There was no new Zombie Simpsons last night and because it’s Martin Luther King Day here in the States things are kinda slow.  (MLK Day is like a lot of America’s second tier holidays in that we only partially observe it.  Case in point: the mail doesn’t get delivered but my garbage was picked up as usual this morning.)  But I did find this absolutely excellent New York Times op-ed piece from 1993 (via Warming Glow).  It was written by a fresh off The Simpsons Conan O’Brien as a fake review of his opening night as a late night host.  It is a thousand kinds of awesome absurdity:

Last week, this writer had the opportunity to watch a test show in Rockefeller Center’s legendary studio 6-A. Frankly, I was not impressed.

The crowd was visibly eager to like the young newcomer, but some seemed puzzled by the radical new set. The backdrop, consisting of 15-foot representations of Mr. O’Brien’s laughing head, loomed over his desk and chair, both carved from illegally imported African ivory. While this was somewhat unsettling, an aura of eager anticipation still hung in the air.

Until, that is, the new Late Night band began to play. Composed of musicians cut by the Boston Pops, the band lurched into an interminable version of "Waltzing Matilda," apparently the show’s theme song. The bandleader, a surly cellist, refused to make eye contact with anyone and hissed at a young girl who tried to clap along.

There is more than a little whiff of Simpsons on things like furniture carved from illegal ivory and a “surly cellist”.  I highly recommend the whole thing. 

Programming note: Consumed with Spurlock stuff last week we didn’t get around to properly mocking the terribly dull episode that preceded it.  So we’ll be doing that this week.  The Dead Homer Society, the timeliest blog on the net!