We don’t see nearly as much of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog these days, now that Conan O’Brien is out on the West Coast. Every now and again, however, he’ll make an appearance for a special occasion — this time for the World Cup.
Triumph — aka comedian Robert Smigel with a puppet on his arm — didn’t make the trip down to Brazil, where the tournament is being held, but he did visit a slew of New York City bars for a Conan segment to harass die-hard fans of the Colombia, Greece and Uruguay teams during competition. In addition to the typical complaints about soccer itself — “As soon as the teams finish jogging and warming up, they’re going to start the game… Oh wait, I’ve just been informed that this is the game, and I’ve actually been watching soccer for the last two hours” — Triumph also dove headlong into cultural stereotypes and taunted the fans for their ill-advised attire. It’s just too bad the segment was filmed before the Luis Suarez biting incident.
Though Triumph clearly isn’t the biggest World Cup fan, it’s unclear whether his lack of enthusiasm will put a damper on the event’s quickly-rising popularity.
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