Martin Short Roasts Conan O'Brien and Catches Ed Sheeran in the Crossfire

Martin Short turned his latest appearance on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend into a roast of host Conan O'Brien. The episode was posted on Oct. 19.

Short opened with a run of jokes about O'Brien's looks. He said the former late-night host looks like the love child between Lurch, the towering butler from The Addams Family, and comedian Kathy Griffin, according to Billboard.

Pale got it next. Short said O'Brien looks like a Q-tip with ketchup on it because he is so pale. The line drew on O'Brien's long-running jokes about his own fair skin and red hair.

Then English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran caught a stray. Short said O'Brien looks like Sheeran in a fun-house mirror, the wavy fairground mirror that stretches and shortens faces.

He kept going. Short also called O'Brien "a human surrender" during the introduction, as reported by Entertainment Weekly.

The humour matched the billing. Team Coco, O'Brien's company, lists Short as returning to discuss Only Murders in the Building, the comedy crime series in which he stars. The same listing jokes that Short feels sexually excited about being O'Brien's friend, according to Team Coco.

Sheeran has his own history with the podcast. He appeared in 2023 on an episode titled "Ed Sheeran Live from the SiriusXM Garage."

During that visit, Sheeran and O'Brien talked about both being redheads. They discussed how other children treated them at school because of it. The shared hair colour is what made Short's mirror joke land for regular listeners.

Short is a repeat guest on the show. O'Brien launched Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend in 2018 after ending his late-night television run. The format pairs long interviews with playful teasing between host, co-hosts and guests.