Jordan, you were also a part of the Japan trip.
How many times have you been to Japan before that?
Just once. Oh, just once. Okay.
But I was always infatuated
with Japanese culture.
Yes. But I was, I'll say now,
I was very surprised at having been invited to Japan.
Uh-huh.
Because I didn't have like,
a hardcore well-known connection to Japan.
So, I'm still surprised that I was asked.
(Jessie laughing)
And I frankly don't know,
unless you had the Macchio thing
already in your back pocket,
I don't know why I went to Japan.
Was it just the two segments?
It was just toilet and- It was three.
And no, and there was, What was the third one?
The two fans.
The Kaiseki meal.
The Kaiseki meal, the toilet,
and then the two fans who you surprised.
Right. Oh, right, right.
The married couple.
Yeah.
I had talked to you about Japan,
because I was curious about your experience with it.
And you mentioned the "Karate Kid II".
Yeah.
And you loved it, you loved Japan,
because it was filmed in Okinawa and everything.
And then I Googled the movie and that's where I learned
it was shot in Hawaii.
And that's why the trip happened. (everyone laughing)
That's why it happened.
That that's for that one shot.
It was just to catch you in one tiny.
I was like, oh my God.
It was shot in Hawaii and then we went about,
but you know, Ralph Macchio did not send.
He was like the day before, maybe the day of.
Well, we were gonna bust you on it.
And then I think,
Regardless. It was Conan's idea
to get Ralph Macchio to make the video,
Yes.
and it's like, oh, that's, of course
perfect. So much better.
And he, that video came in like
three hours before the dinner.
Your entire fascination with Japan stems
from the fact that you saw "Karate Kid II".
Yeah. (audience laughing)
And that it was filmed in where?
Okinawa.
I have a message here for you.
Please press play,
and hold that out to the camera as you watch it.
Hi Conan. It's me, Ralph Macchio.
Listen, I'm sorry to interrupt.
I just wanted to tell that Jordan guy
that all the scenes in "Karate Kid Part 2"
that was supposed to be Japan were actually shot in Hawaii.
(audience groans and laughs)
Oh, Jordan.
Those weren't real dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
(audience laughs)
Sayonara.
(audience claps and laughs)
(Conan laughing)
Conan the whole time understanding now that he knew
he had that in his back pocket,
I saw no hints that anything like that was coming.
Right He, he,
and he was patient enough,
But yes. It was a long dinner.
It was like an hour and a half.
You were so aggressive with him in that dinner.
You were, I've never seen you go after him like that.
And he was taking it because he,
He knew he had it. Right.
He had this.
Well, he was also getting you, we edited that.
That was a long edit because he was getting you too.
And, and there had to be a back,
we tried to keep it so it was a balance.
So you weren't like, oh, Jordan's being too mean and
or Conan's being, so it was kind of keeping it balanced up
to that moment a little bit.
I'm curious, now that we're here, why do you remember,
like you were aggressively
was it just your thought, like, oh, this is
What people liked or, you had to make it worth it?
It wasn't, honestly, it wasn't a deliberate choice.
Okay. I was curious. And it never is.
I guess my reactions happen organically.
Yeah. Okay.
And that's one of the benefits
you guys don't like to tell me in advance.
(all chuckling)
You like to tell me as little as possible, you know?
Right. Clearly for a trip like this
you have to let me know to pack a bag.
Right.
But otherwise, if you have the option to
just send a camera crew into my office, you'll take it.
Right.
And it may please you to know
that I don't pre-plan how I'll behave.
Good. Well, you know what it goes back to,
when we were in Dallas.
Yeah, you've mentioned that.
And we went cowboy clothes, Because I mentioned
that Stetson was from New Jersey and all that.
And you went off on a 10 minute thing on Stetson.
I Traveled extensively across Texas.
I assumed you knew we were doing it.
Had done some research.
We were doing it and you you prepared the stuff.
Oh
You, you asked me multiple times.
(all laughing)
But never. Just being thorough.
Never recorded on Not, you know,
there've been multiple times where
I've been questioned by various writers on the show.
Okay, yes.
About some of the things I say.
Yes. Mm hm.
Just about, I remember writers came to my office one day
and they said, "hey we wanna ask, who writes your tweets?"
And I said, "I write them."
Right.
I mean, I don't even write them I just type them.
Did they wanna submit a packet?
No and they did not believe that I didn't write.
And then that was another situation where you came
to me and said, "oh, you know did you research that"
or whatever it was.
Right. And no, no.
I just assumed.
I was like, oh, we
we shouldn't tell Jordan where we're going
cuz he's going to,
Well, yeah, I think even at,
I think there was such success
with the, I guess the coming in late one
was the first ambush.
If you'll use that term.
Of many.
(audience laughing)
That's your reaction?
(audience laughing)
You just walk into your office.
Feels like an acceptable reaction to me.
And I guess the results were good enough that,
and in that case, the ambush was justified.
That was to justify the ambush.
That was the premise of the whole bit.
Yeah. But I think that it worked.
Right.
And then the thought was, well this worked.
Let's not mess with it.
But like, Right.
if the old ones on Late Night
that Frank came up with,
Right.
There was the Italian dinner Right.
and just, there was one
during the writer strike where I was fully aware of those.
Right. And those did well too.
So I'll still argue.
That's true.
I'll argue that cluing me in advance
doesn't necessarily hurt it,
Right.
unless the premises such that it depends on my ignorance.
Well I'm sure you started to smell out when,
I mean it wasn't just that you came
in every day afraid that remote might be standing there.
You gonna bust in my, I was.
I absolutely would.
Would you come in camera ready
like every day you'd be like, Ugh.
There's no camera ready for me.
But at any moment, see, the problem is,
There's no camera ready 'cuz he's always camera ready.
When you've been, when you've been ambushed,
That's true I, I apologize.
When you've been ambushed a few times.
Yeah.
Even if you don't get ambushed again
you don't know that you're not
Right gonna get ambushed again.
Right.
So every time I was called down to this day
every time I was called down to Conan's office
for a legitimate reason, Oh,
part of me expected to
see a camera crew in there and like, are you
You see me come by and just peek my head in.
You were a big tipoff.
But like a lot of the things too was,
one of the excuses to get me in the office
at a certain day in a certain time
for one of these instances
was that there was a fictional meeting.
So I got an invite to a meeting
Right. about something that
had basis in maybe what I was working on at the time.
And then it turned out to not be a meeting.
So then, again going forward
when I would get meeting requests
(all laughing)
that didn't sound completely justified.
I was almost certain that this was just an excuse to get me.
But then there are was plenty
of unjustified meetings that just happened
I guess yeah.
I guess so, that goes to show, but to this day,
Right. because now we're not in
the office on a regular schedule, this being the office.
Right.
We're not here on a regular schedule.
So when I get called in for something,
it occurs to me, Now you're pretty sure.
that there could be some
ulterior motives. Shenanigans.
Yeah (all chuckling)
Is that a hard way to live your life?
It is, I mean, you know, again,
I didn't necessarily change anything
about the way I would behave when I was on camera.
So it wasn't a big deal in that respect.
But, you know, sometimes you wanna just sit and relax
(all laughing)
and know that you're not gonna be exposed in that way.
The Macchio thing was the first time I actually saw,
like I felt bad for you. Like his dream.
But I didn't feel, I know that was a whole thing.
It looked like, you looked devastated.
(Conan laughing)
That was inconsequential to me.
The fact that that I made an error
in the shooting location of a movie
was inconsequential to me,
at least from my own perspective.
Yeah.
It did not diminish my appreciation for the movie.
It did not even diminish my desire to go to Japan because
of what I saw in the movie.
'Cuz I understand that movies are fake and they were
presenting something that may as well have been in Japan
Mm hm. because it looked that way.
Sure. And kinda idea of Japan.
I know you guys, it worked comedically
to have me devastated in that moment.
But the reality is
Because the venomous that he's talking about, like
after you found out, after that happened
you were on the attack even more than I've ever seen.
I guess I was reacting to like
the way the energy was going in the conversation.
(host chuckling)
But again, it wasn't deliberate and I wasn't actually upset.
Okay. Well you were already traumatized from,
Part of me To meetings every day
and waiting for a crew to show up.
I see comedically why it worked.
But part of my reaction was like,
I can't believe he went to all this trouble.
Right.
To get Ralph Macchio to record this message.
Right. And, you know, presented
and after an hour and a half of sitting here,
like it takes restraint to have that there
(all laughing)
for an hour and a half and not like show it sooner.
Especially given the conversation.
Yeah. It was masterful.
He was playing the long game. The long game.