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Late night comedy talk shows have a lot of hours to fill, but one thing you never see on air is cannabis consumption. That is, unless Seth Rogen is a guest on said program — like he was on Tuesday night’s episode of Conan O’Brien. It wasn’t any ol’ episode, either. It was one of Conan’s last shows, which is why the host accepted a joint from Seth and lit up on live TV.
“This is the kind of thing you do when you know it’s over for you,” Conan said. “What are they going to do to me?”
It is questionable whether Conan actually inhaled the sweet sinse. But, he at least puffed and then passed the joint back to Rogen. After taking another hit, Rogen passed the doob to Conan’s sidekick Andy Richter, who also availed himself to a toke.
The moment wasn’t unscripted and came about as the host reflected on what he’ll do with himself after his current show ends. (Don’t worry, Conan’s already signed up to host a weekly variety show that will likely debut in 2022 on HBO Max in a deal with Warner Media.)
Thankfully, if there’s any backlash, it will be minimal because the Conan show is filmed in California where cannabis is legal for adults over 21-years-old. Still, we would go out on a limb and say that smoking weed on live national television is worth a recap.
“You seem like a guy who’s relaxed, centered, like you know who you are,” Conan told Rogen in the joke’s lead-up. “I’m going to have some downtime. And I honestly — I’m not even kidding, I don’t really know what to do with downtime.”
“I would suggest — this is going to be hilariously on-brand — try smoking a lot of weed for a long time,” said Rogen. “You seem like someone who doesn’t smoke a lot of weed to me.”
Conan first came to late night television in 1994 as the heir to David Letterman. Now, he’s well over the 4,000 episode mark and will be closing a nearly-11-year run at TBS when his final nightly talk show episode airs on June 24.
The host once told Playboy that his doctor erroneously assumed he was on cocaine after watching his frenetic comedic stylings. But in all his television tenure, Conan has never done drugs on the air. Longtime fans surely shared Rogen’s cackling glee at the on-set toke.
“When is this thing that’s going to happen, happen?” Conan asked Rogen after the mini-sesh.
“We’ll wait a few minutes and see how you feel,” answered the prudent stoner comedian. “And then we’ll have a little bit more if you’re still functional.”
“I’m like a narc that, to prove that he was not a narc, took some drugs,” Conan concluded.
This is actually not the first time that Rogen has gotten a talk show host blazed. On a June 2018 appearance on “The Colbert Show”, dude managed to hotbox Colbert, too.