Remembering the time Richard Lewis described Shaq’s penis to the point Conan O’Brien lost it

RIP to an absolute legend.

We lost a legend this week when comedian Richard Lewis died at the age of 76. It’s impossible to sum up his legendary humor in one clip, but it’s a wonderful time to remember the time he made Conan O’Brien leave his desk, and had Johnny Knoxville gasping for air while describing the experience of seeing Shaq’s penis in the Lakers locker room.

“I look down at another man’s penis. I’m a man, he’s a man … c’mon. I started shaking like I had some sort of disease, like Marley’s ghost — and I said to Shaq ‘What is that?’ […] He has it on a sled like Rosebud. It has to be a foreign exchange student, has to be. I have never seen anything like it. It has to be a tax deduction. […] So I went home and I took off my pants and I looked at my own penis, because I just saw something that was hanging there like a salami, and my penis looked like a semi-colon and I almost had a nervous breakdown.”

This story is from when Lewis and Larry David attended a Lakers game as part of filming Curb Your Enthusiasm, which Lewis is perhaps best known for mainstream. It just took a small moment to jump on the laughter and completely alter the show to the point that Conan couldn’t handle it anymore. This whole clip is perfect.

Known for his dark, often self-deprecating humor, Lewis was part of the “new-breed” of comedians that came out of New York City in the 1970s, but never really hit true mainstream notoriety like his compatriots, because Lewis chose to stay in standup rather than making a true jump to movies. However, Lewis did gain fame in the late 1980s when he starred in the sitcom Anything But Love, alongside Jamie Lee Curtis.

Lewis was a powerhouse comedian who shaped so many comics today. RIP to an absolute legend.