WWSB Makes 'Conan' In Ice Cream Gag Reel

Shows like The Daily Show and Conan make a good living mashing up news bits and poking fun at the media.

And Sarasota's WWSB became part of a gag reel on Conan Monday night.

"A lot of people these days think the big news stories are either the upcoming presidential election or the upcoming London Olympics," Conan tells the audience. "Well, judging by local news, apparently there's an even bigger story sweeping the nation right now."

For the video impaired, the clip shows stations after station using the same story on ice cream apps for your smartphone an intro, or lead (or lede) as we call it in the business, for the wire story used on air. 

"I scream, you scream ... well, you know the rest," anchor after anchor says, including WWSB's own Josh Taylor, who is an occasional fill-in anchor and often reports for the station's South County team.

You can watch Taylor at the 56 second mark, giving him about three seconds of fame on TBS. 

"I don't find it funny. I find it scary," Conan said about the story and gag reel.

In fairness to TV stations, they use wire stories like many daily newspaper sites as part of a service because they're ready-made and their local audiences are interested, but seeing that in newspaper after newspaper doesn't give the same comedic effect as a bunch of clips of news anchors saying the same thing. 

Taylor joins longtime WWSB reporter Linda Carson for the station's late night show clip fame this year as Carson's story "Life-saving awards handed out at Sarasota fire station," was a