December 8: Andy gets frisky

[Joseph Nebus]

Andy had a good day for being a politely rebellious element on
the show last night, between his commentary on Conan's Tiger Woods Caddy's
advice (``getting terrible advice'', or, hoping that the third is the last
joke ... because, of course, they have so much show to get to), or noting
the lack of need for the Celebrity Survey research, and getting that app
on when to laugh at Conan's jokes.

I don't imagine that it reflects anything backstage other than
the recognition that the show's funnier when Conan's fighting for control
of the flow of events --- compare his wrestling for control with the Deep
Voiced Guy, used in Twitter Tracker and those segments where Deep Voice
would get all excited about, say, the number of guests this week with
double letters in their names --- and Andy's got the charming playful
presence which lets him get away with mocking the show without threatening
to break it.

Also, good job on having Tilly the Artist Dog on. Part of the
transition to The Tonight Show has been a satisfying increase in the
number of 'novelty guests' who perform in interesting ways, and that's
very good. (``Do you coat the painting with bacon beforehand?'') That
Tilly was acting so generally weird reinforced that wrestling-for-control
element of the show; Conan's blank response to being told the first
painting was Roman Polanski proves the idea.

--
Joseph Nebus
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