Conan And House: I want actual medicine!!!

Late Night with Conan O'Brien Tuesday, December 9, 2008

CONAN O'BRIEN: We have something in common, which is... I believe your father is a doctor and my father is a doctor.  And so you're playing a doctor now, and I'm curious.  Did you learn anything from your father?  Is there anything from growing up with a doctor in the family that helped you with the role?

HUGH LAURIE:  In a way, yes.  I mean, not, not...Not to do with the character, but to do with my attitude toward medicine.  Because I admired my father so much, I grew up with this immense reverence for Western Medicine. I think its about the noblest calling there is.

I don't know about you, but I have no patience with the sort of bog-sucking crystals and the herbs and all that sort of stuff.  I'm a great believer in antibiotics and anesthetics.  These are great things that have saved millions of lives.

(GESTURES TOWARD AUDIENCE)

You know half the people who are here wouldn't be here if it weren't for antibiotics.

CONAN O'BRIEN:  I am the same way.  Whenever something is wrong with me, and someone says, "There's a tree root that you can hold against your head and then think good thoughts,"

HUGH LAURIE:  Right.

CONAN O'BRIEN: I push them aside and go to a pharmacy.

(LAUGHTER)

HUGH LAURIE:  Right, me too!

CONAN O'BRIEN: I want actual medicine.

HUGH LAURIE: I want actual medicine, little white pills.  Yeah. Because when people try to persuade you of this alternative course because its an ancient medicine, its an ancient therapy.  'It's two thousand years old.' But two thousand years ago people died at twenty!

CONAN O'BRIEN: Yes.

HUGH LAURIE: It's no recommendation!

Hat Tip: Respectful Insolence