Back in November, Conan O’Brien made the amazing discovery that all it took to transform Andy Richter into Newt Gingrich was a white wig. And it was amazing. Now, Gingrich is surging so the wig is back but it’s not alone. Last night, the hosts realized that all it took was a blonde wig and lipstick to transform O’Brien into Calista Gingrich. And it was…horrifying.

Things were bleak here at the Mediaite office a few minutes ago. After the crushing reveal that, no, a presidential candidate hadn’t had a conversation with mannequin, we were all in a dark place. How could anything be as good as that? Would we ever laugh again? Fortunately, we saw this video from last night’s Conan in which Ricky Gervais showed off his hairy man-boobs and Conan O’Brien discussed why his face had the ability to kill erections.

We don’t do many clips of just TV stars promoting their work here at Mediaite. Sure, we’ll get on it if the star says something interesting while promoting. However, what we do post about is any moment of television that could be considered historic and this moment from last night’s Conan is just that. You see, while comedian David Cross was talking up the second season of his IFC series The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, he did something amazing; he gave the greatest set up to a clip in the history of the talk show.

Chances are, you’ve very likely been dreaming about Ron Paul‘s “little shih tzus” ad since it first aired. Well, Conan O’Brien and company have stumbled upon yet another masterpiece of a campaign ad that is sure to tug at your heartstrings and envelop your brain in a gentle… brain hug.

Conan O’Brien‘s lovable, trash-talking puppet Triumph the Insult Comic Dog paid a visit to Occupy Wall Street, taking the opportunity to gleefully excoriate both demonstrators and bankers. “Here at Yeast Infection Park on the corner of Hurts When I Pee Boulevard, we are out here with a group of people who are protesting our country’s history of allowing corporate greed to go unpunished,” Triumph said. “As you can see from the crowd, many are also protesting our country’s history of good hygiene.”

Conan O’Brien was in New York City all week for special tapings of his show, and on Thursday he found a couple of celebrities had snuck into his audience. While addressing the crowd post-monologue, O’Brien turns, surprised, to find himself Jon Stewart in the audience, and when he has to leave to record The Daily Show, he finds the next person waiting on the standby line was none other than Stephen Colbert.

Conan O’Brien is back in New York City for a spell, affording him the opportunity to officiate a wedding between his longtime costume designer, Scott Cronick, and David Gorshein at the Beacon Theatre.

Last night, Conan O’Brien kicked off a week of special shows from his old home, New York City. Throughout the week, the host is going to do all kinds of great New York things like eating Chinese delivery, catching a Reggie Watts show, and officiating a gay wedding. However, he is now by definition a tourist, so he also engaged in an activity that no actual New Yorker would ever dream of actually doing; he attended a Today Show taping.

However, since he is an ex-NBC employee, O’Brien had to visit the studio in cognito.

Conan O’Brien returned to the NBC studio at Rockefeller Center last night in a surprise walk-on comedy bit on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. O’Brien had basically hosted the very same show now hosted by Jimmy Fallon for 16 years, and was received warmly with a standing ovation by the studio audience. The overall bit was more sweet than funny — sort of like the end of a a funny episode of The Simpsons or Modern Family — but no less satisfying.

For shame! Last night, Nicole Scherzinger appeared on Conan to promote Fox’s The X Factor and, during the interview, caught Conan O’Brien looking at her ample cleavage instead of at her face.

What on earth is wrong with you, Conan? This is the breakout star of the Pussycat Dolls, a group that was famous for their music, not how they look! That’s why everyone reading this post can totally name five Pussycat Dolls songs off the top of their head. Easy! And she was talking about becoming a host of The X Factor! How could that not be fascinating enough to keep your attention!

The Wall Street Journal has delved deeply into the ratings for TBS’s highly hyped Conan, the return of the red-headed former Tonight Show host to late night, and WSJ concludes it’s a flop. “In the nine months since Conan‘s debut, TBS has canceled its only other late-night show, George Lopez‘s Lopez Tonight, and viewership of Conan has tumbled, by about 60% since its high-profile debut last fall,” writes the paper’s Lauren A.E. Schuker. TBS’s pricey Conan O’Brien experiment is flopping—and is about to get even more expensive.”

Having arrived on the campaign trail amid a thunder of media coverage and the instant status of “top tier” candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry can now add late night comics to the group of people who’ve elevated the Republican presidential candidate–in this case to prime joke material. On TBS’ Conan, Conan O’Brien opened his monologue with a discussion of the Perry campaign, observing that Perry “distanced himself from George W. Bush” by saying that he’d gone to Texas A&M, while Bush went to Yale. “In other words, Rick Perry’s idea of instilling confidence is to say ‘don’t worry, I’m not as smart as George W. Bush.’”

TBS has canceled Lopez Tonight, the late night show hosted by George Lopez. In a statement, the network says the final episode will air tomorrow: “TBS has reached the difficult decision not to order a third season of Lopez Tonight,” TBS said in the statement. “Thursday will be the final episode of the show. We are proud to have partnered with George Lopez, who is an immensely talented comedian and entertainer. TBS has valued its partnership with George and appreciates all of his work on behalf of the network, both on and off the air.”

Yes S&P recently downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to a paltry AA+. And yes that downgrade has spawned a volatile stock market and increased vitriol on both sides of the political aisle, but all is not lost. As Conan O’Brien pointed out last night, America may not have a AAA credit rating anymore, but we’ve got a lot of other things with AAA ratings.

That Newsweek cover of Michele Bachmann‘s giving Conan the creeps. “It’s scaring me…those eyes,” O’Brien said on his TBS show Tuesday night. Calling the cover creepy, Conan explained how the image of the GOP presidential candidate has haunted him, transforming the congresswoman from politician to a character in the comic’s nightmares.

On Monday night’s Conan, CNN’s Piers Morgan made a public apology over the whole dustup involving Paul McCartney‘s ex, Heather Mills, and her claims that a reporter working for a newspaper then edited by Morgan hacked her phone. “I introduced her to Paul McCartney,” Morgan revealed, telling Conan that Mills and McCartney attended an event organized by Morgan’s paper, the Daily Mirror. “I actually introduced them…and that one decision by me cost Paul McCartney fifty million dollars.” Morgan suggested Mills ought to be thanking him for the cash, and then made his mea culpa. “I do want to apologize, but to Paul, for introducing him to Heather.”

How did this one escape the all-seeing eyes of Mediaite? Somehow the Republican Party has unveiled a 2011 “campaign ad” in Spanish, and we’re seeing it for the first time on Conan O’Brien‘s late night show. But hey, it’s been a busy few weeks. At any rate, if this ad is to be believed as a genuine message by the Republican Party–and we have our doubts–the GOP needs to work on its accent. A lot. As Conan explains, the “Get Your Own Patatas” ad comes in response to a slick Spanish language ad produced by the Democrats.

For all of you jocks out there who haven’t heard, this weekend is the San Diego Comic Con, the huge, annual convention dedicated to any comic book, movie, TV show, or other form of entertainment that features cool, iconic costumes for overweight cosplayers to ruin. Studios and publishers will be unveiling sneak peeks at their biggest upcoming works, but it turns out that they won’t be the only ones showing off art. TBS and Conan O’Brien have opened up the Coco MoCA, a “fan art exhibit” museum of “Conan art.”

This week’s headline-grabbing Paris Hilton interview by ABC’s Dan Harris got most of the attention for the reality star’s decision to walk out mid-chat rather than address Harris’ question–has your “moment” passed? But as Conan O’Brien discovered, there was an equally significant revelation in the interview–that Hilton’s on-camera voice is, basically, a put-on. In a clip aired on Conan Thursday night, Hilton ditches the baby voice and breathy whine and reveals–for the first time on camera–her real voice. And, well, it’s probably best that she sticks with the baby talk.

The team over at Conan made the mistake (cue sly wink) of booking two comedians – Jon Dore and Rory Scovel – to perform their stand-up routines on the same night. How awkward yet opportune! How embarrassing yet rife with comedic possibilities!

The result was a fun look at the nature of the genre itself, complete with a joke about butt warts.

Michele Bachmann has recently made a few interesting historical claims that are either clear evidence of her incompetence (or proneness to make public gaffes), or an example of a biased media out to get her (depending on one’s political persuasion, of course.) Conan O’Brien mined this to an appropriately absurd level last night, in presenting his own vision of how this should play out: The Michele Bachmann History Channel!

Whatever his political status may be today, there was a time in which Jon Stewart‘s claim to being merely a court jester was indisputable, way back when he was a fixture on the half-music, half-talk, pre-reality MTV. During his tenure as host of The Jon Stewart Show, the idea of him even entering the White House was a punchline in and of itself– a punchline early and often employed in this 1994 interview with gangly underground talk show host Conan O’Brien.

NBC’s Late Night host Jimmy Fallon speaks honestly about his own company’s missteps in handling the transition from Jay Leno to Conan O’Brien–and then back–calling the original decision to tell Leno he’d eventually be replaced by O’Brien “an insult.”

President Barack Obama‘s recent trip to Ireland was highlighted by many by his visit to a local pub during which he consumed a pint of Guinness. After watching footage of Obama’s later speech, Conan O’Brien could only conclude that the President of the United States is a light weight.

TNT took the wraps off its plans for the fall, telling advertisers Conan O’Brien‘s late night show Conan will be hitting the road, with a week-long visit to New York later this year, and a Chicago trip in 2012.

The Hollywood Reporter, which attended the network’s upfront presentation, reports the trips will be O’Brien’s first late night shows in New York–set for the Beacon Theater (October 31-November 3) since he hosted Late Night with Conan O’Brien on NBC.