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David Letterman Explains Why He Sent Conan O'Brien A Horse In Charming Kimmel Interview
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 18, 2017
Modified Oct 18, 2017
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 18, 2017
Modified Oct 18, 2017
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David Letterman paused from grooming his impressively fluffy beard and reemerge on late night television yesterday, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as part of the program's Brooklyn week. Letterman was his usual rascally self, at turns self-deprecating ("I'll tell you something, you're looking at a man who is laughing on the outside, crying on the inside"), lacerating ("I have nothing but the highest regard for all the talk show men and women, even Jimmy Fallon") and philosophical about how he's changed in the two years since he left Late Show.
"I am a bit of a different person," Letterman explained. "And I mean, thank God. Because the great struggle in life is to be better each and every day, and if you take a look around the horizon of humanity, my God, is there anything we can do big or small to make the life of just one person a little bit better, and that's no small accomplishment."
While he revealed almost nothing about his upcoming Netflix talk show (the only thing he'd say is that Howard Stern would likely be a guest), he did go into great detail about that time he sent Conan O'Brien a horse as a "fucking show business gift."
He said he sent the horse to O'Brien—"who is like some sort of god on Mt. Olympus, he runs around telling people he went to Harvard"—as a prank. "It was a joke: Take a dump on the stage, load him up, send him back," Letterman said. "Conan will not shut up about the horse. The horse has gone crazy. Maybe it's from being around Conan all day...So now he's complaining, there may be litigation, and maybe I'll get a call from PETA." The "unrideable" horse even broke into Conan's mansion and "one of Conan's servants was kicked in the head."
O'Brien talked about the horse on Late Show with Stephen Colbert recently:
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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