John McCain was Conan O'Brien's guest on Friday.
Watch the full episode here.
Before McCain joined O'Brien, O'Brien opened with his monologue, as always.
He began with a joke about McCain:
We're doing things a little differently tonight. Big show because Sen. John McCain is here. (Applause)
We're doing things a little differently. You see, normally on Friday we would tape our show at 4:30, but to accommodate Sen. McCain, we agreed to tape the show at 5:30.
Sen. McCain wasn't available at 4:30 because that's when he eats dinner.
And he just left... All right. Get another guest.
When McCain did come out, O'Brien brought up the New York Times article earlier this week that said late night comedians are having trouble making jokes about Barack Obama. With McCain, his age is the source of their jokes.
O'Brien called it McCain's "seniority." He said they're sick of making jokes about McCain's age. As O'Brien continued, McCain slumped over, acting like he was dozing off. O'Brien pretended to wake him and then added, "You just gave a lot of people a scare."
The late night comedians can't possibly be as sick of making jokes about McCain's age as I'm sick of hearing them. It drives me nuts.
They're so predictable. They're really not funny. They seem to have come from Milton Berle's file.
McCain managed to work in his 96-year-old mother. He said she watches O'Brien's show all the time.
O'Brien asked about the polls. McCain said he pays attention to polls when he's got good numbers and when he doesn't have good numbers, he ignores them.
O'Brien ran a tape of an old split screen bit about which actors would play roles in a film about McCain's VP choice. For example, Tim Conway would play McCain. Mitt Romney would be played by any TV weatherman. Condi Rice would be played by Snoop Dogg.
McCain laughed, but he also squirmed at some of the photos, like Meg Whitnman being played by Tom Petty.
Besides running that old tape, the interview was just a series of rapid fire questions.
On McCain's running mate--
O'Brien said that during a previous appearance McCain had dissed the job of the vice president, saying he wasn't interested in that position. He read a few of McCain's quotes. McCain had said that he didn't want the duty of checking on the health of the president everyday. On Friday, McCain joked that his VP, however, would need to take the duty of checking on the president's health very seriously, a funny moment of self-deprecating humor on McCain's part.
During the break, the band played ABBA.
O'Brien was amused that McCain was "rocking out."
McCain said he was looking forward to Mamma Mia! with Meryl Streep. He said he's seen the stage production a couple of times and wanted to see the movie. O'Brien found that amusing as well.
On Obama's trip to the Middle East--
McCain said, "I'm glad he's going."
He said Obama should have gone there before giving his assessment of the situation in Afghanistan.
McCain went on, "I admire Sen. Obama. I respect him... and we're going to have a respectful campaign."
On McCain's offer to award $300,000,000 to an individual that invents a good electric car--
McCain said that we've always offered incentives.
On offshore drilling--
McCain said that we've got to do it. He said people are in favor of it.
On Social Security--
McCain said, "We need to sit down together and work it out." He mentioned Ronald Reagan working with Tip O'Neill to fix Social Security.
At one point, McCain took the initiative and brought up Congress' single digit approval ratings. He asked people to raise their hand if they approve of Congress. O'Brien joked that everyone in the audience raised their hands. There was no camera shot of the audience.
O'Brien's last question was on the length of the campaign. He noted that McCain began running 15 months ago.
McCain quipped, "Time flies when you're having fun."
He said he was honored to serve the country and had no second thoughts.
That was it. McCain was a good sport throughout. He was genuine and not above laughing at himself. He was very comfortable. It didn't seem like he was performing. It seemed like he was just being himself.
It was a very strange interview. There were some funny moments, but it was heavy on the issues.
O'Brien just ran down a laundry list of issues. It was a very dry question and answer session, very unusual for O'Brien.
2 comments:
Criminy, it's hard to keep up with you. Don't you sleep? Eh, me either.
Anyway, Conan seemed rather scripted. Sort of feeding stuff to McCain so he could return the volley. Tennisically speaking. But, I though McCain came off very well spoken and not sound bite-ish . . . and funny. He's really a likable guy. Interesting, too.
He'd kill NObama in a own hall setting. I wish it would happen. But, it won't.
I'm nocturnal. Always have been.
Late night talk show interviews are really scripted in general. There's very little spontaneity anymore.
With McCain, Conan wasn't even trying to appear spontaneous. It was like he was reading off a check-list. I think he was.
Still, I thought McCain did very well. He can speak off-the-cuff.
Obama, on the other hand, either fumbles around and can't get a coherent sentence out or he puts his foot in his mouth. McCain would trounce Obama in a town hall setting.
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