One of Conan O’Brien’s finest running gags is his complete disdain for his pretentious associate producer, Jordan Schlansky. The bit stretches all the way back to his Late Night days (see their first three segments together) and has continued to escalate on Conan. This year alone, O’Brien has hilariously confronted Schlansky over his elitist espresso machine and propensity to come into work late on Fridays.
So when Conan announced he would take a cue from the current government shutdown and track down non-essential staffers to furlough, you just knew it would culminate with another Schlansky showdown. With each of these confrontations, it becomes very clear that Conan keeps Jordan around for one reason only: these segments are fantastic.
