Ways of Seeing Presented in Popular Media

Through popular and comedic practices Conan O'Brien displays alternate ways of seeing, dealing with perspective, prior knowledge, assumptions, and even hints of surrealism.

O'Brien's sketch entitled "What in the World?" is a prime example of what Stan Brakhage is discussing in "The Camera Eye." Brakhage discusses the possibilities of altered impressionism and perception finishing with, "One may become a supreme trickster..." and though he is clearly not speaking with thought of Late Night with Conan O'Brien in mind his concepts and ideals are still apparent.

What in the World? - Conan is shown an extremely magnified portion of a picture. He throws out a wild guess as to what he is looking at, at which point the picture zooms out. Then Conan tries again, although it's not yet evident what the picture is of. It zooms out again, and the picture is now recognizable and seemingly mundane, for instance a celebrity or other normal situation. The final time it zooms out, something unexpected or outrageous that had previously been out of frame is revealed. The opening audio cue for this bit is an annoying sounding man saying, "What in the world?" which Conan often asks not to have repeated.

- Descriptions of skits which titles appear in bold are taken from wikipedia.

If They Mated- Pictures of two famous celebrities, usually believed to be dating at the time, are shown. The pictures are then combined into a grotesque new picture of what their offspring would look like if they mated. The segment became so successful that it later spawned a book. The last item in the sketch is usually the mating of a person and an object or two objects: the resulting offspring usually ends up being an unaltered photograph of a celebrity. For example, if Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were to have a child, it would be Steve Bartman.

- If they mated is a hysterical insight into how we view other individuals and physical attributes. It proves to be an adequate social commentary on the public's infatuation with celebrities and superficial mindset, pointing out that not even the most beautiful of people are perfect. This is deffinately not the case in every instance but it says more than almost all popular comedy of the time.

Selective viewing is something O'Brien and the writers for late night incorporate to put a different spin on a video or put it in a different context. It is apparent with the use of his Walker Texas Ranger lever.

The Walker, Texas Ranger Lever- This sketch sprung from NBC's purchase of entertainment company Universal in early 2004, creating NBC Universal. Conan introduced the Walker, Texas Ranger lever, which allowed him to play a video clip from the television show Walker, Texas Ranger at any time he wanted to, without paying a dime in royalties. The clips from the Chuck Norris series were sometimes taken out of context, other times not. A clip example could be something such as Norris karate-kicking through the windshield of a moving car, and Conan would comment on each clip's absurdity after it aired. In late summer 2004, the bit seemed to have been retired as Chuck Norris walked in and fired a prop gun at Conan. Norris also revealed his own lever and pulled it, playing a clip showing him "beating" Conan up with martial arts in the back of the studio. On March 8, 2005, the lever returned to the show. Notably, the premise of the bit was technically incorrect, since Walker was owned by CBS, Sony Pictures Television, and a few other companies; Walker just ran on NBC Universal-owned USA Network at the time. One of the last and most popular clips to be shown was one where a young Haley Joel Osment uttered the sentence, "Walker told me I have AIDS." The airing of these clips subsequently led to Chuck Norris becoming the focus of an ever-growing trend in which people invent satirical random "Chuck Norris Facts." The "facts" tend to involve absurdly exaggerated claims of Norris' toughness, attitude, virility, and masculinity.

To view a musical produced by the ASU theatre department based on a scenario in which Conan "loses his funny," click HERE.