‘Conan in Berlin’: Making Sausage In Bondage Shorts
Some of the best stuff Conan O’Brien has been doing lately are his Conan Without Borders specials, in which he visits countries such as Cuba and Armenia. On Wednesday night, Conan goes to Berlin to take in German culture.
You could predict what O’Brien does: dancing in lederhosen — or “bondage shorts,” as he calls the tight outer wear — to engage in some “traditional Bavarian dance.” He eats a lot of sausage (as an occasional visitor to Germany, I can confirm his assertion that one can easily be offered many different kinds of sausage all three meals a day), before going to a Berlin butcher to see how the sausage is made.
In some of his escapades, Conan is accompanied by German comedian Flula Borg, an occasional guest on Conan’s talk show, who’s always up for a stunt. During this hour, he accompanies Conan to a nude beach just outside of Berlin and goes nude himself. Conan stays clothed.
In fact, we see more of Conan when he visits a local dominatrix, Lady Velvet Steel, and strips down for a sado-masochistic session involving whips, a harness, nipple clips, and a ball-gag so explicit its, ah, tubular shape is pixilated out so as not to offend American sensibilities.
As in each of O’Brien’s globe-trotting visits, there’s one mostly-serious segment, this one a visit to the Berlin-Templehof Airport, a space that is now being used to house over 1,500 refugees from places like Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan. There he interviews young men who are studying German and hoping to assimilate into a country that holds more promise for them than the lands they’ve fled. Please don’t send this segment to Donald Trump.
Related: Conan O’Brien Previews His Trip to Berlin
It’s a funny hour, warmed by Conan’s ability to keep the humiliating humor directed at himself as a doofus-tourist type asking foolishly obvious questions, game to take part in any custom that might seem odd or peculiar to American audiences. Since there’s a lot of German culture in America, this special doesn’t seem as exotic as his previous outings, but that doesn’t mean it’s not highly amusing and reasonably informative. I never want to hear another note of the squalling music made by the German rock band Sado Opera, though.
Conan in Berlin airs Wednesday night at 10 p.m. on TBS.
