Team Coco has done a solid job lately of unearthing classic Conan O’Brien clips from the archives at just the right time. Last August, they uploaded, right before the school year began, the 1997 Late Night episode where O’Brien had a full audience of kids. For Halloween, they released the “Skelevision” episode from 2006. Then, following the news of Terry Jones’s death in January, they released a clip of O’Brien’s interview with the Monty Python member from 1994.
This week, following the news of James Lipton’s death, Team Coco is back with another classic clip that pays tribute to just one of the qualities that made the Inside the Actors Studio host so great: He knew how to deliver a punchline. The four-minute clip is from a 2004 Late Night episode, in which Lipton takes part in one of O’Brien’s most well-known recurring segments: “In the Year 2000.” So what kinds of predictions did Lipton make for the future back then? One prediction, in particular, was eerily close: “20 years after the series ended, the Friends cast will reunite for a special reunion show. Everyone will participate — except Mexican dictator Matt LeBlanc.” So there you have it: RIP James Lipton, a beloved TV host, excellent interviewer, solid comedy bit participant, and semi-correct soothsayer.
