Stephen King: Good Horror Is Like A Peanut Butter Cup | Late Night With Conan O'Brien

(Original airdate: 02/09/99) Stephen King explains why good horror is like a peanut butter cup, lists his greatest fears, and tells a ghost story.
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ABOUT LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN
Running from 1993-2009, Late Night with Conan O’Brien is one of the most beloved late night shows in television history. Known for its absurdist humor, hilarious celebrity interviews and featuring the best stand-up comedians and musical acts of the 90’s and early 2000s. Hosted by Conan O’Brien alongside sidekick Andy Richter and house band Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7, Late Night with Conan O’Brien featured unforgettable segments like “If They Mated,” “In the Year 2000,” “Desk Driving” and made a breakout star of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
ABOUT TEAM COCO
Team Coco is the KZbin home for all things Conan O’Brien and the Team Coco Podcast Network. Team Coco features over 25 years of comedy sketches, celebrity interviews and stand-up comedy sets from CONAN on TBS and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, as well as exclusive videos from podcasts like Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Literally! with Rob Lowe, Why Won’t You Date Me? with Nicole Byer, The Three Questions with Andy Richter, May I Elaborate? with JB Smoove and Scam Goddess with Laci Mosley.
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[@stormcrowlu]

When you realize "Snakes on a plane" stole their plot from a Conan interview... Amazing.

[@maosama3695]

I watched an anime like this one but it was wasps instead of rats and snakes.

[@Ganiscol]

To be realistic, thats not a plot he laid out. Its a generic idea. Some danger on a plane... we had that before. And I dont think King would write anything like Snakes on a Plane - its a pretty dull story that only serves the purpose of putting Samuel L. Jackson on a plane with snakes: Them being the main attraction.

[@donaldward355]

My first thought! 😂😂😂

[@EmpyreanLightASMR]

And Andy still came up with a better idea. Rat Pilot lmao

[@phoenixfox2697]

I’m pretty sure that Stephen King would’ve loved to have wrote Snakes on A Plane. The sheer campy, schlocky, goofy horror would’ve had him thrilled to pieces and Samuel L. Jackson starring would’ve thrown him over the moon. This is a man who appreciates the level of frivolity with the lameass “serious” undertones of Snakes on a Plane.

[@cozyallyson]

I'm only 3 minutes in and this is one of the best Stephen King interviews I've ever seen. He's so obviously intelligent and also undeniably hilarious

[@TheWelchProductions]

Humor and intelligence go together, so there’s no need to contrast the two.

[@katkatkat5]

Agreed I was thinking the same thing

[@JPMJPM]

I’ll bet he was kicking himself when Snakes on a Plane came out.

[@Ganiscol]

I wonder if 'Rats on a Plane' could have featured Samuel L. Jackson 🤔

[@briezzy365]

He should sue.

[@captainscentsible1811]

Honestly he was lucky, that movie didn't do well, but someone ripped it off for sure

[@sargentordb507]

Can’t use rats well we’ll go with snakes lol

[@judydoyle1124]

Snakes on a Plane was 2006

[@jakereynolds4259]

I can’t believe no one laughed at “we have to finish against ER” that was a banger

[@gungunsaxena8340]

shut up

[@jakereynolds4259]

@@gungunsaxena8340 lmao ok gumgum

[@gungunsaxena8340]

@@jakereynolds4259 lol 🤣🤣👍ok jake the milk shake

[@liammitchell8568]

@@gungunsaxena8340 what is your problem dude

[@binguscat2514]

Wait what is ER

[@heidinova6883]

"They're growing to the size of land turtles". ahahahha I laughed so much at this whole interview. I love Stephen King, avid reader of his books, and I love Conan!

[@SyddViciouss666]

“What’s that out there on the wing” 😂 LOVE HIM

[@aurwood68]

😭😭😭😭😭

[@ComicalRealm]

Fun fact : Stephen King wrote *The Shining* after he had a nightmare in a hotel about his kid being chased by a fire hose.

[@julianholland4009]

He also mentioned that he was heavily inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Veldt”.

[@julianholland4009]

I think he was inspired by a great many things, he also named the book after the John Lennon song “Instant Karma”

[@erikadavila6574]

True story. I went to the Stanley hotel and that’s the exact story I heard from the “ghost tour” lead.

[@doctorthirteen5499]

And Cujo and The Tommyknockers were inspired by alcohol and cocaine.

[@wesjall]

@@doctorthirteen5499 MANY of his stories were inspired by booze and coke

[@jasonmurdoc9533]

“We don’t need to get into it, but because it’s my job we could get into it” that’s a man that loves what he does.

[@xMrBungleXx976]

I could totally see Stephen King doing a psychological horror story about someone slowly being driven to complete sloth from their La-Z-Boy, and the internal torment that overtakes them as they watch their entire life slowly fall to pieces as they spend more and more time in it and struggle harder and harder to get out of it every time.

[@mollyj6286]

It's definitely relatable...

[@jeremyphillips3087]

sounds like my life

[@Ela.elizabeth]

So Gerald's Game basically...

[@Ela.elizabeth]

@Andrew Cottingham Grey Matter is an awesome short story. Here's the link to part 1 of someone reading it if anyone is interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npTXnoZrntqtms0

[@jeremyphillips3087]

@@elian958 yeah, the shining is pretty much exactly like being stuck in a lazy boy.

[@antisoda]

So THAT'S where Snakes on a Plane came from! Somebody may owe someone royalties… :)

[@JediPhoenix1976]

"What's that out there on the wing?" Sounds like a few people in the audience understood that reference.

[@destroyerofnations1828]

Turns out more people are afraid of snakes than rats, and so we have Snakes on a Plane

[@TheRealUcanUwill]

Or its a movie made by snakes who are afraid of Samuel L. Jackson.

[@patreekotime4578]

Which is interesting because FAR more people have died because of rats due to the various plagues they have spread. Hereditary fears are funny that way. Although I gotta say, the scene in 1984 with rats still gets to me.

[@sunilbisht]

Such a witty interview. 2 intellectuals talking. That banter..amazing!

[@AdamS242]

Three.

[@titusmccarthy]

@@AdamS242 1

[@wakita50]

@@titusmccarthy 2, conan is hella smart

[@milo.ibrado]

Andy Richter was the cherry on top in this interview. Hilarious! 😂

[@AmericasComic]

Stephen King's "The Rats Are Loose on Flight 62" (10,387 pages)

[@-C.S.R]

He’s one of the greatest storytellers of all time! Shawshank redemption and the green mile are masterpieces!

[@ImGazu]

"You get in it and slowly realize you can't get out because little by little it is sucking you in.. to another.. dimension. WHERE THE RATS ARE LOOSE!" I lost it

[@natalieryan2055]

and puking!

[@rasaecnai]

Stephen King: Yeah but you dont want to hear that story. Everyone: (leans forward) Tell me more.

[@kevboard]

for real, this channel needs to have #DidNotDie or something in the title of old videos, because they post old clips whenever a celeb dies... but also randomly just posi old clips, it's very alarming each time 🤣

[@ASJC27]

Yeah I just had to check if SK is still alive as soon as I saw the title.

[@JPMJPM]

Yes!

[@jeremyphillips3087]

well we're all gonna die sometime so these are just like early obtituaries if you wanna think of it like that

[@missmaddylou8133]

I would honestly read “The rats are lose on flight 62” Stephen King can make anything scary!

[@StaticBlaster]

King is not only a master of horror. He is the KING of horror and writing in general.

[@gamingat3099]

This was only a few months before 1408 was released lol

[@sahilbhagwat3254]

This either means king died or will be on the podcast or it's just a fun clip . And the uncertainty Scares me.

[@bobkerr2755]

Maybe it's all 3

[@nii_amart]

I was thinking the same thing. 😅

[@GaryTurbo]

I hope the first one is false

[@NameRedacted0]

It's spooky because it's Halloween Month! 👻

[@callmeshaggy5166]

Stephen King dying would be top news all over. Even Norm got a long mention on the 5 o'clock news.

[@hemmojito]

Stephen: proposes a valid idea Conan and Andy: tear it appart 😄

[@harveypie]

did snakes on a plane steal this?

[@Metamere]

Well, he did say he had a copyright on the rats on a plane, so they had to get creative.

[@joshuaha7661]

Absolutely. Guaranteed.

[@callmeshaggy5166]

"steal" good lord

[@HeiwaPaz2000]

What a great conversationist he is. OMG! It so much fun to listen to him...

[@BrentWigginsWords]

Stephen King, likes Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, hates Halloween. That's a scary paradox.

[@lindasosa1570]

Storm of the Century was amazing! Of course, so are most all of the stories Stephen King has written.

[@JungleJoeVN]

Actually the first killer clown in literature was in Hop Frog written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1949, which incidentally was the King's jester and had a gang of murderous orangutans.

[@theneurologist1]

Poe was a literary genius

[@arbknight12]

“The killer got his chocolate in my peanut butter!”

[@charlesmillard7574]

Was that killer? Or the Killers' 😂🤣😉🤗😎

[@isaacthedolphin978]

wow pit Stephen King against Tarantino in a conversation and I imagine the "okay?" concentration would be off the charts

[@jahzd4028]

4 months after this interview, on June 19, 1999, at about 4:30 p.m., Stephen King was walking on the shoulder of Maine State Route 5, in Lovell, Maine. Driver Bryan Edwin Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck King, who landed in a ditch in the ground about 14 feet from the pavement of Route 5. King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain. He was transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by air ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. He suffered many injuries-including a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip. In an odd coincidence, Bryan Edwin Smith died on Stephen King's birthday on September 21, 2000 and both he and King shared the same middle name.

[@RazyelKayneReviews]

I saw this interview the day it aired, and I swear I've been thinking about that David Duchovny comment ever since, funniest comparison ever.

[@jilpok1074]

Conan O’Brien could write a comedy about a lazy boy and Stephen King can write a horror story about the same lazy boy. Perhaps they could join forces and create a horror comedy and produce that synergistic effect they were talking about.

[@Maqz22]

It was only bout 4 months after this interview that he was hit by a vehicle on a walk and almost killed! He was so intelligent and witty during this interview. I'm so glad we didn't lose this King

[@ironworkerwelder]

Saved by Jake Chambers at the last minute

[@JohnSmith-fm3pn]

2:40 nice reference to nightmare at 20,000 ft

[@maddiiydaddiiy]

Nice twilight zone reference

[@shivamshuklaaa]

This is the best Stephen King interview i have ever seen. And i have seen them all. Huge fan.

[@LycanLink]

I can totally relate to Stephen in regard to fearing a number. I love the number 3, and by association multiples of 3, but I don't like 6, so I avoid multiples of 3 that are even (because they're multiples of 6), and I avoid numbers whose digits add up to 6. I don't fear 6, but I avoid it whenever it's not reckless to do so.

[@anaraven]

I used to avoid numbers 6 or 4 but I somehow got over it. Now i mainly avoid the color green.

[@ajnakana460]

Junji Ito actually has a genuinely creepy story about the Japanese equivalent of a Lazee Boy. And the best part is it is based on a true incident.

[@sarsattacks]

Game recognizes game. Two writing geniuses in one room.

[@TheMikester307]

"The Rats are Loose..." Was this before "Snakes On a Plane?" :D

[@LackedBetterName]

5 minutes ago I had never heard of the Westminster Dog Show. Then I watched Conan interview Brit McKenzie and they talked about it. Then I watched this and Stephen mentioned it. Weird how the world works sometimes.

[@thepopculturebuff5080]

I’d pay all of my money to see “RAT PILOT”

[@grimlund]

This must be the funniest interview on KZbin. I love the thing with David Duchovny and the flying saucer😅.

[@warchild4974]

Man I love Stephen King's mind, his books and the film adaptions are brilliant. Family Guy got it right, Family Guy Stephen King's writer: "Scary stuff, scary stuff, scary stuff *typewriter ding, scary stuff, scary stuff, scary stuff *typewriter ding, scary stuff, scary stuff, scary stuff...lunch!" all with wide eyes. Stephen King and Wes Craven write/make a lot of my favorite horrors, top ones are A Nightmare On Elm Street & Stephen King's IT, but that's also the film with Tim Curry as Pennywise

[@rev.9683]

Love kings outfit here it's very sharp also classy. ♥

[@JohnSmith-fm3pn]

Storm of the century is free on KZbin . it's 4 hours long but totally worth it .

[@rev.9683]

4:39 he literally make horror story out of anything 👌😂

[@Huhgundai399]

Two unskippable 15 second ads? Brutal

[@2confrontational]

A truly legendary storyteller. Thank you for your art Mr. King!

[@jimphilidor9031]

Few months later he almost died when a car drove over him. Good thing he survived. He's made many great books after that.

[@trumphatesyou]

Duma Key was pretty boring!

[@kimberelydavis379]

Stephen King telling us a ghost story. I love it! ❤️

[@AcesPlace22]

King is top notch creative. My favorite author for sure

[@MEMENTO.MORI.4318]

Andy was there all along 😂😂😂😂

[@terrysetoguchi2265]

Storm.of the century one of my fav films

[@xavierrose8208]

Steve looks so good here

[@CoolPandaTheMovieNerd]

Stephen King is not dead. You're welcome.

[@jeremyphillips3087]

you don't know that

[@CoolPandaTheMovieNerd]

@@jeremyphillips3087 I looked it up LOL

[@jeremyphillips3087]

@@CoolPandaTheMovieNerd maybe he died after you looked it up, you don't know

[@alexgarces4068]

Billy Coughlin’s Bad Dream and the number adding

[@party4keeps28]

So, is this where the idea for Snakes on a Plane came from? A writer watching this thought, "I'm not afraid of rats, but snakes! Those scare me!

[@micahj894]

Snakes on a Plane had to have at the very least been inspired peripherally by Stephen King's "Rats Are Loose on Flight 62" idea! They had to've!

[@Fantasmister]

The Pixar guys definitely saw this interview.

[@LOLR0FLMAO]

"I've got a GREAT idea for a story! It's called Snakes on a Plane"!! Steven King : "That's cute".....

[@elian958]

Its true, if you think about it and describe their plots, his stories sound dumb, but when he gets a hold of them, top notch horror american literature comes out. Imagine describing sleepwalkers or dreamcatchers to someone, they are actually funny when you hear someone tell you about them

[@Shay_TheUnpopularOpinion_]

Two brilliant minds together ♥️ I love it lol

[@josteinv.jordet257]

I believe it's acually called Triskaidekaphobia..

[@leftyzappa]

“I’m not buying it.” 😂😂😂

[@carterevanroust]

Edogawa Ranpo wrote a short story called The Human Chair.

[@darkhorse7460]

I like how the drees code is navy and black.

[@vibratewithme4486]

yo did stephen just straight up fart @4:57

[@theneurologist1]

Hahaha yup! Good catch!

[@E32DJ-Baby]

Steven King is a great story teller.

[@DavidMichaels-q5d]

When he told the 3 line story of the rats on the plane, I started to feel all crawly, just 3 lines!! lol

[@timhulsizer]

1:42 Wow they inadvertently came up with a good idea for a Ratatouille sequel, before the first one even existed

[@chrisspathelf2310]

He was probably writing or written the short story 1408 for the book Blood and Smoke when this was filmed.

[@DirkDwipple]

There's Andy. Thinking outside the box.

[@Mark-jf1mp]

Come on team coco its been two days...... Classic Interview

[@Tealc-yg2dj]

The moment I read "Good Horror is like a Peanut Butter Cup" I was like, ".... in that it's not for everyone?" Nowhere close, apparently! 😂😂😂😂 Great writer! ❤

[@Griffin12536]

Every time Conan uploads an old segment I have to check if the interviewee died.

[@lokuzt]

love the way Sai king's mind can make up gross out and good horror prompts on the fly

[@Natschington]

Sai?

[@ironworkerwelder]

Tell the Gods Thankee-Sai

[@sorelbaez1281]

Conan is so sharp , inteligent

[@strtstpwt83]

There's a connection between my indifference to horror movies and distaste for sugar

[@stequis]

there used to be three 'must follow' social media giant intellects, Stephen Hawking, Norm and Stephen King, we're down to just one and his time is limited.

[@joseapsantos3633]

Boa tarde, um escritor de sucesso, espetacular. Adorei o vídeo.

[@j2323j]

The King Help me get thru prison i was never locked up do to this man amazing writing

[@moonman5543]

2 things that dont normally mix, cocaine bear lol

[@goregrindisthebestgenre]

Wish I could see the interview where they talked about The Langoliers.

[@groofay]

I would have thought page 181 would be worse than 131, since each half of the 8 makes a 3.

[@agitatedhugtime]

Stephen King is such a pure, innocent, horrifying person. I wish he was my dad.

[@harrisonfast3278]

this is great. i feel like this should have more views.

[@AngelXSantana]

I wonder if he did that movie 😂

[@thomasdahwoodjr4600]

snakes on a plane def took some guidance from this interview.

[@dizzyhole666]

Rats on a plane became snakes on a plane 😂

[@Kokdak26]

I Am big Fan of mr. conan He is Legendary Star of United State America

[@florete2310]

RE: Title Me: Especially if you are allergic to those...

[@aurwood68]

Omg iconic 💅💅😭

[@rciesi1]

Have Stephen King and Bob Lazar the Area 51 whistle blower ever been in the same room at the same time 🤔

[@teeznuhtz]

Just realized he inspired snakes on a plane in this interview

[@Frostiedkdk]

Some people seeks inspiration from the greats... Some people just watch a 10 minutes clip on youtube, and we end up with Snakes on a plane.

[@fastride1934]

Such a cool guy!

[@zeldadude91]

Little did he know that he was 4 months away from changing that number to 19...

[@richiecuna5781]

that baldheaded ghost has been his muse all along