Conan O'Brien "May Soon be Available for Children's Parties"
Jan. 13 2010, Published 6:01 a.m. ET
Only hours after releasing a statement that he'd rather leave NBC than move The Tonight Show to midnight, Conan O'Brien continued his on-air attacks against NBC for their decision to give Jay Leno back his 11:35 p.m. slot after canceling his 10pm prime time show.
Stepping out onto the Tonight Show stage to rousing applause, Conan asked the audience to stop clapping because, "I may not have that much time."
The redheaded host, who has only been at the helm of the late-night talk show introduced himself by saying, "My name is Conan O'Brien and I may soon be available for children's parties," and "Welcome to NBC, where are slogan is 'No longer just screwing up prime time.' "
A wistful Conan recalled his childhood: "I remember watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and thinking, 'Someday, I'm gonna host that show... for seven months.' "
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Conan's announcer and co-host Andy Richter chimed in that the late-night turmoil has "been the most fun I've ever had in a showbiz scandal."
He also got a little help from friend Howie Mandel, who came onstage to play a version of his Deal or No Deal game show with Conan.
With six numbered suitcases — each with different options of what Conan should do next — to choose from, Conan blindly selected case #6. Here's what was in the others:
#1 Join cast of next Twilight movie as rare albino werewolf
#2 Move to Animal Planet, eat bugs off Andy's belly
#3 Gay neighbor on untitled Ed Asner project
#4 Move to Fox, but Seth McFarlane does my voice
#5 Star of a new infomercial about my super-absorbent hair, "the Cone Wow"
And finally, here's what was in Conan's case:
#6 Two tickets to see Jay Leno perform stand-up at the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas