Andy Richter rejoins Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show

The last few weeks of Late Night with Conan O'Brien was a trip down memory lane for old fans, which featured clips of many Conan's greatest moments interspersed with some of the strongest comedy bits and guests in its history. But for longtime fans it was a little bittersweet, as almost all of these were Conan alone, to the point where his chubby sidekick from the early days Andy Richter was edited out. On his final show, though, Conan's last non-musical guest was his old friend, and clips suddenly included some of the funniest bits with both of them.

Only four days after the show, NBC issued a press release announcing that Richter will be taking over as O'Brien's announcer for The Tonight Show. "Andy is one of the funniest people I know and we've maintained a close friendship since he left Late Night," O'Brien said in a statement. "We have a proven chemistry that will be an incredible asset to The Tonight Show. I'm looking forward to working with Andy on a daily basis again, particularly since he owes me $300."

It's a little bittersweet that O'Brien's old announcer, Joel Godard, won't be heading west with the rest of the show. It's possible, though, that the 70-year-old actor simply didn't wish to continue with the show, similar to the speculation surrounding the Max Weinberg 7 until last week's announcement that they'd be staying on.

For fans of Richter, which includes both huge comedy nerds and diehard O'Brien fans alike, this is great news considering how infrequently he's given suitable work. Since his departure, Richter has been mainly focused on television, starring in shows all over the quality spectrum from the sublime cult classic Andy Richter Controls the Universe to the fairly decent Andy Barker, P.I. to the aggressively horrible Quintuplets. He's also been in quite a few film and television guest roles, but rarely given a chance to really flex his comedy chops.

It's also good news for fans who came to Late Night after Richter's time, because it shows O'Brien's commitment to sticking to his wacky humor guns. Relive a few of the best Richter moments on Late Night below: