I know this is not necessarily on topic, but this blog is sort of about whatever we like anyway so why not. I stopped being a Jay Leno fan decades ago when he decided to stop doing smart political humor and started doing dumbed down middle of the road humor and ass-kissery. I’ve always loved Conan, and not because he went to my high-school (I don’t think we overlapped), but because his self-deprecating articulate humor is more up my alley. Between Carson and Leno the Tonight Show has never been exactly for me. And while I don’t watch much late night TV (and when I do it’s Stewart/Colbert on Hulu) but I did watch Conan’s opener (also on the net).

I’m always curious about the design of the set, the logo, the broadcast graphics, etc. I immediately noticed this cool art deco pattern on Conan’s curtain backdrop. It so fit in with my pre-conceived notions of how cool Conan is that it would be lifted from Super Mario Bros.

Well… he didn’t. Credit to Serious Lunch for the great photoshopping. But maybe the motifs from Super Mario Bros. have so embedded themselves in our minds (and the minds of the Tonight Show set designers) that credit is really due to a video game. (Or maybe they both share a common art deco ancestor.)

Conan addresses it, gets some laughs, and his whole backdrop lights up with Super Mario Bros. Cool! The right thing happened after all.