An oral history of Conan O’Brien’s Walker, Texas Ranger Lever: the Late Night gag that made Chuck Norris a meme

On his May 12, 2004 show, O’Brien explained that NBC had merged with Vivendi Universal Entertainment to form the media company NBC Universal. The merger included the USA network, which played Walker, Texas Ranger reruns, and because of that, O’Brien claimed he was allowed to show clips of the series any time he wants for no reason at all. With that, O’Brien pulled a black sheet off of a three-foot-tall red and yellow lever and cranked the lever back.

On the screen came a melodramatic scene where a horse named “Amigo” used his teeth to free a tied-up Chuck Norris. O’Brien pulled the lever four more times during that segment alone, and each time an equally ridiculous clip played. From there, the Walker, Texas Ranger Lever became a recurring gag on Late Night for more than a year. Norris himself even came onto the show in Sept. 2004 to lean into the joke. When O’Brien was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2025, the gag made a reappearance, confirming its nonsensical place in popular culture.

Which is why, in light of Norris’ death, Polygon reached out to the Late Night with Conan O’Brien writers behind the bit, Michael Koman and Andrew Weinberg, for an oral history of a true Conan classic.

On May 12, 2004, the Walker, Texas Ranger Lever made its debut on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. It was an instant hit.

Michael Koman: The Walker, Texas Ranger Lever came about because of the merger between NBC and Universal. Theoretically, it seemed like NBC was acquiring the rights to USA shows, and the idea was that we would suddenly be able to show clips of them anytime we wanted to. That turned out not to be true, but the merger seemed to justify the premise, so I went to check out what was on USA. I chose Walker, Texas Ranger because it was so the opposite of anything close to the sensibilities of our show.

Also, what I found fascinating about Chuck Norris was that, even for an action movie star, he had a total lack of facial expression. His mouth went from a perfectly straight line to one with just the slightest curl up or down. He didn't have time for pleasure and he never really expressed sorrow. I just never understood what I was supposed to be taking out of his expressions.

Andrew Weinberg: Michael did the first Walker, Texas Ranger Lever and it was really popular. Then Conan and everyone else was like, "Let's do more of these!" and Michael was like, "I don't want to watch all these myself." So I got wrangled into it because he realized his life was about to be watching Walker, Texas Ranger.

Koman: Honestly, after the first time, I was just exhausted and begging for help because you had to watch the full episode. There were so many hours of our lives thrown away looking for these little moments. I was in my 20s then, so I would just stay in 30 Rock until 11 o'clock at night watching this stuff. I didn't really have a life.

Weinberg: At some point, we were tired of it, and we had someone else do it, but whoever we handed it off to, they just didn't know how to edit them right, so we ended up doing it again.

Koman: It has to do with some weird affection for the show. There's some part of it where you love how much you hate it or that part of you kind of loves it. But when other people were tasked with it, I think they just hated it and there was no joy put into the thing.

Throughout 2004 and 2005, dozens of Walker, Texas Ranger clips played on Late Night, but one has proven to be an internet sensation in its own right. It features a pre-Sixth Sense Haley Joel Osment with Chuck Norris and a couple of his Walker co-stars. After a serious look at Walker, Osment tells the other two, “Walker told me I have AIDS.”

Koman: We had been watching this stuff for months. Then one day Andrew came into my office with his hands shivering, like he had just found a crate of Mayan gold. He couldn't believe what he just stumbled upon. He worried he had hallucinated it. Then we watched it together.

Weinberg: I remember showing it to Michael. Obviously, we knew it was gold, but we honestly thought it might be offensive, so we held it for a long time. The crazy thing about the clip is, why is this child getting his AIDS diagnosis from a Texas Ranger? Why not a doctor? How does any of that make sense?

Koman: Because they’re an out of context moment, I think the fun of these clips is just trying to piece together what story could have existed that the clip would have been a part of. I think that was what was sort of wonderful about it.

After months of being the butt of the joke, Norris got in on the action in Sept. 2004 when he appeared on Late Night with his own lever. When he pulled it, it cut to a clip of him beating up O’Brien.

Koman: It was unquestionably nice of Chuck Norris to come on the show and do this, but the whole thing was fascinating to me. My memory was that I, at that point, built this whole thing up in my head about who this guy was. I thought he’d be like, “Hey I’m Chuck, I’ve been watching this, and it’s funny,” or even, “It kind of annoyed me.” But then he got there and it was just like nothing, like there was nobody there. There was very little communication, just some polite little nods and hellos, then he did his sketch and left. It was like it never happened. No impression was left. I got the sense he forgot about me the second after I shook his hand.

Weinberg: Probably before. There’s no way he got what was funny about it. I truly don't believe anyone who could make hundreds of hours of what he made could possibly find it funny. He acted in that Haley Joel Osment scene, then he watched the final product and I doubt he ever said, “This is kind of silly.”

Koman: I would have liked to have known what he generally did find funny, but in a way, I liked that he left and I was no closer to the mystery of what that man was about.

In 2021, O’Brien revealed on his podcast that the Walker, Texas Ranger Lever was retired because the actors in the clips were asking for residuals, which could have cost the show millions. As such, the lever was retired in 2005.

Koman: Eventually we had to stop doing it because the Walker actors made a — justifiable, I guess — stink about royalties.

Weinberg: It all goes back to the fundamentally flawed premise that we had license to show unlimited clips of Walker for free, which we didn’t.

Koman: I’ll say, I'm grateful that he made that show and that it entertained its own audience for what it was, and then it found a way to entertain another group of people that never would have watched it in a totally different way. I think that's very cool. I send my love to his family. I'm sad to hear about his passing.

Weinberg: Yes. He was a hero to many. And I would say for myself, when Conan got his Mark Twain prize, seeing that AIDS clip play at the Kennedy Center was a pretty big thrill.