Intel's USB Rock Star Was an Actor

Conan O'Brein discovers that Ajay Bhatt wasn't in the Intel commercial, so he makes his own.

The wild and wooly Conan O'Brien of the Tonight Show recently conducted an interview with Intel's Ajay Bhatt. Conan said the interview sparked after discovering that Bhatt doesn't portray himself in the Intel "rock star" ad: the one where he struts his stuff through the office, bathing in a wash of approbation from his fellow co-workers. He's the man, he's a walking legend, but that's not really Bhatt walking the catwalk.

After a brief introduction, Conan starts his interview with the USB co-inventor; Bhatt isn't wearing a toupee, nor is he sporting a hefty mustache. They go over a brief history roughly based on Bhatt's Wikipedia page: how Bhatt approached Intel with the idea, PCI Express, Platform Power Management architecture, and more. "It also says you play Woody on Cheers," Conan added matter of factly.

"That is not true," Bhatt said with a smirk.

Conan then breaks into the FireWire versus USB "cat fight," asking Bhatt if--walking down the street wearing his in solid gold shoes--he would be kind if the FireWire inventor was kneeling naked on the street, begging for bread. The interview moves into how USB was created, and then what was has changed society more: the invention of the USB, or Conan's interview with Rebecca Romijn in 1998.

All in all, Conan never did find out why Bhatt didn't play himself in the Intel commercial, but that's ok: Conan printed an "I co-invented the USB port," and created his own commercial starring the real Ajay Bhatt that definitely outdoes the original. Head to NBC and check out the full interview here.