a sarcastic font, right? Right. And people are not good enough writers to do it. Right. To text. As a comedian, to get back, LOL is really diminishing returns. Yeah. I, so I think the way we have let robots do this for us has also made us a little bit off. Yeah. I just do. I worry about the lack of human connection with that stuff. And maybe I'm, maybe it just is not as needed as we think it is. I don't know. I mean, I really don't know. But this world, this tech stuff has always, I've always thought about it. I've always worried about it. Especially when social media came about and MySpace and all this, when it was done, you could do it anonymously. That's a weird start for anything. So the weirdos running this thing and good weirdos, I don't mean they're all bad weirdos. We need to, something, something, there needs to be a guardrail. And I think politically nothing changes in the States until they regulate the internet. Yeah. I do think not. So we can sit here and talk. Good luck. It could work for both sides. Right. It just depends on who's going to control it, the messaging. But I see how people scroll on planes. I'm like, that's how people get their new, we're screwed. Yeah. I do think that if you look at the history of huge technological advances, including like the printing press, you know, and how that revolutionized things, in the early days, it's rough going when people are handed a brand new superpower. And we are at the beginning of this. And I do think if we survive it, there will be guardrails. There will be people that say, oh, no, you can't have a kid, can't have a tablet. We've figured it out. They can't have it till they're 14. And that's a law, you know, or you can't. It's like a hell of a city, like a city can be built and there's like crap in the streets, the sewage is all wrong. And then as it ages, they fix the problem. No, we're at the okay corral phase where drunks are punching each other through the swinging doors of the bar and landing in the mud. People are shooting their guns in the air, going, Nihah. That's where we are. But do you think it's going to need a regulation to get to there? Do you think the government? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's and I think it's going to do it. But you know what it does? It comes through just this hard experience and humans do, if they put their hand on the stove enough times, they learn not, we need a rule about putting our hands on the stove. I hope you're right. There's an addiction. There's an addiction thing here too that we have it. That's the other thing is the addiction part. And that addiction is designed. Listen, you read the read the have you read the Facebook whistleblower book? No, you need her. It's unreal. I read it twice. It's fascinating. So they know that they're making it addictive. So that's the problem. I think maybe with the comparing it to the old technology. Sure, you're right. I think the printing press, of course, it changed the world. Technology is what changes humans the most. Political correctness, for example, has always been in comedy for the last 30 years. It just has. The difference is the technology. The audience talks back now and comedians, you've got to be okay with it. That's the only thing that's changed. Not political correct. That did not for sure. It happened many, many years ago. But what really changed is if someone comes and sees you live and they don't like it and you've said something, they're going to either videotape it or get it. So it's weird. It's all very strange. But then I see people on their computers all the time and they never do anything else. My mind goes, well, when the end of the world comes, they're the veal. Well, you know what? It's soft. Soft meat. It's a soft meat. So we might need them. No. All the veals up in Silicon Valley. We're coming to eat you boys. The way you describe it, we're going to eat very well. I mean, I want this to happen sooner rather than later. Just you and I. But also we're humans. We're animals, right? Like we need to move and think and talk and blah, blah, blah. This is it's too much. It's too much. Yeah. It's making people nuts. It just is. Well, I think it's making people mentally. I do. I think it's making people. Oh, yeah. Oh, 100%. I mean, I do things now where I like brick my phone. Well, there actually is a device called the brick where you can turn off a bunch of apps so that in order to go turn them back on, it's called the brick. But you and I use that all the time now. Do you have an email on your phone? I do. And take it off. It's too late. Oh, no, you can take it off. No. I never I can't imagine. It's on there already. I have an email on my phone. It's so like that's asinine to me. What about in your cooling text too? No text. I knew how to get read a text. I would. I don't know how to get rid of it. We're at a time of over communication, right? So my brother, he says on a podcast, my brother, exactly. But my brother's like texting me over Christmas. Got those paper towels. Yes, I don't need you to text me that you got them. I don't need that update. It's insanity. You know, I have an S2 is that someone will text you like, how's it going? And if you don't text them, it's the person who maybe 20 minutes went by and they're like, what the fuck? You alive? You know, like I was it was three in the morning. What's going on? Because they're so used to getting an immediate dopamine hit. Yes. That they forget they're talking to someone who isn't walking around looking at their phone all the time. I see. So I get a lot of my texts are, did you die or something? And it's like, well, no. I mean, I see teenagers on planes and the mental illness that they're doing with their faces. Like changing it. At first three hours staring at a phone. You know, you're supposed to be bored. Yes. You're supposed to be. It's good to the brain. Well, it's actually and really good. I remember saying this when my kids were little, we got to keep the boring parts because I remembered when I was I would get so bored when I was a kid. And that's when my, you know, we weren't allowed to watch TV if there was school the next day, which meant most of the week we had none of this technology. And that's when my mind started to do weird things. And that's how I make my living now. So you got out. God, I thought this was going to turn into a masturbation story. I think we all did. That's what it just did the air out of the room. That's the story is not done. That's what I was. You cut me off. You're right. I wish somebody had that is what I was getting to. My mind started doing weird. Yeah. And my hand. Yeah. And then I said, and that's how I make my living. And then I became a writer. I became a professional masturbator at the circus. Which is it? Yeah. Would you say me? I was no nothing. You just accused me of murder. No. No. I was going to say, is there a comp? Is there? I don't know. Never mind. I don't want it to be in the is there a masturbator at the circus. No. Is there is there a masturbation competition? I bet there is. Eduardo? I'm not looking this one up. No, he just meant Eduardo. He didn't even know you had a computer. What's going on this week? Eduardo. We're in the valley. Let's just say Eduardo is very skilled. It is so lovely to talk to you and you really are a remarkable individual. I wish we could all be more like you. And I really mean that. So you got my text. I just read exactly what you wrote. Thank you very much. I read exactly what you texted me. Thank you for putting that in there. And you're a great lover. What the fuck is this? You misspelled lover. 2Vs always. I love I've been I checked out this is a gardening show. I really like it. I especially love when you incorporate kids in it and you're talking to them. You're so. It's the easiest thing. I know. It'd be so funny doing it. So fun to do. And also you're in a series The Audacity, which is getting raves. So congrats to you. That's on AMC. And you I mean anytime you're in town, you want to come by and talk to us about anything. Tomorrow is not good for me. OK, the next day. No, I'm there Saturday. Starting in six years from now. Oh, OK. That's what I meant. Did you end up going to Greece for your. No, we haven't gone to Greece yet for the travel show, but I do want to go there. It's the best. Would you go with me if I went? I would. I would pay for half of it. Love to go. But I might take my gardening show there. OK. Next time. But if you do go, please call me because I can point you in. Like I have first cousins that are still there. So I can point they can. Oh, like you should check out the Parthenon. Thanks a lot. No, they were going to take you to the Hard Rock in Athens. And I just thought there's not a Hard Rock cafe in Athens. You know there is. But I don't think no, the Greek has to be. The Greeks are not. They're not they're not capitalists that way. Good. They're not. Good. They actually during the European Union, they got really real. They got really hurt. Yeah. Yeah. By the order in Europe. I've never been to Greece in my life and I would love to go there. It's the best. They know how to live. They know how to live. And so do you. That's right. And so do you. Zach Galifianakis, thank you for being here. I treasure you. I really do. Those aren't cheap. Could you put it back? No, I'll put there. So he just grabbed one of our. By the way, I was asking the clean access comment box here, right? We took it down just for you. OK, well. We'll put it back the minute you're gone. I'll take it to Twitter. OK, look, there's some bad blood out here. We have to take care of this. Yes. I brought up Sona that I do a lot of favors for you. I mean, I do a lot of favors for everybody, but you get more than your share. Oh my God. Let's revisit this topic. OK. Sona, you know, I love you. I adore you. You're the best. But you're you're just this bloodsucker. Oh my God. This is draining me dry. You are awful. You're awful. You're awful. Are we getting content or not? We are. But you know what? Every coolest gamer, do you take that game home with you? Oh, I would say no, actually. Maybe only like half the time. Yeah, 85 percent. 85 percent of the time when you do a coolest gamer for a cool game, you get the game. How's your favorite? Because you get some benefit out of it. That's not direct. That's what I'm saying. We all get a lot of fun stuff from this job. All I'm going to say is he does a lot of favors for you, but you do the greatest. But you, but you, but you, but you do the greatest favor for him. You make him cool. Oh, that's the greatest favor you're doing for him. Am I doing that? You do. You do. Yeah. I think no, people do get excited. You're a cool person and you, you know, me, yes, I guess I'm cool and then I pop a leave every now and then. I always use drink a lot of water with it. You got to make sure you flush out the system. Oh, God. That's a recommendation that's on the bottle. But, but I mean, between my leave use and your coolness factor, I think we make a good deal. I don't think they're favors. I think you are paying me back. What? Oh, yeah. For all the things I don't. So that means I don't have to pay you financially. No, you should still do that. But I also, I don't know for something. You know what? I don't resent these favors for you. I like doing it. And I will say, look, I needed a segment. So I came out swinging. Yes. And it worked because you got really mad. And also, is there some truth in it? Probably. Because in most of my bits, there's a little bit of truth. This is my nightmare. And I do a lot of favors for people. You do. We have to do a favor for Sona today, for instance, at the end of this bit. Oh, is that true? Yeah. What's happening today? We have to, I don't want to run around. No, no, we get to. That's right. We get to do a favor for Sona today. Also, you know that I like doing things for the Armenian community. You know I like doing that. They're the ones, you took me to Armenia in 2015. I tried to leave you there. You know, that was the plan. The plan was to leave you there. And then I was like, shut the door, shut the door. And the pilot didn't shut the door fast enough. And you squirted into the plane. And you were like, get it back. But the plan was to leave you there. Well, thank you for doing that. But you shone a light on my beautiful homeland. And since then, you've been kind of an honorary Armenian. They're very excited. You know what? I will say Armenian people are always very happy to see me. Yes. And they say, Baraev, and I say, Inch Pasek. And then they say, Lavam. And we have like a nice thing going. So that's always nice. Yeah. I meet a lot of them in steam rooms. I don't know what that's all about. Several times I've been in a sauna or a steam room. And the naked men in there have been Armenian. And we have a nice chat about Armenia. OK. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. That's a nice. See, that's the thing. If you hadn't taken me to Armenia, I don't think you would have been getting as many asks. And I filter a lot. But there are some that I. And we're doing one today, which is important. We're doing one today. And it's an important one. And it's because it's an important event. What is it? It's the Armenian Heritage Walk Gala in Philadelphia. And I'm emceeing it. And how do you emcee a gala? You're going to. I'm going to Philadelphia. Oh, I see. There's a benefit. And you're going to be up there saying, all right, our next auction item or that kind of thing. No, no, it's going to be like honoring people who help them do it. It's this it's this permanent installation by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Do you have jokes written? I'm not you. I don't. I don't. Oh, we know that. But I mean, what about. The bar is really low for me. No, but you've got to have some material. You can't you can't emcee a gala and not have material. That's true. What kind of jokes do they like? I haven't written anything in. When is it soon? Right. It's like really soon. Okay. You have to write material. Maybe I would help you. Another favor. But let's. You can't offer to do something and then say you're doing me a favor. I can say yes to things and then resent them because that is my true hobby. But you are. I say yes to stuff and then I resent it. You know, we got to think of some jokes. You know, about. I have some. Like what about pomegranates and what is it about? I don't want to tell you I'm nervous. Let's hear it. I think, well, one of the honorees. No, this is stupid. Come on. Yes. No, we know. We have to now. This is a judgment for you, zone. We have to. One of the honorees is an Armenian man who is an astronaut. And so I'm going to say, you know, within the last six months, we've had one of the greatest moments in space when Katy Perry went up for 10 minutes. That's a good joke. It's a misdirect. That's a good joke. It's a misdirect. That's a good joke. Because everyone's going to think I'm talking about. Are you explaining to me how a misdirect works? Yes. This is what comedy is, Conan O'Brien. No, but you know what? I think that's a funny joke. OK. You know what's another good joke? IAN is added to every Armenian name, right? Yeah. So you could say there's some other great celebrities who are Armenian. Katy Perry in, you know, Tom Cruise in, John Travolte in. Yeah. OK. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, this is a good Sabrina Carpenter in. I mean, you know, you could go into that whole thing. OK. And you could list a whole bunch of celebrities' real names before they shorten them. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. OK. I like that. Conan O'Brien Ian. Not so good. It didn't roll off the tongue. And also there's already a lot going on with your last name. And you do jokes about some of the other, they're true famous like Dr. Kvorkian. Well, there's six honorees. So I'm coming up with bits for each one. I'm going to kill it at this Armenian gala even more than your previous host, Dr. Kvorkian. Oh, God. Right? Oh, God. Yeah. Conan. That's a good joke. He killed people. I know. OK. I know. Yeah. He's the pride of the Armenian people. Don't say that. Did he drive around in a van and do it? I forget how he did it. You know what? Nowadays, Eucanasia is not looked at as poorly as it was before. He was a pioneer. Well, his name was Dr. Death and he drove around in a van. But yeah, you're right. He was a pioneer. No. Ending people's lives is all cool now. They wanted to end them. They were all, weren't they all terminally ill? All right. You're taking us down a dark road. I'm a Kvorkian apologist. I just think I'm going to kill it up here. I'm going to be Armenian host who kills it the fastest since Dr. Kvorkian. That's funny. That's a good joke. Oh, God. I mean, you say, by the way, other famous and then it's Dr. Perry. You know what I mean? You know. This thing or Sia? Sia Sian? Sia Sian? There's a good one. I mean, we're coming up with good material right here. You're going to kill it, this thing. I know. I know. Oh, I could come out as a character. What? Yes. I could be a character. I could come out like as an old Armenian lady and then, you know, and I do a character. That won't be offensive at all. No, it's not. Can I hear you? Can I hear you? Can I hear you, your old Armenian lady? Oh, hello. It's nice to be here. Hi, guys. Why, he dried the apricots and flattened them and now we're eating them. I knew it was going to be a dry fruit. No, whatever. Whatever. And they would kill. Yeah. And guess what? I'm going to fly out. I'm going to write this material and I'm going to do this on the gala. And then I'm really going to resent you. You know you are. Those who are given much are expected to give much. And it's clear that I've been gifted with some divine powers. And so I must spend my time on this earth doing favors for Sonom of Sessian. I think that's the rule here. But you know, I love you. You know, I care about you. Do you? Do you? Is a bit I do. Oh, that's nice. Well, thank you. I love you too as a bit. Love you a bit. Bye. Conan O'Brien needs a friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Sessian and Mack Whirly. Produced by me, Mack Gorley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross and Nick Leo. Theme song by the White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair. And our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista and Brick Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco Hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM.com slash Conan. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded. Eonnext Eonnext When life gets hectic, energy ups and downs are all you need. If you're seeking energy reassurance, Eonnext can help. From regularly updating our tariffs to get you our best value to smart tech that helps you take control of your energy future, we're here for whatever's next. Just one of the reasons why we're rated excellent on TrustPilot by our customers. Find out more about how we can help at eonnext.com. Eligibility and T's and C's apply. TrustPilot February 2026.