Comedian Jim Gaffigan feels privileged about being Conan O’Brien’s friend. Jim returns to sit down with Conan once more to discuss his foray into SNL history portraying Tim Walz, the worst possible audiences for stand-up comedy, the full story of their joint visit to the Vatican, and Jim's new special The Skinny. Plus, Conan and his team look back approaching the show’s sixth anniversary with another State of the Podcast address. For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com.Got a question for Conan? Call our voicemail: (669) 587-2847. Get access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using this show link: https://siriusxm.com/conan.
Chapter 1: What does Jim Gaffigan think about being Conan O'Brien's friend?
My name is Jim Gaffigan, and I feel... I told myself I wasn't going to cry. I feel like they're going to edit this. I feel privileged about being Conan O'Briens. That's so nice.
Fall is here, hear the yell Back to school, ring the bell Brand new shoes, walkin' blues Climb the fence, books and pens I can tell that we are gonna be friends Yes, I can tell that we are gonna be friends
Hey there. Welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. I am the aforementioned COB, joined by Sonam of Session. SM. And MJG. I'll just, I don't want to know your middle name. The less I know about you at this point, the better. You don't want to know an animal too well before you put it down. Any hoots. What's up, gang? What's happening? What's the haps?
Yeah, you tell us.
Yeah, big news.
Big news.
Yep, yep. It was announced. Was it Friday, I guess, it was announced?
It was this evergreen. Oh, that's right.
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Chapter 2: What big announcement was made regarding Conan O'Brien?
Sorry. Yes. There is some big news out there. Would you like to tell us what it is, Sona?
Well, you've been tapped to host the Oscars in 2025, which is a really big deal. It's really cool.
That's cool. Oh, why are you guys silently applauding? Oh, wow. Guess what? That is the amount of applause I'll get when I walk out on stage. I think there's also partially a reason. The sound of two hands clapping.
America's wanting to know because, you know, Sona and I are essentially your co-hosts on this podcast. Why aren't we co-hosting the Oscars?
Yes. Yes, I know. I can I. Oh, I have to mention this Vulture article real quick. OK, because Vulture is my favorite entertainment article. And it said Conan O'Brien will host the 2025 Academy Awards. And at the end, it says now that O'Brien is our official host, we got to ask, will his assistant Sona Movsesian be there? Will she get to be on stage? What happens with Sona Movsesian in all of this?
So it's not just us asking.
Wait, nothing about Matthew James Gurley?
You know what? After I said it, I was like, oh, shit. He didn't mention it. No, I quit.
um i know there's another article it's in uh the pasadena post well it's actually it's not it's more of a supermarket circular how do we fit in what do we do it said it said uh 89 cent sale on roast beef pre-sliced and matt j gorley and it definitively says should not be should not be in any way uh what do we what do we what do you want us to do boss Okay, Sona, it's the Oscars.
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Chapter 3: What was Jim Gaffigan's experience with Saturday Night Live?
I think you have a good chance of being in the Oscars. Thank you. Scottish. And guess what? I'm pretty sure I don't have to clear this with anybody at the Academy.
Yeah.
I mean, my feeling is they gave me the keys to the whole show.
That's my guess. Yeah, I think so.
And so I guess what I say goes. So you're going to be the first 40 minutes. Yeah. And I'm going to say, I'm going to say, listen, the Oscars is all about. It's not just about the United States. It's about the world of film. Here now is everyone in the world representing all nations. You come out in a combination of 15 different national costumes.
Easy.
And you welcome everybody in different accents. Yes. Go. Give me an accent.
Just start going, going. And then we go, oh, I'm a Scottish. I'm a Scottish person. I'm Scottish. Oh, God. Merida, you got to get married. You can't do orchard in Merida. I'm doing brave. And then. Hey, hey, guess what? Guess what?
Girlie, I've never agreed with Sona before, but you've got to shut the fuck up.
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Chapter 4: How does Jim Gaffigan handle tough audiences?
Listen.
We're killing time here.
Listen. Yeah. And the Oscars is all about killing time.
Yes.
It's when they run it efficiently, it's six hours long.
You've got four hours where you have to come up with material. No, no, no.
It's four hours of solid show and all the stuff they have to get through.
How important are the awards?
Oh, my God.
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Chapter 5: What unique insights does Gaffigan have about comedy?
You know, I get one acting job a year. So I was in England doing this acting job. And then and at night I'm walking back to my hotel and I get a call from my manager and he's like, hey, so we've been telling people at the Booker at SNL that you've been sending us little videos where you're pretending to be Tim Wallace. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting. And he goes, you weren't. And I wasn't.
And so he was on with my manager and my agent. I'm like, oh, well, that's an interesting approach. But, you know, this is what you guys do. And they're like, yeah. And now they want to see those. And I'm like, so what do you mean they want to see them? I'm like, well, we brought it up. And now they're like, why don't you send them? I'd be mad at this management team.
And so so I then I spent the next hour. Kind of in my hotel room, taking off a jacket, putting on a thing, doing different. And I had kind of been, you know, checking out Tim Walls and looking at speeches. And then I just, in that moment, I just did an impression of my brother, Mitch, who is this, similar to Tim Walls, a very sincere, enthusiastic person.
midwestern guy who's kind of got a little bit of that golly gee and so i essentially did an impression of my brother mitch in the different settings in this england hotel sent him off and then uh you know i don't know what happened but it worked they hired your brother mitch so when people are like how do you do that impression i'm like well just don't meet my brother mitch and we should be fine yeah
Grow up in Indiana. Yeah, grow up in Indiana. Surround yourself with very sincere Midwestern people that have that optimism that Tim Walz has, you know? Which is like, we can do this. Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, jeez, come on, Jimmy. You know, like, that's my brother Mitch. I mean, jeez, Jimmy. You know, God. I mean, Jimmy, you're a bad driver.
Like, my brother Mitch would just get so angry when I would drive him.
He's even sweet when he's telling you bad things about yourself.
Yes. He's, like, a great guy. So it's... That's what happened. But it was absurd because not only was I... So this opportunity to be on SNL. And it was just for five weeks. But then they bring in all these all-stars, right? So they bring in Maya, who I had worked with before, Dana, and Andy.
And I'm like, so not only am I doing this guest star, but, like, the MVP from every decade for the last 40 years. So it was stressful in an unnecessary way. Where it's like, you know, I go on stage in front of huge rooms, but I was like... I have two lines. How do I do it? So I was definitely a little nervous.
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Chapter 6: What does Jim Gaffigan share about his upbringing in Indiana?
Yeah.
I hear he's a real shithead. That was my go-to line.
And they'd be like, hey, we thought you had a joke or something. Yeah. Well, sometimes they're like, you can make fun of it. Make fun of, you know, Mindy. She's in charge of marketing. Go after her. And then you look at Mindy. I don't do that stuff anyway. But then you look at Mindy and she's like, what are you doing?
I'm just in charge of marketing.
It was just that one thing.
person's bad idea do you know what I mean and so but the corporate setting is such a like there is part of me that because I feel like I can work in those corporate settings where I that means that it might be all over because like I would do a corporate show I would bomb and then you get off and they were like you were great you know we just don't laugh no one laughed they're like we're too rich to laugh yeah well we were golfing all day so but you're much better than the guy before who made fun of Mindy yeah
This was one, as I say, I, I've tried to, I've tried to not do it too much. Cause, but there was one, it was, I think an integration maybe with the Turner show. I can't say the name of the company, but it was a telecommunications company. And we had to do this. They said, Hey Conan, they're, they're buying time on the show and they really want you to go. So I remember it.
I took like got on a plane and flew somewhere and, and, They say they're in there. It's the top. And I come out. I had wrote jokes because you can't do standard stuff. It's got to be for them. And it's got to be about this company and stuff like that. So a lot of work went into it. I walked out there.
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Chapter 7: How does Jim Gaffigan approach corporate comedy?
I want to say it was about maybe 12, I think all guys, and they were in big leather chairs that reclined slightly. There was a big window behind them and they had projected the famous logo of the company onto a mountain that you could see in the night through the window.
So I walked out there and it was these, and I started doing my, and I thought, oh, this is, I've never felt more like a pathetic, you know, bring the clown in.
Yeah. Bring the clown. We're ready for the clown. The court jester. And I could see some of the- Did I challenge the king too much? Yeah.
And I could see they weren't really laughing, but they had wry smiles. And occasionally I could see one of them adjust his recliner a little more. And I started to make fun of the fact that the logo was projected onto a mountain. Like this all felt evil. And I'm sort of starting to go off on that. And one of them deigned to crane his neck to see. Oh yes, it is, isn't it? What is wrong with that?
That's as it should be, as it always is. And I just left shivering. And I was, I don't know, it was a terrible experience. Yeah. Have you done a birthday party? That's pretty weird. I did a very famous person's birthday party for no money. Oh, really? I did it as a favor.
Oh, that must have went well. If there was no money, that means it's pure death. It was...
Was it for the birthday person themselves or one of their children? No, it was for the person. It was a famous person who... And it was a personal favor because they had done the show a bunch of times and one of their management said, hey, Conan, would you stop by and just do... And I remember it again feeling like... Bring him in. You know, it was just, let's see if he amuses us.
And I didn't like it. It's fun to perform for real people.
But there are people like Regis Philbin would love that. People listening are like, who's Regis Philbin? But there are some people, it is kind of in their DNA. People love doing it or love being the recipient? What do you mean? I think someone like, not that I know Regis or knew him, but like there's some people that are like showmen that would be relish the opportunity.
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