You know what is nice?
Is that you're getting to show on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
You're getting to show this side of you
where you can be impatient with Larry.
You can be.
Yeah - You can be
angry with Larry.
You can disagree with Larry. - mean
You can be mean to Larry.
Yeah - And it's appropriate
because Larry deserves it. Let's face it.
Absolutely, and I think that's your job.
People talk about, you know, are you playing yourself
or a version of, you know?
You're a function.
You're not a character on Curb.
You're a function and your function is to drive
Larry into a corner until he gets so,
you know tight, that he comes out exploding.
Yes. -And he comes out more Larry.
More inappropriate, more Larry, more whatever.
So that's basically the same when you go out to dinner
with him, you know?
You just..
First, he's so generous with his laughter in real life.
[Conan] Mhm.
A lot of stand ups aren't that way.
Yeah. - A lot of stand ups
are kind of, no-no, I make the jokes.
Yep. Kind of thing.
He loves you to be funny
and loves to laugh at his own expense.
So you basically, even going out to dinner,
you try to find new ways of insulting him
and making him laugh.
Which is pretty much the same thing you do
when you go to work.
The thing that's weird about Larry
that I don't think a lot of people know
is that he'll meet you for dinner,
but not, not at your house
or not at his house.
It has to be at a restaurant.
Yeah. - Do you know what the reason is for that?
Yes, because he doesn't want to
be hemmed in by
you know, societal norms.
(Conan laughs)
Which means when you're invited to dinner,
you stay through dessert.
(Conan laughing)
Even though, he gets half-way through
if he gets any kind of agita, he's up and out.
He wants to be, so he can't do.
At a restaurant, he can't. We went out to dinner.
I think it was Woody Harrelson, Pete Farrelly and myself
and maybe someone else.
We're gonna meet Larry for dinner.
We were all together in the afternoon
and it sounded like great fun!
So, we all get there, even a little early.
So..
And the maitre d says,
"Well mister David is seated over there."
And we show up and he is literally
half-way through his entree.
What?
He's already ordered.
(Conan chuckles)
Because on a whim, he's decided
I think I'll have more fun if I go
call this lady friend I know.
Yeah. Or something.
Yeah. You know?
Yeah. Well, I don't.
He's right, you know?
But nevertheless, no qualms
about totally blowing off any kind of.
Right. He wants to..
He knows that in a restaurant, he can say
"I'm done. I'm out. I'm gone."
And he can do it 10 minutes in.
Throw in his share and be gone.
But you can't do that at someone's house.
No, so. - So he's got the whole thing rigged.
He stopped going to people's homes.
(Conan laughs)
You know, Larry's character is someone
who is always saying the wrong thing on his show.
You, yourself have said
that you're prone to a faux pas, occasionally.
You.. Isn't that a great word?
Yeah, faux pas?
Yeah!
It sounds like a faux pas..
Yeah, and it..
(Conan laughs) It does actually.
I used to pronounce it 'foe ax pass.'
(Ted Laughs)
And then I realized I.
Someone corrected me about a year ago.
But yeah, faux pas is a great word.
And you seem like someone who
If you did, If you made a faux pas,
it was because you were maybe trying too hard
to be nice and maybe said the wrong thing.
Is that where these come from?
Yeah. Yeah,
it's that whole charming thing, you know?
Yeah, I..
I'm trying to think of the..
I've done a couple of them.
My favorite was pretty much,
first several interviews I did for Cheers.
Mhm. And it was very heady and exciting.
Somebody actually asked you a bunch of questions
in a, you know?
Yeah. Appeared to be so interested
in everything you were saying.
Right. So I was just
full of myself and it was a wonderful interview
and I was charming.
And it was around the same time that Dr. Kevorkian.
[Conan] Mhm.
Was doing a lot of assisted suicides.
Yeah - It was very controversial.
It was a big thing in the news at the time, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, euthanasia,
where you help people pass on.
And I went though my interview , sailed though
and then he said "one last question."
What do you think of Euthanasia?
And I went, "What? You know
I think they're pretty much the same world over.
(Conan laughs)
(Ted laughs)
And I could just see his eyes go.
Now, I understand everything I need
to know about Ted Danson.
(Conan laughs)