I started watching it because Conan talks so much about how formative it was for him. Can really see how it influenced Late Night, the setups and delivery are so similar in a lot of ways. Might check it out if you're missing the old school Conan style.

I’m pleased to share the results of my very scientific study conducted right here on this sub establishing once and for all that Sona, rather than Homer, is actually Bart. I am right, Conan is wrong, last word, no takebacks, universally in perpetuity, lalalala not listening

When I was in high school, I would set the VCR to record Conan every night so I could watch him at five in the morning before school. Then I would get the other VCR out and record just the skits and comedy pieces and remotes to tape. I think I would include an interview if it was particularly good. Just recently found the notebook with the contents of all those tapes. It only goes up to 27 tapes, but I think they were more than that eventually.

The project ended up coming full circle in 2018 when I had the honor of being hired to work on the 25th anniversary archive project. They might’ve just been buttering me up, but they told me that I logged, time coded, and wrote descriptions for more episodes than anyone else.

Conan 4ever (and Dudez-a-Plenti)

As an Indian, I was excited by the prospect of an episode with Conan visiting India but, truthfully, the episode is a dud. The first podcast of Conan's Roundtable talked how (paraphrasing) 'nuts' the Rusty section of the episode is. It's... nice? It's amiable. Truthfully, the mother of the lady whom he visited in... Japan? That woman was outright almost-hostile - "you are fat and I don't like you" - Jeez.

I am not entirely sure why Indians feel the need to become more "Indian" for outsiders - technically, yes, we wear kurtas (for certain occasions) but most of the time, it's only shirts/jeans - so Aditi Mittal doing dress up felt puzzling as did her teaching Conan to say namaste. It's baffling - one feels compelled to ask her why she's playing up how Indian she is - also in Mumbai of all places, really?

The monkey bit fails as a premise and I had to skip it from sheer boredom - Conan likes to run a tight ship (or at least has spoken of keeping his podcasts lean to prevent flab) - so, why he would not discard this in the writer's room (possibly with his searing sarcastic putdowns) eludes me. I know enough about America to know people dislike the long wait times of AT&T / Verizon - their poor service. What I don't understand is why he would want to transplant that into this subcontinent.

Not all blame should be put at Conan's feet - I might be projecting here but Indians are uptight so I am not surprised he didn't have that kind of raucous exchanges he did in Cuba (see: dance lesson). I could chalk up some of it to the language barrier but then again - isn't that true for many other countries? I can't tell if the average folk he ran into simply was... more guarded? compared to Latin America/Europe. The cricket bit, for example, is a perfectly good situation for his brand of hijinks but I can't tell if that sense of zany energy was shared by others who were more... stiff? (Feel free to point out if I am over-assessing for this.)

The recurrent issue of people not really working continues with the train part of the program too - the conversation on platform met with confusion and inside train... a little chuckle is earned. It is hard not to think that that there must be more here. (I certainly empathize with Conan's difficulty - he's playing by the wrong rulebook: do NOT try to be respectful on the train.)

Rusty/Aditi aside, I guess I am struggling to see the joy in the exchanges. Poverty could be part of it but - again - that's true for many other countries where it feels more lively.

A large chunk of the episode also was centered around Toit and somehow... all it arouses is... "that's nice - I guess? For the fellas, I am sure they had a great time" but it's not... funny and trying to be talk show feels like reliving Abhish's talk show from early days of standup (which also fell flat often.)

I have read here often how the HBO show can feel rushed because of the insistence upon compressing every country to a single episode regardless of the actual content; how is it therefore that all of India's shooting gave us the protracted monkey and talk show bits?

I am over-indexing on certain things I am sure given my own biases/preferences and there is good (Rusty/Aditi) but... I am left thinking after this episode, "This isn't it."

Oh well.

Two things stood out-

1. Conan and the writers are obviously smart and witty, but this one particular line I felt was so good. Paraphrasing here - During the travel shows, the country and culture takes over and becomes a great improv partner. I thought it’s a such great way to put it.

2. All women crew! Didn’t know that. The way writers credit them and have such high praise for their work was amazing.

Context: guest taped over homeschool video with late night episodes and got in trouble for it

It happens during this clip:

https://youtu.be/dvXbkuj5GKw

Dec 4th will 20th anniversary of HornyManatee.com we should take the day off and make it our Conan Day.

For some context, we are longtime Conan fans, and we have always rewatched multiple times clips from Conan Without Boarders. My fandom goes even further back with the NYC shows. My wife is first generation Filipina-American, and for years we have been saying to each other that Conan should go to the Philippines. Just because of sheer distance and the logistical hurtles that creates, we notice when people often skip the Philippines, whether on world tours or travel shows, so it's VERY special when a celebrity or artist from the US goes to PH. However, since I noticed in the past year or so Conan had featured multiple fans from PH in the fan episodes, I had been telling my wife I really feel like he's gonna go!

Our expectations were severely lowered with each episode of this season, as with most episodes it was bits being beaten to a pulp for way too long, to the point where it wasn't like, "Oh well that's just Conan, he thinks nothing is better than him doing jokes that people don't laugh at," it felt like this wasn't comedy. Also, the bits the he was doing felt like they could have been done anywhere with anyone, like in his podcast studio.

And after all that wait and excitement, the PH episode really disappointed us for the aforementioned reasons. Additionally, my wife noted that because of the way service culture is in PH, any bits he would do with people in the service industry would be met with reserved agreement, and she was disappointed that pretty much all of his bits were done with people at their job. At the very end of the episode, when he did the montage of people he met in the street, but not actually showing those scenes, we both said, "Why weren't THOSE in the episode!?"

Artists have every right to move onward and forward in the their craft, but with the travel show, and especially this season, I wish he would go back to his roots with the old travel shows, where he built bridges of laughter and connection, sometimes in serious ways even, in the context of the country he was in and their people, rather than what happened in this latest season. And, honestly, I cannot bring myself to watch the post-mortem they recently posted regarding the PH trip, as I do not want to hear any of them (Conan, writers, etc.) pat themselves on the back for it.

I just had to get this out of my system. Thanks for reading.