Lake Neuron

If your feed reader tried to direct you to a non-existent post titled “Conan and Julia (and Kenneth the Page),” my apologies. I found a really funny clip and tried to embed it, and the embed code was giving me trouble — one version worked on IE but not on other browsers, the other version worked on everything but IE.

Anyway, the clip — which I saw embedded at another blog — was of a scripted comedy bit between Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Conan O’Brien when Julia was a guest on Conan’s show, I assume last night. When Tina Fey won an Emmy for best actress in a comedy, she saluted Julia — one of the other nominees — in her acceptance speech, saying that she sometimes uses Julia as a source of inspiration. Conan and Julia joked about the injustice of Julia losing the Emmy in this fashion, and then Conan tells Julia that “30 Rock” is being taped on another floor there at Rockefeller Center and that Tina Fey has the Emmy in her dressing room.

Julia decides to steal the Emmy. I won’t give the rest of the sketch away; you can find it at Conan’s web site. If they fix the embed code, I may embed it here later.

UPDATE: I now have a link on my Facebook profile.

Alright, Newscoma, I’ll see your extremely funny TV sketch and raise you 49 or so extremely funny TV sketches, courtesy of a link from my Tarheel-in-waiting brother.

This was how it started Monday night:

And it continued on “The Colbert Report.” And then this is how it ended, on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”:

Yes, I wish I had a TiVo. Tonight, after my bedtime, Craig Ferguson will have his citizenship swearing-in ceremony from last Friday on his show.

But Conan — according to the promo I just saw on NBC — will have a comedy bit with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, a backstage fight relating to their mock feud about who is responsible for Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign.

Both shows air at the same time. I can’t tape both, and in order to watch one and tape the other I would have to stay up past my bedtime.

A searing feud erupts in late night. Part 1:

Part 2:

What was Conan O’Brien doing during those two months off the air? Entertainment Weekly has his diary.

Since SNL is still in writer’s strike reruns, I bopped over to “TalkShow with Spike Feresten,” on Fox, which — like the weeknight talk shows — has returned sans writers. Why Fox insists on confining Feresten (a former writer for both the Letterman show and “Seinfeld,” among other things) to this nearly-invisible time slot — following “Mad TV” — is beyond me. He’s likeable and quick-witted, even without writers. In fact, tonight he offered scientific proof that he’s funnier than Carson Daly.

You see, to promote the upcoming prime-time lie detector show on Fox (which I find detestable, by the way) he had the host and the polygraph operator from the new show put one of his audience members through a few questions. The audience member, a tourist, had attended a taping of “Last Call with Carson Daly” the previous night, and Feresten couldn’t resist asking her whether or not he was funnier than Carson. She said he was — and the polygraph operator said she was telling the truth!

Frequently, news stories about the late-night wars will mention that Fox supposedly wants to get back into the weeknight talk show business, either by hiring Jay Leno after he leaves “The Tonight Show” or by hiring Conan O’Brien if NBC gets cold feet and postpones Conan’s planned ascenscion. If Fox is so gung-ho for the time slot, why not give Feresten a crack at it? If he doesn’t work out, you can always jump at Jay or Conan when the time comes.

Speaking of Conan, his rockabilly performances the past two Fridays have been terrific. I missed “Blue Moon of Kentucky” last week, but after talking to my brother about it I found it on the show’s web site. Then, I saw Conan singing “40 Days” last night, and it was just as much fun. What a shock!

I am assuming that both Conan and Dave will have shaved by the time they tape tonight’s episodes.