Too much funny for one stage
Houston's loss: Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart wage war in adance-off (with video)
There's been a war a-brewin' in late night comedy ever since the Conan O'Brien/Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert fight that invaded their respective shows over who "made" Mike Huckabee. This dustup first stirred up the airwaves in early 2008.
And with O'Brien's return to New York with his "Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television" tour, the three titans of late night cable comedy got into it again this week.
Colbert first showed up onstage to mock O'Brien's ill-fated departure from New York, with a series of barbs ("Does Kathie Lee know you're ripping off her act?") that led to — you guessed it — a dance-off.
To the sounds of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me," Colbert appeared to rout O'Brien, until a pulled hamstring had him down for the count. Cue Jon Stewart, emerging in a red shirt, gold sequins, and shiny black pants to defend the honor of "the basic cable boys."
After trading insults — O'Brien said Jon Stewart looked like a Mexican waiter, Stewart told O'Brien "you look like a black light poster I had in college of a spooky tree" — the dance-off continued until Andy Richter emerged ... with a gun.
And if this wasn't enough, the sold-out crowd at Radio City Music Hall also got guest appearances by Paul Rudd, The Office's John Krasinski, SNL's Bill Hader and a performance by Vampire Weekend.
While this does make us extra sad Conan didn't bring his legally-prohibited funny tour to Houston, it does get us pumped for his TBS show, which is set to debut in November.
Watch the entire dance-off below: