Television

Mitch Hedberg’s Last LATE NIGHT Set Has Been Released

by Matthew Hart
Jan 6 2020 • 1:21 PM

The holidays may be over, but we still have one last gift to open from the Team Coco YouTube channel: It’s a video of Mitch Hedberg’s last performance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, officially released for the first time ever. The clip’s only about five minutes long, but there’s more than enough comedy gold here for Hedberg Heads (Headbergs?) who miss the deadpan delivery and idiosyncratic insights of the late, great, comedy legend.

The clip of Mitch Hedberg’s final appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. 

In the clip, Hedberg squeezes in myriad jokes about everything from ice cold drinks to pants to doughnuts to cottage cheese, with each one of them delivering a signature offbeat punchline, as well as a glimpse into the off-kilter comedian’s unique way of viewing the world. And while he starts off slow, just about every one of Hedberg’s jokes lands with the audience; even the one about using magic wands to play the drums, which he subsequently asks to be edited out.

It seems the reason the clip was finally released online, 16 years after it first aired on NBC, is thanks to the podcast Best Of Stand-Up From Conan, hosted by Conan staff writer, Laurie Kilmartin. The Best of Stand-Up From Conan, which can be streamed by Stitcher premium subscribers, gives people a chance to listen to comedians featured “from the very earliest days of Conan to now,” and includes sets from icons like Rodney Dangerfield, Patrice O’Neal, Wanda Sykes, and Patton Oswalt. (Obviously sets from Late Night are also being included in the podcast streams as well, e.g. this one.)

Unfortunately, according to Hedberg’s wiki page, this was the final TV appearance he ever made, which means we can’t expect any more random clips of the comedian to suddenly turn up online again. But the fact that this set includes classic jokes like the one about asking who the real hero is when it comes to pant loops and belts or the one about hippopotamuses possibly just being hip “opotamuses” definitely helps to satiate one’s desire for the kind of simple, brilliant humor for which Hedberg became famous. Now if we could just find the right food for when we’re hungry and want 2,000 of something, we’ll be all set.

What do you think about this newly released Mitch Hedberg stand-up from Late Night with Conan O’Brien? Does this five minutes of jokes seem like the perfect, final TV appearance for the memorable comedian who passed away at a tragically young age, or does it just make you sad that there isn’t more where this came from? Tell us about your favorite Mitch Hedberg joke in the comments!

Feature image: Team Coco