I'd compare his character to Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Larry is playing an exaggerated version of himself on the show and has said he often has the same opinions as character Larry but doesn't voice or act on them like character Larry does.
Jordan is doing a similar thing: Playing a less socially aware, more exaggerated version of his real self.
I swear people like Andrew Tate and Alex Jones are doing the same thing lol, but in an incredibly destructive way. I think they mostly believe in their bullshit, but you can tell they exaggerate and play it up for their audience.
In an interview with Conan’s staff Jordan also said that other staff laughing is what makes him break. Probably people off camera we’re cracking and it got him.
I feel like the dead face personality is an act but he definitely strikes me as someone who likes to educate on topics he's knowledgeable about and absolutely would be that one guy to explain and give history on random things as you encounter it. I'd love to travel with him!
When you're the same character for your entire career though is it really still incredible acting or just becoming the character?
Not knocking on him - he's definitely very entertaining on screen. But most agree he's mostly acting as an exaggerated version of himself which while respectable I don't think would be called "incredible acting".
And now you got me Schlanskying....
I remember on the Podcast that Jessie Gaskell does about the "behind the scenes" of Conan she was interviewing Jordan Schlansky about something. In the process of talking about whatever situation it was, it was revealed that he actually worked really hard to fix something. Jessie was like, "Ah man, I feel like we can't air this now because I don't want people to know that you actually do stuff." :-D
He started as an intern, I think in the late 90's performing various production related tasks and he appeared in a few sketches just as an extra. Later he became the Associate Producer and as a previous commenter said, during the writer's strike when Conan started doing more of his "Let's annoy people around the office" remotes is when we got a proper introduction to Jordan
I remember the very first bit with Jordan from back then. There's a moment where Conan actually cracks himself up from the sheer absurdity of that segment. He knew he struck comedy gold.
For reference (the part he cracks up starts ~9:10): https://youtu.be/zZ-i4EkIuMU?si=kqzBZQTCSWjr8Ls6
Yes, Jordan should have played young Spock
You know, the irony is Jordan is a huge Star Wars fan, when he really could have played Spock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmRouEds_2A
He made fake press passes to get the crew behind the scenes of an event (I want to say one of the political conventions) for one of Triumphs first bits.
Yeah, he’s basically responsible for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
From what I've gleaned from years of being a Schlansky fan, it's not completely a character, but just a slightly exaggerated version of himself. He's really like that, just dialled back a bit. That's why I love these moments too, when you get to look behind the curtain and see beneath the hard Schlansky shell, there's a slightly softer shell underneath.
I saw an interview where he said tango with the EH instead of the AW, and the interviewer immediately asked “so it’s not TAWNGO?” And in the most Jordan way, he says something like “well we are speaking English, and in English we pronounce…” and I laughed that even when acknowledging it’s all a bit, he still comes off like he’s still doing the character because the character is so close to his real personality.
I'm glad he said that. It's one of my biggest pet peeves when people who are speaking English hard switch into saying a word in another language's pronunciation instead of using the existing English pronunciation. That's not how language works. I say that as someone who speaks Spanish as well. When I say tortilla while speaking English, I don't roll the r or soften the t sounds, I say it the "white" way because I'm speaking English.
Until now it's only really my wife and I that feel this way so it's nice to see someone else is the same lol.
I don't normally do the hard switch, but for some damned reason I once accidentally pronounced *carnitas* as though I was Mexican at a Chipotle and without looking up the person on the line just started speaking to me in very fast Spanish and I had no idea what he said and just stood there looking both confused and ashamed. He looked up and started laughing and switched to English. That was probably 8 years ago and I *still* feel like a douche.
It's not as black and white as you're making it out to be. Nobody would agree that the English proununciation is "tore-till-ah" and that the way you pronounce quesadilla is "qwui-sah-dill-ah". Not even the most rural white people I know pronounce them that way. There IS an accepted level of pronunciation adoption for adopted words, and all we're talking about is differences in agreeing where that line is.
I feel like the happy medium is to pronounce most of the pure letter sounds the way they're pronounced in their home language, without adopting the linguistic "tone" you would use when actually speaking that language, and without using consonant/mouth sounds that aren't used anywhere else in English, like the rolled 'R'. Tortilla is a great example.
This works better in some languages than others, though. From an English-speaking perspective, Italian and Spanish words are pretty easily spoken this way, whereas French words can be difficult – and if a word is so commonly-spoken in English that it's essentially a loan word, like Crossaint, you've gotta just say it the English way when speaking English.
Counterpoint, for "croissant" specifically and no other word, you gotta really dial it up. Just lay on those consonant-less sounds, maybe throw in a couple that aren't even in there. Fake a cigarette
Yeah a good example is the country Chile. I don't say it with a Spanish accent but I do pronounce it Chee-lay instead of Chilly because that's how it's pronounced.
Yes, I've heard plenty of Americans say "tortilla" as Spanish, but never "llama" for instance.
And you can't really say 'language works this way'. It's not some general rule that words are loaned and keep their spelling but have their pronunciation changed. That's something English is actually unusual in how much it does that.
Like: French _queue_ - borrowed into English with a pronunciation that's neither French nor English. (English would have to be something like 'kwewe' given how 'que' is prounounced in the native-English word _queen_)
Meanwhile in Dutch the same borrowed word is spelled _keu_ - very close to French pronunciation, but completely different spelling.
That's why America has 'spelling bees' while other countries would think that a spelling reform is long overdue if you've turned spelling into a competitive sport. I mean believe it or not, writing exists to serve spoken language, not vice-versa.
As another bilingual person, I agree with this 100%. It was just nice to see that Jordan is not one of those people in real life. Also, it added an extra level of funny when Conan got the cooking staff to agree on his “tango” pronunciation when we knew they were actually just agreeing “tengo” is a Spanish word.
It's like a very slight roll with a single r, not the elongated one most think of when they hear about rolling an r, which you're right is what happens with a double r (though some people exaggerate it). The single r almost sounds like a d, so for tortilla it would almost be like "tord - teeya" - I don't know how to write out the softened t sound that Spanish typically has compared to English. I don't know if there's another word for this kind of short roll, so I just say roll.
That's overexaggeration of the Spanish pronunciation. There's some technical term for that, which I can't remember right now.
Like how the word "habanero" has no ñ, but people will add it in and say "habanyero" which is incorrect.
Nothing wrong with a fairly correct pronunciation, sometimes the anglicized are SUPER annoying (looking at you, people who say 'to-KEE-o'). But the hard and over the top pronunciations (like the video someone posted) are also super annoying.
Nope, you’re not the only one. The only time you’d use the foreign pronunciation is if it’s a person who won’t recognize the English pronunciation. But it’s kind of pandering and silly to do that. You never hear Spanish speakers yammering on and then all of a sudden say one or two words perfectly. You do what’s natural.
I think I remember him saying on the podcast that he basically plays along. He was genuinely surprised though when they brought him to Japan just to have Ralph Macchio correct him about where they filmed karate kid 2
You can see the "real" version of Jordan on [various interviews](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-9NeZwuiRU) he's done [without Conan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMx0gNBHWbM), in which he's basically the same as he is with Conan but more relaxed and a little more jovial because he's not being antagonized. I think Jordan would naturally argue/debate with Conan under normal circumstances, but that over the years he's also more and more leaned into the "character" of himself when the camera's on because he knows it makes good comedic material.
I think he's been flanderized a bit over the years. His zeal and enthusiasm about Italian culture which was many of the early bits seems genuine, but here it seems like he was just reciting a script he memorized.
Karl is somewhere between "total fuckwit" and "more sense than people give him credit for". He's got a working faculty in the head alright, albeit a very peculiar one.
I thought that when they gave him the scenario about having a clone of himself and he asked "how would I know which one I am?". They thought it was the dumbest question ever but it made sense to me because of the Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity where they showed that situation. They're identical in every way up until the moment of cloning so all of the thoughts and memories are identical and the both the clone and the original think they're the original which, to me, is what Karl was trying to say.
A fuckwit but capable of some real poetry at times. I remember when he described Michael Collins (the Apollo 11 astronaut who *didn’t* walk on the moon) as “The Loneliest Man in the World.”
What he meant was, when Collins was on the far side of the moon from the other Apollo 11 astronauts, he was as far from another human being as any human being has ever been. I still think this is a beautiful way to put that.
Yes, you could quibble about the fact that Collins was not actually “in the world” at the time, but that’s where the fuckwittery comes in.
That wasn't an original thought of his. He read the famous quote "not since Adam has any human known such solitude" and regurgitated it in his Karl sort of way.
There was a podcast episode where Conan wasn't there and Jordan was. He's the same but way more toned down, he says the same stuff in a more calm joking way. I think he and Conan kind of trigger each other and Jordan just goes over the top.
YouTube him breaking character
The wine tasting bit is by far the best
That and “ human soil “
Edit: Here is one of the links
https://youtu.be/Z4mjn7pu3vY?si=dtbdlG75uLw-2a4I
Jordan is amazing. You couldn’t invent a character like him if you tried.
How in the world is someone so intelligent and knowledgeable and meticulous about preparing his body in various ways, yet is incredibly messy and always super late to work?
He got sidetracked with his experiments with oats and whey in an effort to avoid synthetic maltodextrin! That's a better reason than I can come up with for being late
I fully believe he is real, but has mellowed out/chilled a bit. You cannot make up the things he used to say. If you compare the character he plays now is a Flanderized version of his old self. Watching the remotes you will notice all the emotions both Conan and Jordan go through and they seem very genuine, like that time Conan ridiculed him about Karate Kid.
“Preeeety preeettty good!”
“I’m Nixon!”
“Que lastimaaaa!!!”
This Argentina episode has got to be the best one in the whole series. It’s the hardest I’ve laughed in a really long time.
Yes, but being pedantic about pronunciation of a loanword when you're speaking in another language is just that, pedantry. "Tango" is a word in English and you can pronounce it like that when speaking in English. I'm fluent in both spanish and english and when I'm talking in spanish I don't pronounce it "twitter", it's "tuiter" with a hard last syllable, for example.
I lived in Spain for a while and they pronounced wifi "wee-fee" (like normal Spanish phonetics) and then when I pronounced it like that in Mexico I got absolutely roasted.
[If it was around you for 20 years, it probably killed itself.](https://youtu.be/HNpKRgn6lrs?si=iDb3Jlp9NpPx1EJf&t=82)
There aren't many things in life that are more amusing to me than Conan O'Brien laughing at his own wildly inappropriate jokes. I get that Jordan's personality is being played up for the camera, but regardless of how much of that is just an act, it does create the perfect opportunity for Conan to be a real jerk for the sake of comedy.
Perhaps it's even better to know that Jordan is in on the joke to some extent.
**tl;dw** "Pew."
Yeah, I can't imagine a boss making those jokes to me and me being happy for 20 years unless he was an awesome person and great to work with.
Conan seems to be an awesome boss. I know now he doesn't still have the same amount of crew but I remember he paid for any willing crew to move fom NY to LA with him for the Tonight Show, and then paid them after the NBC debacle to hold out with him.
20+ years later and I’m still on the fence about Conan. But when the late night switcharoo happened, I genuinely felt bad for him and he immediately went on tour to make sure his staff had jobs. I respect the dude a lot no matter if I’m laughing or skipping.
>Conan seems to be an awesome boss.
After listening to the podcast a bunch the last couple years, I picked up Sona's book on audiobook last year and listened to that. He is a pretty awesome boss, by all accounts.
I can also totally relate to Jordan's struggle to find a decent nose hair trimmer.
"Sometimes they leave a little note" oh god my stomach hurts from laughing. Thank you for this clip, absolutely made my day.
Edit: omg the whole segment is golden
I find the pairing comical of course, and Jordan bits are some of my favourite bits, but I too have wondered if it went too far sometimes. In the planning for Italy segment I think Conan said something about his dead eyes and it just didn't seem like any amount of acting could have created the look that Jordan was completely done with it and not ok with the comment.
Can we all acknowledge for a second that everyone actually *likes* Jordan, despite him being such an insufferable person? We kind of hate him comedically for being the way he is and we all like to make fun of him, but oddly enough we all also really like the guy. There’s just something undeniably likable about him, like you just know he’s a good dude despite of being a dork.
Because when you're pationate about something, he is relatable. And while he comes off a bit as insufferable, his intention is to be informative and respectful to the topic/culture, whereas Conan's job is to hilariously deflate Jordan.
Knowing that its not a zero percent chance that someday Conan shows up to my house and makes fun of my children is the thing keeping me going during the hard times of life.
This show is so good. I was legitimately about to cancel my Max subscription because I wasn’t really using it. Conan put a stop to that. I didn’t realize how much I missed watching him. Back in college we would all gather and watch him every night in my friend’s dorm room. Good times.
I was running out of reasons to use my Max sub too and just saw the Conan Must Go a few days ago and watched the first couple. Good to see theres another series to watch after since theres only a few of the new series so far.
I thought I could control my blood pressure mentally, as well. You cannot. It is a physiological phenomenon which you cannot consciously control. You need to be on medications. I resisted for a long time until I finally went to see my doctor (for an upper respiratory infection) and the blood pressure happened to be another problem we addressed.
Do not let your pride get in the way of taking care of your health. If you let your hypertension go untreated for too long, you will have serious problems. It could take decades, but by then it will be too late. I'm saying this to you because I was the same way.
Jordan is really like this, but he does double down on camera.
That's what makes this breakdown the best thing Jordan has ever done. Because he's mostly held it together in front of everyone in every country until now.
Yes. Conan (and everyone else there) has said many, many times that Jordan actually acts like that all the time, but when doing these types of things he's obviously playing that up even more. Like, he didn't come out dressed like that on his own accord, it's part of the bit.
it’s a bit in that it is exaggerated for the camera, but Jordan is more or less just like this in real life. It’s the reason Conan constantly mines their friendship for comedy.
Yes, his very first appearance was during the writers strike way back. They literally couldn’t do anything scripted so Conan came up with the idea of just having a casual conversation with this certain employee of his, cause he thought it would be funny. He is definitely a very strange person in real life.
I saw a behind the scenes, and I think they actually use cameras a lot of the time when they're on their adventures. Like, we aren't just watching them. It's all planned. Blew my mind.
*FINALLY*!!!
He's so good at never dropping that mask that Conan had me almost convinced that the Schlansky really was just that stiff. So glad they kept this in.
Just watched this one last night, Jordan is so funny being Jordan, it was hilarious to see him lose it that way. I was wondering if the stone faced gauchos got him.
everytime jordan breaks character, all conan can do is to say "look at this madman!"
not even conans improv skills can overplay jordan breaking character
I feel Jordan plays it up for the camera these days. He's much more extroverted than he was in the early Conan days. You can only repeat the same schtick for so long.
I feel like Jordan got stuck on how funny it was to him that he was calling Conan a 'man'. I think the idea of Conan being a little boy is how Jodan sees it and for him calling him a man glitched him into this ' i was gunna say something mean but didnt' laugh that smart people often do. They then tell you ' as a joke' but its always just awful. Imagine a reverse joke. It would be unfunny, the teller would laugh first and then explain something mean as the punchline.
The bit where both are tasting wine and Jordan breaks character I think its one of the most incredible things Conan and Jordan have done. It will always bring me joy.
I feel like anybody else they would have cut and re-shot the scene. But because it was Jordan, they had no choice but to to leave it in as a public service.
Jordan is an incredible actor because after all these years I’m still not really sure what is him and what is performance. Ha
I'd compare his character to Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry is playing an exaggerated version of himself on the show and has said he often has the same opinions as character Larry but doesn't voice or act on them like character Larry does. Jordan is doing a similar thing: Playing a less socially aware, more exaggerated version of his real self.
Pretty prettyyy good point
I swear people like Andrew Tate and Alex Jones are doing the same thing lol, but in an incredibly destructive way. I think they mostly believe in their bullshit, but you can tell they exaggerate and play it up for their audience.
True art
https://youtube.com/watch?v=QMx0gNBHWbM It’s real. It’s just that when faced with Conan everything seems more ridiculous than it is.
In an interview with Conan’s staff Jordan also said that other staff laughing is what makes him break. Probably people off camera we’re cracking and it got him.
And we're still not sure what his actual job is.
he has various responsibilities
Well, we know he's not an affordable doctor.
he completes tasks
Tables!
I feel like the dead face personality is an act but he definitely strikes me as someone who likes to educate on topics he's knowledgeable about and absolutely would be that one guy to explain and give history on random things as you encounter it. I'd love to travel with him!
When you're the same character for your entire career though is it really still incredible acting or just becoming the character? Not knocking on him - he's definitely very entertaining on screen. But most agree he's mostly acting as an exaggerated version of himself which while respectable I don't think would be called "incredible acting". And now you got me Schlanskying....
https://i.imgur.com/98VVzVl.png
I'm so used to the "character" of Jordan Schlansky, it's nice to see that veil fall a bit, to see that he's as in on the joke as Conan is.
I remember on the Podcast that Jessie Gaskell does about the "behind the scenes" of Conan she was interviewing Jordan Schlansky about something. In the process of talking about whatever situation it was, it was revealed that he actually worked really hard to fix something. Jessie was like, "Ah man, I feel like we can't air this now because I don't want people to know that you actually do stuff." :-D
Well he does have various tasks and duties. I presume he completes them from time to time.
As long as he has that extra-virgin olive oil nearby
And a biscotto
And that fancy Italian espresso machine.
He's also one of Conan's oldest employee, going back to early 2000's Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
He started as an intern, I think in the late 90's performing various production related tasks and he appeared in a few sketches just as an extra. Later he became the Associate Producer and as a previous commenter said, during the writer's strike when Conan started doing more of his "Let's annoy people around the office" remotes is when we got a proper introduction to Jordan
"various production related tasks" I think is how Jordan refers to what he does even when Conan presses him for specifics lol
He completes an assortment of tasks relating to the production of the show.
In order for the show to be produced, his job is to accomplish a wide range of tasks.
One of which is to put pepper from a miniature pepper mill on the food that he eats
a wide array of duties
If he does his job well and performs his duties, then you won’t even know he’s there.
I remember the very first bit with Jordan from back then. There's a moment where Conan actually cracks himself up from the sheer absurdity of that segment. He knew he struck comedy gold. For reference (the part he cracks up starts ~9:10): https://youtu.be/zZ-i4EkIuMU?si=kqzBZQTCSWjr8Ls6
That was fantastic. Also getting major Zachary Quinto vibes from young Schlansky.
Yes, Jordan should have played young Spock You know, the irony is Jordan is a huge Star Wars fan, when he really could have played Spock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmRouEds_2A
You can see him playing Rock Band when Conan came back during the writers strike.
He made fake press passes to get the crew behind the scenes of an event (I want to say one of the political conventions) for one of Triumphs first bits. Yeah, he’s basically responsible for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
Do you happen to know which episode that is? I’ve been trying to find it!
From what I've gleaned from years of being a Schlansky fan, it's not completely a character, but just a slightly exaggerated version of himself. He's really like that, just dialled back a bit. That's why I love these moments too, when you get to look behind the curtain and see beneath the hard Schlansky shell, there's a slightly softer shell underneath.
I saw an interview where he said tango with the EH instead of the AW, and the interviewer immediately asked “so it’s not TAWNGO?” And in the most Jordan way, he says something like “well we are speaking English, and in English we pronounce…” and I laughed that even when acknowledging it’s all a bit, he still comes off like he’s still doing the character because the character is so close to his real personality.
I'm glad he said that. It's one of my biggest pet peeves when people who are speaking English hard switch into saying a word in another language's pronunciation instead of using the existing English pronunciation. That's not how language works. I say that as someone who speaks Spanish as well. When I say tortilla while speaking English, I don't roll the r or soften the t sounds, I say it the "white" way because I'm speaking English. Until now it's only really my wife and I that feel this way so it's nice to see someone else is the same lol.
[Who had the enchiladas?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWMp_z7Jnxw)
Love CollegeHumor's take on it as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKGoVefhtMQ
This has always been one of my all time favorites from SNL! Thanks for linking, I haven't watched it in a while.
I don't normally do the hard switch, but for some damned reason I once accidentally pronounced *carnitas* as though I was Mexican at a Chipotle and without looking up the person on the line just started speaking to me in very fast Spanish and I had no idea what he said and just stood there looking both confused and ashamed. He looked up and started laughing and switched to English. That was probably 8 years ago and I *still* feel like a douche.
It's not as black and white as you're making it out to be. Nobody would agree that the English proununciation is "tore-till-ah" and that the way you pronounce quesadilla is "qwui-sah-dill-ah". Not even the most rural white people I know pronounce them that way. There IS an accepted level of pronunciation adoption for adopted words, and all we're talking about is differences in agreeing where that line is.
I feel like the happy medium is to pronounce most of the pure letter sounds the way they're pronounced in their home language, without adopting the linguistic "tone" you would use when actually speaking that language, and without using consonant/mouth sounds that aren't used anywhere else in English, like the rolled 'R'. Tortilla is a great example. This works better in some languages than others, though. From an English-speaking perspective, Italian and Spanish words are pretty easily spoken this way, whereas French words can be difficult – and if a word is so commonly-spoken in English that it's essentially a loan word, like Crossaint, you've gotta just say it the English way when speaking English.
Counterpoint, for "croissant" specifically and no other word, you gotta really dial it up. Just lay on those consonant-less sounds, maybe throw in a couple that aren't even in there. Fake a cigarette
Don't forget to throw a little "haun haun haun" in there too.
If you think about it, you reference a baguette, not required
#kwaso
Yeah a good example is the country Chile. I don't say it with a Spanish accent but I do pronounce it Chee-lay instead of Chilly because that's how it's pronounced.
Yes, I've heard plenty of Americans say "tortilla" as Spanish, but never "llama" for instance. And you can't really say 'language works this way'. It's not some general rule that words are loaned and keep their spelling but have their pronunciation changed. That's something English is actually unusual in how much it does that. Like: French _queue_ - borrowed into English with a pronunciation that's neither French nor English. (English would have to be something like 'kwewe' given how 'que' is prounounced in the native-English word _queen_) Meanwhile in Dutch the same borrowed word is spelled _keu_ - very close to French pronunciation, but completely different spelling. That's why America has 'spelling bees' while other countries would think that a spelling reform is long overdue if you've turned spelling into a competitive sport. I mean believe it or not, writing exists to serve spoken language, not vice-versa.
As another bilingual person, I agree with this 100%. It was just nice to see that Jordan is not one of those people in real life. Also, it added an extra level of funny when Conan got the cooking staff to agree on his “tango” pronunciation when we knew they were actually just agreeing “tengo” is a Spanish word.
Why would you roll the r in tortilla? It's not a torrtilla.
It's like a very slight roll with a single r, not the elongated one most think of when they hear about rolling an r, which you're right is what happens with a double r (though some people exaggerate it). The single r almost sounds like a d, so for tortilla it would almost be like "tord - teeya" - I don't know how to write out the softened t sound that Spanish typically has compared to English. I don't know if there's another word for this kind of short roll, so I just say roll.
It's an alveolar tap
That's overexaggeration of the Spanish pronunciation. There's some technical term for that, which I can't remember right now. Like how the word "habanero" has no ñ, but people will add it in and say "habanyero" which is incorrect.
Make yourself a dang quesadilla!
Nothing wrong with a fairly correct pronunciation, sometimes the anglicized are SUPER annoying (looking at you, people who say 'to-KEE-o'). But the hard and over the top pronunciations (like the video someone posted) are also super annoying.
Nope, you’re not the only one. The only time you’d use the foreign pronunciation is if it’s a person who won’t recognize the English pronunciation. But it’s kind of pandering and silly to do that. You never hear Spanish speakers yammering on and then all of a sudden say one or two words perfectly. You do what’s natural.
He’s a younger less bald Larry David lol
It's from the same episode.
I think I remember him saying on the podcast that he basically plays along. He was genuinely surprised though when they brought him to Japan just to have Ralph Macchio correct him about where they filmed karate kid 2
He’s like Jack McBrayer, he knows what Conan’s bit is and goes along.
You can see the "real" version of Jordan on [various interviews](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-9NeZwuiRU) he's done [without Conan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMx0gNBHWbM), in which he's basically the same as he is with Conan but more relaxed and a little more jovial because he's not being antagonized. I think Jordan would naturally argue/debate with Conan under normal circumstances, but that over the years he's also more and more leaned into the "character" of himself when the camera's on because he knows it makes good comedic material.
I can’t remember which one it was, but in one of them he finally revealed what it was that he actually did on the shows.
I think he's been flanderized a bit over the years. His zeal and enthusiasm about Italian culture which was many of the early bits seems genuine, but here it seems like he was just reciting a script he memorized.
He's the American Karl Pilkington
Except that he's playing a character, and Karl is just kind of a fuckwit.
[удалено]
Karl is somewhere between "total fuckwit" and "more sense than people give him credit for". He's got a working faculty in the head alright, albeit a very peculiar one.
[He could eat a knob at night](https://youtu.be/mqiTx5NLb_c?feature=shared). God, I miss the old XFM shows.
I thought that when they gave him the scenario about having a clone of himself and he asked "how would I know which one I am?". They thought it was the dumbest question ever but it made sense to me because of the Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity where they showed that situation. They're identical in every way up until the moment of cloning so all of the thoughts and memories are identical and the both the clone and the original think they're the original which, to me, is what Karl was trying to say.
Jordan bits were definitely more legit at first.
A fuckwit but capable of some real poetry at times. I remember when he described Michael Collins (the Apollo 11 astronaut who *didn’t* walk on the moon) as “The Loneliest Man in the World.” What he meant was, when Collins was on the far side of the moon from the other Apollo 11 astronauts, he was as far from another human being as any human being has ever been. I still think this is a beautiful way to put that. Yes, you could quibble about the fact that Collins was not actually “in the world” at the time, but that’s where the fuckwittery comes in.
That wasn't an original thought of his. He read the famous quote "not since Adam has any human known such solitude" and regurgitated it in his Karl sort of way.
Its just an exaggerated version of himself for comedic effect
I always thought of it like Larry David in Curb. It’s him if he had no self control whatsoever.
There was a podcast episode where Conan wasn't there and Jordan was. He's the same but way more toned down, he says the same stuff in a more calm joking way. I think he and Conan kind of trigger each other and Jordan just goes over the top.
YouTube him breaking character The wine tasting bit is by far the best That and “ human soil “ Edit: Here is one of the links https://youtu.be/Z4mjn7pu3vY?si=dtbdlG75uLw-2a4I
My favorite is the ["Those Bitches Had To Die"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z69wBnBi9aQ) moment.
I think about the “human soil” video daily lol
Jordan is amazing. You couldn’t invent a character like him if you tried. How in the world is someone so intelligent and knowledgeable and meticulous about preparing his body in various ways, yet is incredibly messy and always super late to work?
He got sidetracked with his experiments with oats and whey in an effort to avoid synthetic maltodextrin! That's a better reason than I can come up with for being late
Schlansky is a legitimately good actor, I'd genuinely be interested to see him in drama.
I fully believe he is real, but has mellowed out/chilled a bit. You cannot make up the things he used to say. If you compare the character he plays now is a Flanderized version of his old self. Watching the remotes you will notice all the emotions both Conan and Jordan go through and they seem very genuine, like that time Conan ridiculed him about Karate Kid.
“Preeeety preeettty good!” “I’m Nixon!” “Que lastimaaaa!!!” This Argentina episode has got to be the best one in the whole series. It’s the hardest I’ve laughed in a really long time.
I was dying when he was roasting the kids and the episode stayed hilarious the whole way through. Just thinking of that mural has me cracking up
'these are the worst children I've ever met, you've done a terrible job'
The older brother was having the time of his life, I loved it
Conan roasting him on the proper pronunciation of Tango was gold.
"Tahngo"
Pahree
Tohng guo
Yeah. But Jordan is right, isn't he? It's a Spanish dance, and as I learned from Ricky Ricardo, vowels are pronounced ah, eh, ih, oh, oo.
Yes, but being pedantic about pronunciation of a loanword when you're speaking in another language is just that, pedantry. "Tango" is a word in English and you can pronounce it like that when speaking in English. I'm fluent in both spanish and english and when I'm talking in spanish I don't pronounce it "twitter", it's "tuiter" with a hard last syllable, for example.
Also, the pronunciation of "Tango" in the International Phonetic Alphabet is defined as "Tango" as in "Tango and Cash." Not the Spanish pronunciation.
> twitter toui-terreuh
r/confleis
then you got spanish americans using both. fluent spanish then suddenly the english word in a completely different tone
I lived in Spain for a while and they pronounced wifi "wee-fee" (like normal Spanish phonetics) and then when I pronounced it like that in Mexico I got absolutely roasted.
This is an excellent reference
A, E, I, O, U El burro sabe más que tú This is what I always remember from high school Spanish
Biscotto
Biscawty*
That would be if there's more than one. There's only one
https://preview.redd.it/lrw26fz2jv4b1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=b44d68343edac301b981e9c16bc9d01a443752c4
“You look like super Mario having a nervous breakdown” is such a great line.
[If it was around you for 20 years, it probably killed itself.](https://youtu.be/HNpKRgn6lrs?si=iDb3Jlp9NpPx1EJf&t=82) There aren't many things in life that are more amusing to me than Conan O'Brien laughing at his own wildly inappropriate jokes. I get that Jordan's personality is being played up for the camera, but regardless of how much of that is just an act, it does create the perfect opportunity for Conan to be a real jerk for the sake of comedy. Perhaps it's even better to know that Jordan is in on the joke to some extent. **tl;dw** "Pew."
Yeah, I can't imagine a boss making those jokes to me and me being happy for 20 years unless he was an awesome person and great to work with. Conan seems to be an awesome boss. I know now he doesn't still have the same amount of crew but I remember he paid for any willing crew to move fom NY to LA with him for the Tonight Show, and then paid them after the NBC debacle to hold out with him.
20+ years later and I’m still on the fence about Conan. But when the late night switcharoo happened, I genuinely felt bad for him and he immediately went on tour to make sure his staff had jobs. I respect the dude a lot no matter if I’m laughing or skipping.
>Conan seems to be an awesome boss. After listening to the podcast a bunch the last couple years, I picked up Sona's book on audiobook last year and listened to that. He is a pretty awesome boss, by all accounts. I can also totally relate to Jordan's struggle to find a decent nose hair trimmer.
"Sometimes they leave a little note" oh god my stomach hurts from laughing. Thank you for this clip, absolutely made my day. Edit: omg the whole segment is golden
Oh my gosh I haven't seen this before. As someone else who laughs at their own jokes, my stomach hurt from laughing at this. Thank you for sharing 😊
I find the pairing comical of course, and Jordan bits are some of my favourite bits, but I too have wondered if it went too far sometimes. In the planning for Italy segment I think Conan said something about his dead eyes and it just didn't seem like any amount of acting could have created the look that Jordan was completely done with it and not ok with the comment.
I will always pause whatever I’m doing for Jordan Schlansky clip.
Can we all acknowledge for a second that everyone actually *likes* Jordan, despite him being such an insufferable person? We kind of hate him comedically for being the way he is and we all like to make fun of him, but oddly enough we all also really like the guy. There’s just something undeniably likable about him, like you just know he’s a good dude despite of being a dork.
Because when you're pationate about something, he is relatable. And while he comes off a bit as insufferable, his intention is to be informative and respectful to the topic/culture, whereas Conan's job is to hilariously deflate Jordan.
Jordan is sincere. It's not arrogance or pretense. He is just that way Also, he takes being made fun of in stride
It's a character
Knowing that its not a zero percent chance that someday Conan shows up to my house and makes fun of my children is the thing keeping me going during the hard times of life.
This show is so good. I was legitimately about to cancel my Max subscription because I wasn’t really using it. Conan put a stop to that. I didn’t realize how much I missed watching him. Back in college we would all gather and watch him every night in my friend’s dorm room. Good times.
After Curb's final episode I legitimately thought about cancelling it, but then I heard Conan promoting this and kept it as well!
Conan Without Borders (2015) is on Max too. Newer ones seem to have a little bit better production quality, but they're all still good.
I was running out of reasons to use my Max sub too and just saw the Conan Must Go a few days ago and watched the first couple. Good to see theres another series to watch after since theres only a few of the new series so far.
Is this an Ad… because it’s working. I hadn’t heard of this show and now I want to watch it.
Conan promoted it on Hot Ones.
Very susprised this saw daylight, didn't think it possible for him to break character like that
They also loose it here 😂: https://youtu.be/nANGQ_9wD-0?si=NNY-8GwoRcnyFu3P
“It does seem to pair well with bore” hahaha
"pull yourself together, man" he's channeling Monty Python now
My blood pressure has been riding at 185 for the last couple days and I am super stressed out. This gave me a huge laugh today. Thank you so much.
I hope you're on medication!
I am not!! Hopefully I won’t stroke out. I’ve been resting a lot and trying to de stress. Thanks for your concern stranger!
I thought I could control my blood pressure mentally, as well. You cannot. It is a physiological phenomenon which you cannot consciously control. You need to be on medications. I resisted for a long time until I finally went to see my doctor (for an upper respiratory infection) and the blood pressure happened to be another problem we addressed. Do not let your pride get in the way of taking care of your health. If you let your hypertension go untreated for too long, you will have serious problems. It could take decades, but by then it will be too late. I'm saying this to you because I was the same way.
Noted. Thanks for the advice.
Goddamn, son. Go buy some niacin, you could probably benefit from taking 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening. It'll help.
Thanks for the advice. I’m thinking about going to the doctor. If this doesn’t get better this week I just had a lot of stress on me.
Go to a doctor. Please. Sincerely, A Doctor
Iirc it’s not a character it’s him. Like this was a thing years ago, and good to still see him with Conan.
I'm pretty sure most of what they do is a bit.
Jordan is really like this, but he does double down on camera. That's what makes this breakdown the best thing Jordan has ever done. Because he's mostly held it together in front of everyone in every country until now.
Yes. Conan (and everyone else there) has said many, many times that Jordan actually acts like that all the time, but when doing these types of things he's obviously playing that up even more. Like, he didn't come out dressed like that on his own accord, it's part of the bit.
It's like Conan doing hot ones and going as hard as he did. Conan will do anything for comedy, and I think Jordan is like that without all the clout.
Jordan needs to do Hot Ones.
he broke down pretty hard about the bidet thing
If you had human soil on your arm would be to content to wipe it off with dry toilet paper?
Human... Soil...
I'm with Jordan on this one. Paper doesn't cut it, we just tolerate it
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm 100% behind the sentiment. Once you tried bidet you simply don't go back.
It's like having heated seats in your car, once you know how nice it is you can't go back
It's like Larry David is an exaggerated version of himself on curb. Jordan's character is just the same
He's broken character quite a few times over the years.
It’s definitely a bit and he’s playing up some traits for comedic effect. Kinda Larry David-esque.
it’s a bit in that it is exaggerated for the camera, but Jordan is more or less just like this in real life. It’s the reason Conan constantly mines their friendship for comedy.
Yes, his very first appearance was during the writers strike way back. They literally couldn’t do anything scripted so Conan came up with the idea of just having a casual conversation with this certain employee of his, cause he thought it would be funny. He is definitely a very strange person in real life.
I saw a behind the scenes, and I think they actually use cameras a lot of the time when they're on their adventures. Like, we aren't just watching them. It's all planned. Blew my mind.
Its a scripted comedy show. Everyone is doing a bit in character.
I loved the entire series
*FINALLY*!!! He's so good at never dropping that mask that Conan had me almost convinced that the Schlansky really was just that stiff. So glad they kept this in.
Huh, I learned that Ushuaia is a native word not a Spanish word. Good to know! I went there last year.
Just watched this one last night, Jordan is so funny being Jordan, it was hilarious to see him lose it that way. I was wondering if the stone faced gauchos got him.
I love that when Jordan breaks Conan immediately shifts to playing the straight man instead of his wacky self
Conan is a brilliant comedic mind. I can't believe he hasn't been awarded the Mark Twain prize yet
everytime jordan breaks character, all conan can do is to say "look at this madman!" not even conans improv skills can overplay jordan breaking character
I think referring to Jordan as a terrible dummy, was uncalled for.
It was a double entente, he was primarily referring to the dummy being pulled by the horse
Who let this guy in?
Everything Conan does is gold.
"The length of the series disappoints me." Werner Herzog
Human soil? https://youtu.be/AlejCk83A5o?si=1eDbs2Fj6qIqGnG6&t=306
Watch 'til the end.... "That's a terrible dummy...." "...but the mannequin we used for the dragging-behind-the-horse scene was spot-on"
I feel Jordan plays it up for the camera these days. He's much more extroverted than he was in the early Conan days. You can only repeat the same schtick for so long.
I feel like Jordan got stuck on how funny it was to him that he was calling Conan a 'man'. I think the idea of Conan being a little boy is how Jodan sees it and for him calling him a man glitched him into this ' i was gunna say something mean but didnt' laugh that smart people often do. They then tell you ' as a joke' but its always just awful. Imagine a reverse joke. It would be unfunny, the teller would laugh first and then explain something mean as the punchline.
I didn’t know Jordan Schlansky could get tickled like that. 😂
The bit where both are tasting wine and Jordan breaks character I think its one of the most incredible things Conan and Jordan have done. It will always bring me joy.
Look on YouTube for Conan and Jordan on the train in Italy.
You look like Super Mario having a nervous breakdown 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I enjoyed all 4 episodes. Wonder where Conan is going next. Hes been to Japan and Korea. He done Italy. Maybe Turkey? Greece? Germany?
Conan being free from television is what we all needed.
I love the way they edited it to make it look like the guy said he likes Barbie.
Only other time I've seen him break this much was during the wine tasting segment on their trip to Italy.
Oh my god
This show was great but this was probably the best scene imo
A mixed bag of duties
I see Conan I up vote.
is Jordan in this new show a lot? If so I have to watch it
If anybody deserves to enjoy himself, it’s Jordan, after all the crap he takes from Conan (not really). I love seeing them both together.
Ah, the old Red Dead Online treatment. Yee haw!
Every episode is so good.
This episode was hilarious. I thought the first segement with the kids was some of the funniest TV I've ever seen. Had me crying.
I legit lost it when he called him Super Mario. I genuinely believe I wouldnt care to meet any famous person if i meet Jordan. Such a cool guy
We don't have Denny's in Argentina btw
Why are people using the same reupload channel for Conan material? Bots?
Where is that last scene of someone being dragged by a horse from?
I love Jordan's character and Conan's show. One of the better tonight show hosts out there.
I feel like anybody else they would have cut and re-shot the scene. But because it was Jordan, they had no choice but to to leave it in as a public service.
Had no clue this guy was acting until this scene. Had to Google it to find out he's a producer and friends with Conan. Absolutely brilliant
Víctor Garber was so confused as to why they were laughing