Up to now, we've done all we could to avoid covering Conan O'Brien's ridiculous request that Los Angeles name a cruddy old street in Van Nuys after His Gingerness.

But Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's unexpected YouTube response yesterday was 10 times funnier (maybe unintentionally) than anything O'Brien has brought to the table so far (ouch), and very much deserves a good guffaw/discuss.

First, let's revisit O'Brien's original request (really more a diss on L.A.'s ugly bits than a serious want to be immortalized on a back-alley street sign in the butthole of the Valley):

Yeah, we told you it was lame. But anyway, as O'Brien informed his audience back in June, “still no word from the mayor. Not a single word.” As of yesterday, though, seemingly out of nowhere (read: via the mayoral Twitter account, as spotted by City Maven), word has come!

“Angelenos have spoken,” Tweeteth the mayor. “Here's our response to your request for an LA street sign.”

Wow. Let us try, in this very strange time, to organize our thoughts.

1. Why can't all boring City Council issues be popularized and fancy-fied and HD-footaged to this extent? The lighting — the tripods — it's magnificent! 2. How much do the mayor's social-media assistants make again? 3. Good to see O'Brien's ugly, scrunchy “Conan O'Brien Blvd” sign get upgraded to a much more gorgeous “Conan O'Brien Way” alternative, and with a snazzy (if slightly backhanded?) “Dead End” bonus at the bottom. But what happens to the sign if O'Brien doesn't do his good deeds? And again, how much did this shit cost? 4. Is erecting a giant sculpture of one's head in a skate park, or getting a tattoo of the L.A. city seal, really considered community service these days? 5. We're totally getting a tattoo of the city seal as an ironic tramp stamp. Probably after work today. 6. The guy with the heron. My god. Do you think he'll really paint a giant picture of O'Brien's face on the bow of his kayak, mermaid style? 7. My god, the guy with the heron.

So what do you think? Does O'Brien deserve to claim West Raymer Street as his own? (See below.) And what is the mayor really asking in return?


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