conan o'brien visits ireland

US comedy giant Conan O’Brien declares Ireland ‘quite the ride... for a ginger’

Television: irish-american presenter is very funny in the irish episode of his travel show, especially when searching for bono.

US comedian and talk show host Conan O’Brien during a visit to Ireland to film his travel show. Photograph: @ConanOBrien/X

Conan O’Brien is 61 now but has stayed true to his persona of the kid who is always annoying but everyone loves because he can make them laugh. In his 30-year reign as one of America’s premier late night hosts, he was the opposite to rivals such as Jimmy Kimmel in that the joke was always on him.

The deftly scripted introduction to his new show, Conan O’Brien Must Go, parodies the infinite number of travel shows with a mock presentation of Planet Earth at its most stunning. “To appreciate the astounding glamour of this planet, sometimes you must defile it,” narrates a cosmic, unseen voice.

“Behold the defiler.”

And there he is: the familiar ginger quiff, the long face. “His character is vile, base and depraved. Once a proud talkshow host, he has been driven by a change in ecosystem to a drier, harsher climate: the weekly podcast.”

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It’s a joke which, of course, carries the sting of truth. When the Conan O’Brien Show finished in 2021, its ratings mirrored the fate of the late-night shows by plummeting. The age of the suave impresario – which O’Brien subverted with a wicked comic sense – was all but done. So, the star – “this clown with dull tiny eyes, the eyes of a crudely painted doll” – is forced to hit the road, “fuelled by a bottomless hunger for recognition and the occasional selfie”.

[  ‘This is where it all started’: Conan O’Brien visits ancestral home in Limerick  ]

In his new four-part show, he starts in Norway and finishes with a visit to his ancestral homeland of Ireland. It’s clear from the off that, freed from the strictures of network television, O’Brien is free to indulge his instincts as an absurdist. His visit to Ireland begins with an uneasy walk through a Valley Of The Squinting Windows-type village in which everyone looks uncomfortably like Conan, including a horse whose face is altered to include the quiff and the tiny eyes.

O’Brien’s Ireland is devoid of lush coastal scenery or the obligatory nods to stout and literature. Instead, he has Lynn Ruane give him a crash course on Dublin slang – “you’re wreckin’ me Ma’s head” – and a cheerfully ribald exchange of sexual slang in which O’Brien feigns bewilderment before being told that in his case, if he was lucky, someone might say: “He’s a ride – for a ginger.”

He meets the Three Tenors and auditions for them. He visits Obama Plaza, where he unveils his own mock statue with a hand raised and manages to swivel it so he can high-five the copper likeness of the former president. He gets a walk-on part on Ros na Rún.

The Northern Lights don’t come out for another... three hours. I’m not gonna stick around for that shit —   Conan O’Brien

In a segment titled Finding Bono he goes hunting in a forlorn Merrion Park for the rock star in hibernation season, discovering a pair of wraparound shades in the foliage and unearthing grainy Bigfoot-style footage of a possible Bono furtively darting through woodlands, luring him out by hanging a fake global humanitarian award from a tree. It’s good, silly fun and it would have been heightened had the real Bono been sport enough to make an appearance. But, then, he was probably never asked: this version of O’Brien is decidedly stripped of celebrity. It’s Conan the maturing prankster moving through ordinary life and having his delusions gently pricked by a series of Irish people who deliver their lines in that Cyril Cusack way of soft cunning.

Conan O’Brien makes his debut on TG4's Ros na Rún. Photograph: Ray Ryan/TG4

O’Brien’s great-grandfather, Thomas Noonan O’Brien, emigrated from Ireland to Massachusetts. By the time young Conan came along, they were well established: his father a Harvard professor, his mother a Boston attorney, and O’Brien himself served as president of Harvard Lampoon while at the university. He was precocious and whip smart, and even though he always wore his Irishness with light irreverence, he always “got” Ireland. Visiting his ancestral hometown of Galbally, he points to a pub across the road and says of his forefather: “Maybe he would have found time to visit Fraser Lounge Bar and Undertaker to grab a pint... and hit on a grieving widow.”

In one of the funniest sections, he references Stanley Tucci , the new king of sensual food and drink entertainment, by sampling black pudding in Loughnane’s Irish butchers. He takes a bite, says dreamily, “I feel like I have come home,” and performs a writhing, orgasmic dance on Loughnane’s sparkling tiled floor.

The good-natured nonsense will make for confusing viewing for the millions of Irish Americans who carry more romantic notions of the auld sod. But part of O’Brien’s point is to gently take the air out of all that stuff. His visit to Norway sees him riff about the Northern Lights as we watch a dazzling display. Then the camera pans out to show O’Brien holding a laptop on which he is watching the same scene.

“Yeah,” he says. “The Northern Lights don’t come out for another... three hours. I’m not gonna stick around for that shit.”

Fair enough. It does feel a pity that O’Brien doesn’t permit himself to stray from the sharply scripted daftness every so often. The close of the Irish show has him in the field where his ancestral cottage once stood. His Obama Plaza statue is beside him and he is contemplative about the decision to emigrate from such a beautiful spot, a journey which ultimately led to his place in the pantheon of talkshow satirists. It’s a rare sighting of a sincere O’Brien and is as fleeting as a burst of Irish sunshine on a rainy day. Then he is gone, with the traditional farewell: “Thank you, Ireland. You are quite the ride. For a ginger.”

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'Conan O'Brien Must Go' is side-splitting evidence of life beyond late night TV

Eric Deggans

Conan O'Brien dresses as a Viking in Norway. Conaco/Max hide caption

Conan O'Brien dresses as a Viking in Norway.

To be honest, when I first heard Conan O'Brien was ending his TV talk show in 2021, I assumed news that he might turn to variety shows and online programs to continue his career was some combination of face-saving and wishful thinking.

But after watching the four episodes of his new Max series Conan O'Brien Must Go , it's now obvious — even to a thickheaded critic like me — that leaving late night TV really was liberating for O'Brien. He's leveraged his unique sensibility into several different podcasts, a deal with Sirius XM , specials featuring other stand-up comics and now this travel series for Max — which resembles jokey specials he did for cable channel TBS back in the day.

And as the late night TV genre crumbles under sagging viewership and the decline of traditional media, O'Brien's renaissance also provides an example for the future — where fertile comedy minds and talented performers can spread their work over a much larger canvas.

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Is conan o'brien the best 'hot ones' guest ever discuss., learning a lesson from 'hot ones'.

O'Brien already made a splash recently with his brilliantly maniacal appearance on the interview-while-eating-hot-wings show Hot Ones , slobbering over hot sauces while claiming, as he was checked over by a fake doctor, that "I'm fine! I'm perfectly f*****g fine!"

This is the place where O'Brien shines — he's called it "this strange phantom intersection between smart and stupid" — and it's on full, freakish, super silly display in every episode of Conan O'Brien Must Go .

The conceit of the show is pretty simple. O'Brien heads overseas to visit average folks in Norway, Argentina, Thailand and Ireland who had once Zoomed in to speak with him on the podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan . Sometimes the visits seem like a surprise — he catches one aspiring Norwegian rapper in shorts and Crocs after popping up on his doorstep — and others seem a bit more planned, including his visit to a radio show with about four listeners in Buenos Aires.

Each episode begins with a solemn monologue which sounds like it is delivered by the film world's most eccentric voice, German filmmaker and actor Werner Herzog (he's not credited in the show and when asked, a publicist at Max shared a quote from O'Brien: "I can neither confirm nor deny the voice in question.")

The torturous accent by "Herzog" makes every line sound absurdly hilarious, describing O'Brien as "the defiler ... with dull, tiny eyes ... the eyes of a crudely painted doll ... he scavenges in distant lands, uninvited, fueled by a bottomless hunger for recognition and the occasional selfie."

Now that's smart. And oh so stupid.

A funhouse mirror version of a travel show

O'Brien performs onstage with a fan in Norway Conaco/Max hide caption

O'Brien performs onstage with a fan in Norway

Fans of O'Brien's Conan Without Borders specials on TBS already know what his style is when he tackles a travel show — throwing himself into outrageous reactions and situations while working his quirky brand of improvised conversations with hapless bystanders.

In the Max series Conan O'Brien Must Go , that includes O'Brien offering screechy vocals onstage during a performance of a Norwegian emo/rap band. Or asking provocative questions of a couple therapist/sex expert. Or getting beat up in a "fight" with a 10-year-old boy in a bar.

It's all an excuse for O'Brien to unleash his energetic wit, taste for silly absurdity and skill at drawing laughs from sympathetic — if often befuddled — strangers. Whether you enjoy this special will depend on how you feel about O'Brien's style, which can feel a bit like the world's best class clown doing everything possible to make you crack a smile.

(Rent a family in Norway so they can say goodbye when he gets on a SeaCraft? Check. Get local artists to paint a mural of O'Brien, a soccer star and The Pope on the side of a building in Argentina? Double check.)

'Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend' Is A Joke Name For A Podcast — Sort Of

But what amazes in a larger sense is how O'Brien has turned his sensibility into a comedy brand to fuel work on many different platforms. And, at age 60, with more than 30 years as a comedy star, he's been released from the shackles of any genre to shine wherever he chooses — whether it's an episode of Hot Ones or a streaming service which sometimes looks like a collision between True Detective and 90 Day Fiancé .

Leaving late night TV as late night left him

I'm old enough that I started covering TV not long after O'Brien made his first move from the shadows of life as a comedy writer – he worked on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons — to succeed David Letterman in 1993 as host of NBC's show Late Night (now hosted by Seth Meyers). Back then, NBC gave O'Brien years to figure out the show, honing his smartly serious comedy in a way that would inspire then-teenage fans like Seth Rogen and Bill Hader .

O'Brien left NBC after a disastrous deal where the network tried to make him host of its venerated late night program The Tonight Show and also keep its former host Jay Leno at the network. He moved to a late night show on TBS in 2010, but even then, there was a sense that his creativity was a bit hemmed in by the format.

After 28 Quirky Years, Conan O'Brien Is Leaving Late Night

By the time he left his TBS show Conan for good, it seemed O'Brien was already caught in a trend which would hobble other late night shows — as young viewers consumed his content online and ratings on cable dropped.

Now, with a podcast and digital media company worth many millions and growing status as a TV comedy legend still willing to do almost anything for a laugh, O'Brien is proving there is a successful life beyond late night.

Particularly, if you have the talent to play the fool while leaving little doubt you're also the smartest person in the room.

Conan O'Brien traces ancestral roots in Ireland as DNA test shows he is '100 percent Irish'

The TV host's great-grandfather left Ireland after the Great Famine and married an Irishwoman in the US

• 08:00, 13 JAN 2024

Conan O’Brien is filming a new travel series as he traces his ancestral roots in Ireland.

The US talk-show host and comedian spent time in Co Galway , Dublin and Co Limerick , meeting genealogists, visiting local businesses and even stopping to have a pint with a fan.

He showcased another talent as he joined the Irish Tenors on stage in Whelan’s pub in Dublin, where he delighted fans with a powerful rendition of Danny Boy , on Thursday night.

Conan O'Brien shares glimpse into Irish trip as he films travel show

Conan O'Brien confirms he is currently in Ireland for new travel show

Sharing a photo of the occasion on social media, O’Brien joked that they had also sang Cowboys From Hell by American heavy metal band, Pantera.

Whelan’s were delighted to have the comedian perform in the famous pub, writing on X (formerly Twitter): “What a privilege to have Conan O’Brien drop in this evening to perform Danny Boy with the Irish Tenors. Unbelievable stuff.”

The 60-year-old embarked on his tour of Ireland after a DNA test showed that he was “100 percent Irish”.

He jokingly told Ryan Tubridy on his new Virgin Radio UK show last Friday that he had considered his DNA results “unusual” because nobody could be 100 percent Irish, and said this to his doctor.

“You idiot, it means you’re inbred,” the doctor replied, O’Brien told Tubridy.

His great-grandfather, Thomas O’Brien, left Galbally in Limerick for the US in the late 1870s. He was married to Margaret Dempsey from Emly, Co Tipperary .

So far, his Irish tour has seen him visit Loughrea, Co Galway, where he visited a pub and butcher’s shop; as well as enjoying a pint in Galway city with a fan.

He has also stopped off in Cashel, Tipperary to speak to a genealogist who helped him delve into his family tree.

In Galbally, O’Brien retraced the steps of his great-grandfather and found the place he lived before starting a new life on the other side of the Atlantic.

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“This is where my great-grandfather Thomas O’Brien lived and he left this piece of land, came to America, moved to central Massachusetts ,” he said in a video posted on social media.

“And the rest is a disaster. But, anyway, cool to be back,” he added.

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O’Brien began his career as a comedian writing for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons before taking over from David Letterman as the host of the Late Night talk show in 1993.

He moved to the Tonight Show in 2009 until he quit in June 2021. He has since turned his focus to podcasting and has hosted his own podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, since 2018.

For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here .

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WATCH: Conan O’Brien plays a clueless American tourist during 1999 trip to Ireland

We can only hope that conan o'brien was playing a character during his hilarious visit to ireland in 1999.

Conan O’Brien played a clueless yet eager Irish American tourist during his show’s 1999 visit to Ireland.

In a segment that aired on St. Patrick’s Day 1999, Conan O’Brien wandered the Irish countryside in hopes of finding some long-lost relatives and getting back in touch with his roots.

O'Brien, who was raised in Boston , has been pretty vocal about his Irish Catholic upbringing, so here's hoping that his segment in Ireland is mostly in jest.

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“It’s very customary for Irish Americans to come back to Ireland to try and find their roots,” says O’Brien opening the segment from Co Limerick.

The funnyman then embarks on a deep dive of all the typical Irish American tourist stereotypes.

(More than 20 years later, it should be noted, the stereotypes has yet to dissipate!)

“I’m gonna go out, and try to connect with my past,” says O’Brien.

The footage then shows O’Brien, beclad in a cabbeen hat, wandering the Irish countryside looking rather lost with a map in his hands. 

In fairness to O’Brien and his fair skin and red hair, he doesn’t look too out of place in Ireland.

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In a small town, O’Brien then begins to approach Irish passersby for information about his long lost relatives.

“There’s a lot of O’Briens in Ireland,” says one man named Paddy.

“What county?” asks another man, to which O’Brien could only say “it was very green.”

More stereotypes abound - O’Brien visits a pub, O’Brien drinks Guinness , O’Brien sings in a pub, O’Brien dances along to a trad session, O’Brien visits the Cliffs of Moher.

You can watch Conan's Trip to Ireland here!

What do you think of Conan O'Brien's visit to Ireland? Let us know in the comments!

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Conan O’Brien to make Irish language TV debut with guest appearance on TG4's Ros na Run

The US TV Host and comedian filmed his guest appearance on the long-running Irish language series during a visit to Ireland earlier this year

• 11:51, 16 APR 2024

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US TV Host and comedian Conan O’Brien is set to appear on an episode of TG4’s long running drama series Ros na Rún later this month.

O’Brien visited Ireland in January to record an episode of his HBO Max travel show Conan O’Brien Must Go series which saw the 60-year-old Massachusetts-born star make pit stops in Galway, Dublin and Limerick.

The Late Night host's primary focus was to trace his family roots back to the village of Galbally in south east Limerick , the native home of his great grandfather Daniel O’Brien, while also taking in some of Ireland’s most unique features.

READ MORE : Conan O'Brien sings Danny Boy on stage with Irish Tenors in famous Dublin pub

High on O'Brien's priority list for his trip to Ireland was to speak Irish and have a cameo role on the leading TG4 drama series Ros na Rún, now in its 28th Season.

O'Brien recorded a brief guest appearance on the long-running Irish language series during his visit, with the episode set to air Tuesday, April 30 at 8.30pm on TG4.

In the upcoming episode, Ros na Rún’s village rogue and publican, Tadhg Ó Direáin is faced with a feisty delivery man, played by O'Brien, who’s having none of Tadhg’s arrogant nonsense.

The new Ros na Rún delivery man is certainly no push over for Tadhg, as a war of words is declared between the two in Tigh Thaidhg.

Speaking about his upcoming appearance on the TG4 series, O'Brien said: “Getting to work with the cast and crew of Ros Na Run was a delightful highlight of my trip to Ireland, and I apologise in advance for inadvertently butchering my Mother Tongue."

O'Brien filmed his cameo on January 9 during a visit to the Ros na Rún set in An Spidéal in the Connemara Gaeltacht where the comedian engaged in a tour of the purpose built TV set, before meeting the team and spending time with Production Manager Mairead Campbell and linguistics coach Kevin Hussey who coached and challenged him to learn his first lines as Gaeilge.

“Every day is a challenge on a working TV Set where we produce 82 episodes of Ros na Rún over 6 and half months of filming, so we’re never shy of a new challenge”, said Marion Ní Loingsigh, Ros na Rún series producer.

“It was thrilling to get the request from Conan O’Brien that he wanted to have a cameo appearance in Season 28.

"Who better to pair the famous US TV personality and comedian with than our very own leading legend Tadhg O’Direán, played by Macdara O Fatharta.

"It was fun to create and film and audiences will see a perfect delivery of Gaeilge by HBO’s Conan O’Brien in what is an abrupt but entertaining exchange with Tadhg”.

O’Brien is now added to Ros na Rún’s celebrity cameo hall of fame which already includes actor Stephen Fry, Country music legends Daniel O’Donnell and Nathan Carter, Francis Brennan and Virgin Media’s Alan Hughes to name but a few.

Ros na Rún is broadcast twice weekly on Tuesday and Thursday at 8.30pm on TG4 with an omnibus on Sunday evening at 7.30pm. The series is also available to stream on the TG4 and RTE players.

Ahead of O’Brien's appearance on Ros na Rún on April 30, the Irish-language series will first feature on Conan O'Brien Must Go, which will be released on HBO Max this Thursday (April 18), bringing the Irish language and rural drama series to a new international and American audience.

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‘Conan O’Brien Must Go’ is a wacky travel show: review

In “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” the comedian and talk show host puts his own irreverent spin on the well-worn travel show format. 

Premiering Thursday, April 18 on Max, the four-episode series is based on the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” 

The show follows O’Brien, 60, as he visits “friends” that he’s made (aka, fans who have called into his podcast). 

The result is a travel show that feels self indulgent, at times – as all celebrity travel shows often do – but it’s also entertaining and provides an off-beat and quirky look into a variety of countries. 

It should appeal to fans of O’Brien, and it may also appeal to viewers who feel indifferent to him, but enjoy amusing insights into other cultures. 

Each episode opens with idyllic scenes of gorgeous landscapes. 

There’s a voiceover similar to what you’d hear in a nature documentary, narrating how O’Brien was once “a proud talk show host,” but “a changing ecosystem” has sent him to a “drier and harsher climate: the weekly podcast.” 

The voice further describes O’Brien as “This clown with dull tiny eyes, the eyes of a crudely painted doll,” and talks about how he is “forced to feed on that meagerist of morsels, the random calling fan, unhinged by the feral scent of their mild enthusiasm…..He scavenges in distant lands. Uninvited, fueled by a bottomless hunger for recognition and the occasional selfie.”

The first episode then cuts to O’Brien showing up to ring one fan’s doorbell in Norway. 

The shocked fan lets him into his apartment, and O’Brien proceeds to critique his living situation on the fly, pointing out how the bread in his kitchen is stale. 

O’Brien then leaves to do segments exploring Norwegian culture – including a segment visiting Viking enthusiasts, an interview with a psychologist about the modern day sex and dating customs in the culture, and he visits another fan who works on a fishing boat. 

“That’s right, I have two fans in Norway!” he boasts. 

The result is an hour that feels fairly well-rounded, digging into different aspects of the country and culture. But it never loses sight of doing it in O’Brien’s idiosyncratic way . 

When his second fan turns out to be laconic, O’Brien says, “We have zero chemistry, what are we going to do?” 

That breaks the ice, and it demonstrates O’Brien’s talent for thinking on his feet and making conversation with just about anyone.

However, sometimes his jokes and bits get tedious – like a scene when he loses his luggage, so he dons traditional “Norwegian” attire from a nearby store. He then interviews a local man on the street about how nobody really wears that, and O’Brien looks foolish. It’s mildly funny, but the man isn’t that chatty. So the result is a repetitive conversation where O’Brien keeps prompting a man, who gives terse “yes” answers. 

But, O’Brien is an old pro, and the show clips along at a steady pace. Just when a segment feels like its overstaying its welcome, the show moves onto new and fresh material. 

Other episodes include the comedian taking trips to Thailand, Argentina and Ireland. 

The Emerald Isle episode has an amusing bit where O’Brien hunts for Bono in a park among the shrubbery, as if he’s searching for a wild animal. Finding a pair of Bono’s trademark sunglasses, he comments that he’s close to finding the musician because “He sheds these.” He then uses a Global Humanitarian Award statuette as “bait.” 

“Conan O’Brien Must go” fits comfortably into the genre of “celebrity travel shows,” and it may not win over viewers who never much cared for him, but it’s an amusing watch.

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Conan O’Brien Must Go Takes One Giant Step for Travel-Show Idiocy

When Conan O’Brien appeared on Hot Ones last week, he did the opposite of what most guests do on that show. Instead of dabbing his chicken wings in conservative dollops of hot sauce, he submerged them to the point of drowning. He sucked every piece of meat off of every bone, at one point dramatically licking a wing covered in Da’Bomb Beyond Insanity, a condiment almost single-handedly responsible for Idris Elba’s murder on the series in 2019 . Rather than wipe away tears or snot, O’Brien let everything fly so that, by the end of the episode, milk, mucus, and other unidentifiable fluids were streaming down his face while he screamed out a promo for his new travel series, Conan O’Brien Must Go .

The internet naturally went wild over all this , turning the moment into an opportunity to share classic Conan clips and celebrate the former late-night host’s eagerness to go for the most broken version of broke in any scenario. But his Hot Ones appearance is also a reminder of what has always been the secret to O’Brien’s success: his ability to enter well-established media formats — the family sitcom via his time as a Simpsons writer, the late-night talk show, the celebrity-interview podcast — and blow them up with his postmodern version of vaudevillian absurdity.

That’s what he does for the docuseries form in Conan O’Brien Must Go, a new Max series inspired by Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan , a podcast spinoff of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend in which O’Brien has in-depth conversations with admirers from all over the globe. In the Max show, whose four episodes drop simultaneously this Thursday, O’Brien actually goes to visit some of those fans — the host swears that none of them know in advance that the world’s most recognizable redhead and his film crew are about to show up — while also visiting various cities to theoretically learn more about each country’s culture. O’Brien did something similar in Conan Without Borders , a series of specials that ran on TBS when O’Brien also hosted Conan on the network. Perhaps because Conan O’Brien Must Go is a series rather than spread-out one-offs, or maybe because it seems to have a more robust budget, this version is much more blatant about its interest in riffing on and subverting the tropes of the travel format.

Each of the episodes — set in Norway, Argentina, Thailand, and Ireland — begins with majestic cinematography and a deeply serious voiceover narration from distinguished filmmaker Werner Herzog as he describes the beauty of our planet. Then Herzog, in his thick German accent, utters what is basically the mission statement of the show: “To truly appreciate the astounding grandeur of this planet, sometimes you must defile it. Behold,” he adds, “the defiler.” Cut to clips from the series of O’Brien making an ass of himself on multiple continents.

The first theoretical rule of being a travel-show host is to keep the focus on the places and people you’re visiting rather than yourself. O’Brien takes the paper that rule is written on and sets it on fire. In classic Conan fashion, he makes everything about himself. Crucially, he’s always the butt of the joke and the obvious jester, never a mocker of other people’s traditions. In Bergen, Norway, he “helps” one of his fans, a hip-hop musician, by insisting on singing on one of his songs in a very high falsetto. In Buenos Aires, he commissions another fan, an artist, to paint a mural of O’Brien with his arms around the pope and soccer star Lionel Messi, underneath a banner that says “Hijos sagrados de Argentina,” or “Sacred sons of Argentina.” (In case this wasn’t abundantly clear: Conan O’Brien is an Irish American who grew up in Massachusetts and has zero connection to Argentina.) In an especially clever and very Conan bit, when the host first arrives in Ireland, he says, “As soon as I landed, I knew that I was with my people,” at which point the camera captures several different Irish men and women, all of whom are just O’Brien in costume.

Conan O’Brien Must Go even highlights the mechanics of making a travel show and Conan-izes them for the sake of comedy. O’Brien points out that he can afford drones for this series, which he uses for the least inspired reasons he can conjure. In the Norway episode, he waxes poetic about how stunning the northern lights look, then the camera pans to a wide shot and reveals that he’s actually sitting in his hotel, staring at a picture of the northern lights on his laptop. This show is relentless in its silliness. This is meant as the highest compliment.

Most travel-show hosts try to make their interview subjects comfortable, but that is not O’Brien’s goal. After getting a Norwegian to admit his people do not like having their space invaded, he slowly licks the entirety of the man’s left cheek. After being fitted for a formal suit in Bangkok, O’Brien pontificates about nonsense in English at great length, while the owner of the shop assumes an expression similar to the one Chris Pine made while trying to beam himself onto some other celestial plane during the Don’t Worry Darling press tour.

O’Brien even calls attention to specific subgenres that fall underneath the travel-show umbrella. While visiting Merrion Square Park in Dublin, a place that U2 front man Bono is allegedly known to frequent, the series briefly turns into a nature program called Finding Bono in which O’Brien tries to track the elusive rock star. (He almost “catches him” by using a fake global humanitarian award as bait.) Before trying some of the black pudding that Ireland is famous for, O’Brien nods to Stanley Tucci’s foodie-focused CNN travel series by noting that Tucci always looks like he’s having “six orgasms” after he tries a bite of any dish. Not to be outdone, after a couple tastes of black pudding, O’Brien engages in a deranged form of modern dance that leads to him writhing on the floor while the owner of the shop he’s visiting looks on, stupefied.

This is what O’Brien was born to do: gyrate on the floor in public, in his land of origin, in the hope that someone, somewhere on this planet filled with astounding grandeur, will laugh. He truly is the defiler. At 61 years old — his birthday falls on the same day as Conan O’Brien Must Go ’s release date — he is also, still, a comedy king .

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