Conan Does An Ad For T-34 Tanks | Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan
(upbeat acoustic music). What is your profession? So I am a mechanical design engineer. and I design tanks of various types. Not, Tanks? Not like, tanks like the, like the pew pew kind, not water tanks or or fuel tanks, but like, like a Sherman tank. Yes, with like tracks and they, and so we have, What are you talking? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You design military grade tanks? So some are military, and then some are commercial.
So the commercial- What?! the commercial was- Who would buy a commercial? Wait a minute- What? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Okay. First of all, I am fascinated by tanks. I am a military history buff. I actually have a favorite tank from history. What is that? I don't know if you do. Oh, awesome. Oh, mine is the Russian T-34. Okay, nice. That, I like that tank. because that tank really saved Russia. and kicked the Nazis' asses', and they never saw that tank coming.
They had contempt for the Soviet Union. They thought we're just gonna roll in there, and these people are beneath us, and we have our cool, German, tiger tanks. And suddenly the Russians show up with this amazing tank, that's technologically very simple, but just wouldn't break down, and the German shells couldn't pierce it. So I think the T-34. is one of the most heroic tanks in history. Yeah. I think it helped save the world.
Well, there's something. definitely to be said for simplicity. The pinnacle of design is not when what's left to add, but it's what can you take away. When there's nothing left to take away, then you've hit it. There are famous stories. of the Soviet crews, that the Russian crews that had to work the T-34, there was a giant stick, like an iron shaft, that was pretty much. what made it go forward, backwards, sideways. And it was so hard to maneuver.
that the guy in the crew that maneuvered it. had a giant wooden mallet. and would just bash it to the left, (laughter). bash it to the right, bash it forward, bash it backwards, and that is how they operated the tank. But it worked; the thing wouldn't break down. Well, I'll have to take that for inspiration. cause that sounds pretty foolproof, yeah? Yeah, yeah, please. (laughter). And this is, I'm gonna do a quick ad. Russian T-34 tank, helped defeat the Nazi invasion,
in 1942, 41-42, and turned the tide of World War II in my opinion. Get yours today. Yeah.
