Widely regarded as one of the best talk show hosts of all time, Conan O'Brien has millions of devoted fans who can't get enough of his sense of humor. Since O'Brien was such a great host, he was able to get under Jay Leno's skin with a joke, and observers cared when he gave Stephen Colbert advice. Despite the respect the host gets, it can still easily be argued that O'Brien doesn't get enough credit for what he accomplished.
Between 1993 and 2021, O'Brien was part of many truly fantastic talk show moments. One example that has gone down in history was what happened when O'Brien challenged Norm Macdonald to make fun of the title of Carrot Top's movie, Chairman of the Board. As incredibly funny as that scene was, however, I believe that another moment was the highlight of O'Brien's talk show career.
Conan O'Brien's Walker Texas Ranger reaction was the greatest moment in talk show history
As a May 12, 2004, NBC News article details, a huge merger was finalized on that day as General Electric's NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment came together to form NBC Universal. While the merger was huge business news, it also turned out to create a landmark moment in the history of talk shows, as a truly hilarious recurring bit was born on that day.
Vivendi Universal Entertainment owned the USA Network, which aired the Chuck Norris show Walker, Texas Ranger. Thanks to that fact and because of the merger, Late Night with Conan O'Brien gained the ability to legally air clips from Walker, Texas Ranger, and the show took full advantage of that. On May 12, 2004, the talk show debuted the Walker, Texas Ranger lever.
The Walker, Texas Ranger lever looked like a red broomstick with a large yellow handle on the top of it. The important thing is that when O'Brien would pull on the lever, the show would air a Walker, Texas Ranger clip completely out of context. While that may not sound funny, looking up Conan O'Brien Walker, Texas Ranger on YouTube will reveal how hilarious it could be for a simple reason. Despite Walker, Texas Ranger's extreme popularity, the show regularly had truly ridiculous things happen, and seeing O'Brien react to them totally out of context can be incredibly funny.
From the moment that the Walker, Texas Ranger lever made its television debut, it was a huge hit with the show's fans. As a result, it became a recurring part of the show until the decision was made to move on. Still, O'Brien's viewers loved the segment so much that it was brought back for a while due to fan demand. Ultimately, it was the Walker, Texas Ranger lever that created the best moment in talk show history.
After the Walker, Texas Ranger lever had been around for a while, O'Brien revealed to his talk show's viewers that they'd been holding back one special clip.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, as some of you may know, we here at Late Night often like to show clips from Walker, Texas Ranger. Well, folks, there is one clip from Walker, Texas Ranger that we've been holding back on. In fact, this is true, we've been afraid to show it. But it's spring cleaning, and I want to test just how good a crowd this is. So here it is. The one Walker clip we've never shown. Once you see it, you'll understand why. "
Before reading this article further, anyone who hasn't seen the Late Night with Conan O'Brien moment that included that dialogue should watch the scene. To see the moment, all anyone has to do is search for Conan O'Brien Walker, Texas Ranger AIDS on YouTube.
In the clip that O'Brien's show held back, an extremely happy Chuck Norris could be seen standing beside a very young Haley Joel Osment. The innocent-looking Osment was shown having a discussion with a trio of adults, all of whom had huge smiles on their faces as they spoke like there was nothing wrong in the world. Then, the clip cuts back to Osment, who suddenly looked very serious as he uttered the following words. "Walker told me I had AIDS."
Since nothing about the scene up until that point hinted that a line of that gravity would be coming, O'Brien's studio audience could audibly be heard expressing shock, breaking out into laughter, and clapping in response. While AIDS is an extremely serious disease that caused incredible amounts of suffering, the absurdity of that line coming out of nowhere when that moment was viewed out of context truly was hilarious.
As O'Brien's fans will already know, he often would have over-the-top reactions to the things that happened on his show. As a result, fans likely would have expected O'Brien to adopt a cartoonish expression on his extremely pliable face in response to how ridiculous what had aired was.
Instead, when the clip ended, O'Brien stood up, walked away from his desk, and showed his back to the camera in a moment that made it seem like he was attempting to collect himself emotionally. Only after acting like the moment was extremely serious for a moment did O'Brien finally start laughing with his audience, who'd been delighted the entire time.
While this moment may seem like a strange pick to be the best talk show moment ever, there are two reasons why it arguably is. First and most importantly, the moment was truly hilarious. Between a combination of how surprising the line of dialogue was and the perfect way that O'Brien reacted to the footage, it is a legitimate laugh-out-loud moment. On top of that, the scene is only made better by the fact that it was the perfect culmination of the Walker, Texas Ranger recurring bit, which is one of the unique things in talk show history.