'Conan' - August 2 (Video)

Last night’s episode of Conan saw a monologue riddled with humor derived from the recent compromise to solve the debt crisis impending on the US government. Conan then moved on to a joke about Michele Bachmann, but misspoke and bombed the joke, which ended up being funnier than the joke would have been by the sound of it.

Having written an article about a new policy requiring health insurance to provide birth control for women, it seems only appropriate I mention Conan’s discussion of the story. He showed the contraception provided in the restrooms of his offices, which includes condoms, the patch, and a shirtless, counter-perched La Bamba.

Conan brought out a new bit next, called “Why Would You Tweet That?” in which he quotes “real” celebrity tweets that shouldn’t have been sent. One of the highlights was a tweet from Barack Obama asking, “Has anyone heard from Osama Bin Laden lately? Lol.”

The first guest on the show was Shaquille O’Neal, who first entered the set in a Conan O’Brien wig, then proceeded to mount Andy on the couch. Shaq spoke about his family’s reactions to his career, and what he has been doing since retiring from the NBA. Conan also continued in a running theme of the episode, and spoke about Shaq’s Twitter account; they discussed a tweet battle O’Neal has been having with Ashton Kutcher recently.

The second guest was standup comedian Brian Posehn, who spoke about quitting smoking marijuana, and having kids, as well as the supposedly impending apocalypse.

Musical guest, grunge-infused rock trio Seether, performed on the show to close out the episode. The performance was loud and screamy as per usual. I didn’t recognize the song, but it existed within the usual realm Seether tends to float about in. There was an odd tinge of anthemic arena rock Kings Of Leon recently started implementing as well.