With all the recent commotion in the world of late-night television (Jimmy Kimmel moving to 11:35, Jon Stewart taking a hiatus, rumors about Fallon replacing Leno, Leno making lame jokes about his employers, etc.), I fear we all may be losing sight of something very important: One time Burt Reynolds appeared on The Tonight Show in a brown leather suit and sprayed whipped cream down the front of Johnny Carson’s pants. He really did. There’s video of it and everything. I posted it below.
Here are my favorite parts of this clip, in no particular order:
– The fact that Johnny silently plays along with the gag as Burt Reynolds cackles like a hyena on nitrous.
– The little dance Burt Reynolds does at the 0:24 mark after spraying Johnny in the face.
– The fact that Burt Reynolds apparently decided at some point that day that he would (a) wear a brown leather suit on national television, (b) brandish a spray can of whipped cream, and (c) grab the wheel and yoink the entire production over the guardrail and into a terrific ravine.
– The fact that The Tonight Show used to be cool.
– Seriously, that suit.