Martin Short thinks that the shape of Conan O’Brien is comparable to a certain “Shape of You” singer — Ed Sheeran.
In a hilarious introduction to the Only Murders in the Building star’s guest appearance on the former late-night host’s Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast posted Monday (Oct. 19), Short lobbed some of his best off-the-cuff insults — all in good fun, of course — at his friend. While recalling how they’d gotten dinner together recently, Short told O’Brien: “That night, I thought, ‘He looks like the love child between Lurch and Kathy Griffin.’”
“Because, you know, you’re pale,” Short continued as O’Brien cackled. “You look like a Q-tip with ketchup on it.”
That’s when the Father of the Bride actor sealed the deal with a reference to the British pop star. “You look like Ed Sheeran in a fun-house mirror,” Short said, alluding to O’Brien and Sheeran’s shared ginger hair color and drastically different heights. (O’Brien is famously 6’4″ while the hitmaker is reportedly around 5’8.”)
Sheeran himself has previously sat down with O’Brien on the podcast in 2023. Of course, the two men bonded at the time about their most noticeable similarity, comparing notes on how they were treated by other kids in school for being redheads.
The musician is currently of a stadium tour, the U.S. leg of which recently drew controversy after Sheeran’s promoter dropped Macklemore as an opener in response to pressure from venue owners unhappy with the rapper’s onstage “Free Palestine” protests. The trek kicked off in January and has dates scheduled through mid-December.
Watch Short bring up Sheeran while lovingly roasting O’Brien below.