Conan O'Brien did what is "required by the Government" when visiting New Zealand – he met Taika Waititi.
Conan O'Brien did what is "required by the Government" when visiting New Zealand – he met Taika Waititi.
Conan O’Brien visited New Zealand for his show, featuring a hunt for a fan named Riley in Hokitika.
He explored local culture with skits on the haka, Māori tattoos and encounters with kea.
O’Brien’s comedic journey included meeting Taika Waititi, learning Kiwi slang and a Paul Rudd prank.
You probably saw the headlines when US late-night talkshow host Conan O’Brien made his way to New Zealand last year.
There was his cameo on Shortland Street and he was one of thousands who came together to help take the haka world record from France. In the New Zealand episodeof Conan O’Brien Must Go, we learn the US comedian was lured Downunder by the hunt for a guy named Riley, who lives in a converted shipping container in Hokitika and poops in a bucket.
Conan O’Brien Must Go is an HBO series spawned from his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. A travel show, sure, but one inspired by a hunt to find fans who called into the pod.
There’s scenery, though, as the comedian machetes his way through the bush to find the bucket house. Our creatures take the spotlight with skits riffing on the massive sheep numbers. Culture? There’s that haka record, a Shortland Street cameo, a Māori tattoo and an introduction to our collective love of meat pies and cans of V.
O’Brien takes it all in his self-deprecating, usually funny but sometimes over-the-top fashion.
We pulled out our favourite takeaways from Conan O’Brien Must Go, episode two: New Zealand.
Not everyone can be skux
While on a mission to familiarise himself with the local dialect and mannerisms of New Zealanders, O’Brien discovers not everyone can be skux.
He meets local comedian Abbey Howells, who schools him on the local accent, posture (it’s all about lack of bone structure), drinking culture (Scrumpy hands) and using chur, nek minnit and skux in a sentence.
O’Brien learns he’s not, in fact, skux. He’s maybe “skux-ish”, but the journey to skux is a long one.
American comedians with Irish roots can learn the haka
Early in the episode, we see O’Brien doing what’s “required by the Government” when visiting Aotearoa – meeting Taika Waititi.
They’re at Eden Park, preparing for that world record haka attempt and O’Brien gets a crash course in Ka Mate with his teacher Maaka Pohatu. He tackles the task with a little self-deprecation and a decent amount of effort.
When told to be “grotesque” with pūkana, he jokes about the “many women” who have told him he’s good at that.
The best moment? While learning Ka Mate during the day, a crowd of bystanders join in behind him.
Kea are known for their cheeky – and destructive – behaviour. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Kea are ‘total dicks’
Can you even visit the South Island without discovering our cheeky kea are “dicks”?
The bird in question illustrates the point by having a nibble on the rubber of his rental car before having a go at his pants and giving him a little chase.
Classic kea.
New Zealand already has a perfectly functioning Conan O’Brien
Props have to go to Rotorua councillor Conan O’Brien, who embraces the brief of delivering deadpan comedy with his American namesake for a sit-down skit during which the pair don terrible wigs and swap roles briefly.
Prompted marriage engagements will always be awkward
We meet Penny from Christchurch, who has four cats and isn’t married yet but is happy for the comedian to give a nudge to her partner Malcolm on TV. The whole “this totally isn’t scripted” urging from O’Brien, coupled with a few nervous giggles from Penny, makes for awkward viewing.
Maybe it’s the fact that – planned or not – “hurry up and get married” comments just feel uncomfortable.
Although Malcolm gives an amusingly Kiwi response: “All right ... it’s on the house, for sure”.
A solid cameo from Paul Rudd
Viewers familiar with the long-running prank Paul Rudd pulled on O’Brien during the late-night years can probably guess what’s to come when – at a DVD rental store in Christchurch – Rudd makes a virtual cameo with the promise of an unseen clip from a movie he filmed.
Continuing the now decades-old prank, a scene from the 1988 film Mac and Me is played instead.
“F***er,” says O’Brien.
Pooping in a bucket - not as bad as he imagined
It’s finally time to meet Hokitika family man Riley, who lives in a shipping container house with his wife and kids and a bucket for everyone to poop in.
What does the comedian think of the off-grid long drop that he found so crazy he worked his way through haka, sheep, “dick” birds and Shortland Street cameos to see?
He emphasises the “some kind of crime”-ness of the long-drop with a sawdust scoop enough times for the joke to drag a little too long, but “it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be”.
And with that, he meets Riley’s white, scrawny chicken named Conan, leaves the family a couple of gag gifts, sends his newlywed couple on a few Hanmer Springs bungee jumps and bids our little island nation farewell.
“Even though the people of NZ never found me skux and they already have a Conan O’Brien, I feel I’m always welcome to show my pūkana here again. Kia Ora, Aotearoa.”
Chur.
New episodes of Conan O’Brien Must Go are released every Thursday on Neon.
