Thee Legend Is Back, and Conan Is Taking Every Hit
Thee legend that is Martin Short. Give him a seat across from Conan O’Brien, and you might as well hand him the keys to the roast. The comedian returns to Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend in the October 19 episode, and the friendship is as wonderfully unhinged as ever. Conan may be hosting, but Marty has apparently arrived to see how much verbal punishment one Irishman can take.
They have known each other long enough to skip the pleasantries. Short tosses out comparisons involving Lurch, Kathy Griffin and an inflatable tube man flailing outside a used-car lot. Conan laughs through it, which is precisely what makes these two such a joy: the insults are spectacular, but the affection underneath is never in doubt.
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From a 1972 Godspell Audition to Comedy Royalty
But between the jabs, there is some genuinely wonderful comedy history. Short and Conan revisit the remarkable 1972 Toronto production of Godspell—the unlikely meeting point of talents including Gilda Radner, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Paul Shaffer and Victor Garber. Conan remembers finding SCTV on television and being completely taken with a cast whose strange, brilliant sense of humor seemed to operate by its own rules.
Short also revisits the gloriously ambitious teenager who staged an entire imaginary NBC variety show in his attic, complete with taped applause borrowed from Frank Sinatra. Before an actual audience came along, Marty had already worked out how to be his own. That little detail alone is worth hearing him tell.
The conversation finds a tenderer note when Short speaks about Gilda Radner, whom he dated in those early years, and the pair discuss You Had to Be There, the documentary about that extraordinary Toronto comedy circle. Short can turn a story into a punchline in seconds, but there is a lifetime of memory behind the mischief.
There is present-day business, too: Only Murders in the Building is headed to London for its sixth season. Naturally, even that announcement becomes an excuse for the friends to mock one another. At this point, would we really want it any other way?
And then, just when you think the hour has been nothing but beautifully delivered abuse, Conan tells Short how much joy his work has brought him. The feeling is mutual. It is the sort of moment that explains this friendship far better than any formal introduction could—before someone inevitably ruins it with another joke.
Martin Short Returns — INYIM’s Selected Episode Images
A few more moments from the latest visit. Images: Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
Martin Short on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend — Full Conversation
Watch the October 19, 2026 conversation about Godspell, Gilda Radner, SCTV and the next season of Only Murders in the Building.
Sources: Team Coco / Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend; “Martin Short Returns Again” podcast episode (October 19, 2026); supplied episode transcript. Images: Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
