Conan O'Brien Says Final Farewell to His TBS Series 'Conan' After 11 Seasons: 'Try and Do What You Love'

On Thursday, the comedian and television host, 58, bid farewell to his hosting duties on his self-titled TBS showConanafter 11 seasons, leaving behind some words of wisdom at episode’s end.

“My advice to anyone watching right now — and it’s not easy to do, it’s not easy to do, but try; try and do what you love with people you love,” O’Brien said. “If you can manage that, it’s the definition of heaven on Earth.”

Of course, there were a lot of laughs before that for O’Brien, who has been hostingConansince 2010.

“It’s hard to say, it’s our final show on TBS,” theSaturday Night Livevet said, at the top of his monologue. “I’ve done over 4,000 hours of television in my life. And every night, I always said, ‘tonight we have a really great show.’ And I have to tell you, I was often lying.”

“But tonight — tonight wereallydo have a great show,” he promised the audience. “And if we don’t, what are you gonna do about it? Yeah, I’ll be long gone.”

“Thank you very much,” O’Brien said, trying to hush the crowd before joking, “please, really, it’s getting creepy.”

Conan O’Brien.tbs

Guests Thursday night includedWill FerrellandJack Black.

During Ferrell’s appearance — which was held over Zoom, the comedian joining virtually from Boston — theSNLvet wished O’Brien “all the best '' as he embarks on the next chapter of his career. (O’Brien will behosting a weekly variety show for HBO Maxstarting later this year).

“I’m truly excited to see what comes next,” Ferrell said, before joking that it’s been “exhausting” appearing on all of O’Brien’s show’s final episodes.

Ferrell then took a crack at preemptively congratulating O’Brien on his HBO Max show.

“Hey, Conan! Congratulations on an outstanding run on your HBO Max show. People will say six episodes isn’t a lot, but you packed enough entertainment in them for eight episodes,” he teased.

Later in the show, Black shared that his first-ever late night appearance was on one of O’Brien’s shows.

“I was scared as hell,” Black recalled. “I was petrified, I’d never been in front of a late night audience before, and you were so smart and funny and kind. It was the best way to like, enter the late night television world, and I will always feel a special connection with you and worship you.”

Listen below toour daily podcast PEOPLE Every Dayfor more on Jack Black’s tribute to Conan O’Brien on the final episode ofConan.

Black then gave a shout out to Richter, adding, “I have to say, Andy is the most incredible sidekick of all time.”

“Yes he is,” O’Brien chimed in, leading the audience in a round of applause for Richter.

Jack Black.tbs

Jack Black, Conan O’Brien.tbs

As O’Brien wrapped up the show, he thanked Richter again.

“When I found Andy Richter, he’s one of the funniest people that I ever met,” he said. “And I put him next to me, and Andy — I never said to Andy, you know, give me room, you can’t get the laugh, I’ve got to get the laugh. The rule was always, if you think of the funniest thing, just say it, and that’ll get us out and you did it 100,000 times.”

“He’s a brilliant man, and I love him forever, Andy Richter,” O’Brien continued, the crowd then erupting into chants of “Andy! Andy! Andy!”

Other final thank-yous were given to the producers, executives, and writers O’Brien’s worked with throughout his past 11 seasons _ including Lorne Michaels, Lisa Kudrow and his wife, Liza.

NBC / Courtesy Everett Collection

Paul Drinkwater/Nbc Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Prior toConan, O’Brien hostedLate Night with Conan O’Brienon NBC from 1993 to 2009.

In 2009, he was recruited to take over forJay LenoonThe Tonight Show,but left after just one year, saying in a statement at the time that he could not “participate in what I honestly believe is [The Tonight Show’s] destruction.“Jimmy Fallontook over and has remained on air ever since.

In 2010, O’Brien joined TBS withConan. He’s since hosted more than 1,400 episodes of the show.

source: people.com