David Letterman Returns To Late Night On ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ To Pick A Bone With Conan’s Horse Story

David Letterman will take the stage at the Kennedy Center this weekend to receive the 20th annual Mark Twain Prize and to celebrate, the former Late Show host stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live in Brooklyn. And while Sunday will be a special day for Letterman, Wednesday was definitely special for Kimmel. The host tearfully shared his love for Letterman during the legendary late night fixture’s retirement and will help honor him at the Kennedy Center, but just the look on his face was enough to sell the moment as important.

For Letterman, it seemed like it was just natural for him to be on stage in front the audience. It makes the anticipation for his Netflix series that much greater. But it was also a moment for The Late Show host to address Conan O’Brien and his horse story that took over Stephen Colbert’s interview that aired on Friday. As Conan shared, the horse was a gift from Letterman and it seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. Nobody could ride it and it was apparently “crazy,” leading the host to send it to a horse massage center to let people train on it. It was great, it left Colbert without much to do, and it seemed like that was the end.

But then David Letterman shows how it is done, using his chat with Jimmy Kimmel to talk about the gifts he sent out during his retirement — a box of ties for Kimmel — and address Conan’s complaints about the horse. It isn’t clear what’s real and what’s a joke, but that’s the beauty of Letterman and this horse. He says Conan wasn’t supposed to actually keep the horse and he hoped it would be used for a bit, poo on Conan’s stage, and then get returned back to its home. That did not happen and as we saw on Colbert, Conan has been complaining.

It’s either a great, expansive inside joke across late night television shows or Conan truly has a crazy horse getting massages now while Letterman is laughing in retirement. He also makes one mention of Jimmy Fallon, but it is disappointing he didn’t call him Lonnie Donegan again.

The rest of the interview covers some of Letterman’s plans for his Netflix show, how he thinks Netflix operates, Paul Shaffer’s “new band,” and his beard compared to Kimmel’s. He also asks if Kimmel is thinking about leaving his show at some point, with 15 years under his belt. Letterman won’t admit that he misses the job himself, but does note that Kimmel is right where he wants to be with his career.

It’s a satisfying chat that likely has no point other than getting David Letterman back on television. And really, that’s enough to make it worth it.

(Via Jimmy Kimmel Live)