Sitting on the couch

The ability to sit next to the interviewee and make the show better is rare. Norm absolutely has this ability, even though he deploys it to make Thomas Haden Church look like an idiot. Typically used when the second guest is a model, child or asshole, inviting the more talented/funnier first guest to "stick around" is a hallmark of late night television.

It's impossible to watch that above clip and think that Conan would not prefer Norm as a guest over Thomas Haden Church. Church has some big picture roles (Spiderman 3's Sandman) and some excellent performances under his belt (Sideways, Sid and Nancy). Norm's career has been middling since leaving Saturday Night Live, and his departure pretty much sparked the modern SNL Renaissance by letting the camera focus on this decade's best performers, such as Will Ferrell and Tina Fey/Jimmy Fallon. But Norm is a brilliant, subversive anti-guest guest, distorting The Tonight Show and making it his own. All appearances to the contrary, Norm is 100% focused on making the show better, even at the expense of a B-List star's reputation.