Conan O’Brien In Handy Condensed Form

Here’s Conan O’Brien’s "Show Zero," a preview of his new talk show cut down for the short attention spans of these kids today, with their internet and their Flash and their caffeinated iPads. While Andy Richter’s Diet Coke pitch is another self-deprecating joke about product placement -- where you appear to make fun of the advertising while still doing it -- I’ve always gotten the impression that many comedians would really like to go back, for real, to the days when the show’s announcer would do the commercials himself. It’s sort of a fun old-timey thing that allowed the commercials to be integrated into the show (and, on radio especially, to be little comedy segments in themselves) instead of interrupting the show. And O’Brien, like many successful comedians, is nothing if not nostalgic for older eras of comedy.