The rich character history of the many side characters who’ve populated Conan O’Brien’s three late night programs works only because of the performers who brought them to life. Like Parks and Recreation‘s Amy Poehler, who can count herself as a member of this storied company. Yet one of its undeservedly unsung heroes is People of Earth‘s Brian Huskey, whom co-star Ana Gasteyer thinks is “unbelievable” — and rightly so. For as he and O’Brien recalled during Wednesday’s episode of Conan, it was Huskey who gave Star Wars fans the finger while dressed as Star Trek‘s Spock.
“I’ve known [Brian] for quite a long time because this gentleman started acting in bits on our Late Night show,” O’Brien told the audience. “One of the ones I remember the most is you played Spock in the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog bit, where Triumph goes to the Star Wars movie line and you gave all of these Star Wars fans the finger as Spock.”
Sure enough, a younger and beardless Huskey is the man who shows up to troll the Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones line queue towards the end of Triumph’s lengthy bit. The 48-year-old comic actor went on to recreate the moment for Conan‘s audience via “sense memory,” though he also had a bone to pick with his host about another character he played on Late Night.
“It was new characters, and it was ‘The Most Emasculated Man in the World,'” remembered Huskey. “I had to go out and shoot a free throw, miss, pull a toupee off of my head, reveal this crowning glory, and then I had to look to the camera and say, ‘I have a two-inch penis.'” Sounds funny enough, though as Huskey explained after running through the character’s jokes, the bit aired on Late Night the one time his family tuned in to see their pride and joy on national television.
