Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

Andy Daly Returns

with Andy Daly
31 Aug 2026 4 min read 1h 10m

Conan O'Brien reunites with comedy stalwart Andy Daly for a freewheeling episode covering Conan's post-Mick Jagger interview glow, his rant that Western civilization has been 'casual Fridayed' into sartorial collapse, and Andy's revelation that he was a blackout drinker three days a week before getting sober 24 years ago. The pair discover they share the same two-dog household dynamic and spend significant time debating whether golden retrievers are capable of embezzlement.

Conan O'Brien
“The West has been casual Fridayed.”
Conan's punchline summarizing his argument that LA and Western civilization have abandoned adult dress codes entirely.
▶ 7:36
Conan O'Brien
“I just listened back to it. 40 minutes of the interview with MC Jagger is me demanding to know what he thinks about me.”
Conan reflecting on his bucket-list Mick Jagger interview in London and admitting his own neediness dominated the conversation.
▶ 13:01
Andy Daly
“That's a bad reputation to have. Like, offer me parts that are poorly written or underwritten or just no good at all.”
Andy recounting what his agent told him — that he excels when there's 'not much on the page' — and his deflating realization of what that implies.
▶ 15:23
Andy Daly
“I was recently misrecognized as you at Trader Joe's. A gentleman walked toward me looking like he knew who I was, like we were friends or something. And then as we got closer, he disengaged and smiled and said, 'I thought you were Conan O'Brien.' And I thought, I did nothing to earn that insult.”
Andy telling the story of being mistaken for Conan at a grocery store and his wounded reaction to the correction.
▶ 16:25
Conan O'Brien
“I often will get one of my dogs like we're down on the ground and I'll just get face to face with her and I'll say, 'Come away with me. The others don't understand us. They don't understand what we have.'”
Conan describing his deeply strange intimate ritual with one of his two golden retrievers, ignoring the other dog entirely.
▶ 21:39
Andy Daly is an actor and comedian best known for his work on Review, Silicon Valley, VEEP, Modern Family, and Blackish. He hosts the Andy Daly Podcast Projectum, available exclusively on his Patreon. Daly has been a frequent collaborator with Conan O'Brien across multiple late-night shows over roughly 30 years. He has been sober for 24 years and is a devoted dog owner.
1
'Not much on the page' is a dangerous agent pitch Andy Daly's agent positioned him as the guy to hire when the material is weak or underwritten — and Andy immediately recognized this as a trap that funnels you exclusively into bad projects. The insight applies broadly: being known as someone who 'saves' poor work means you rarely get offered good work.
2
Sobriety enabled Andy to trust himself with responsibility Andy got his first dog roughly when he got sober 24 years ago, after a period of being a blackout drinker three days a week. His reasoning: he finally believed he wouldn't screw up caring for another living thing. The dog wasn't a sobriety tool — it was a sobriety reward and signal of self-trust.
3
Even a Mick Jagger interview becomes about Conan Conan flew to London for a bucket-list interview with Mick Jagger and admitted that 40 of the interview's minutes were spent demanding to know what Jagger thinks of him. It's a self-aware confession about the gravitational pull of ego even in the presence of one of the world's biggest icons.