Conan Back on “Tonight” After Concussion
“Tonight Show” host jokes about head bump
By DANIEL MACHT
Updated 3:16 AM PDT, Tue, Sep 29, 2009
Conan O’Brien returned to the airwaves Monday after suffering a light concussion during taping last week -- and joked that if his audience was lucky he’d bang his head again.
In a transcript released by NBC, the “Tonight Show” host explained that he struck his head so hard "that for five seconds I actually understood the plot of 'Lost.'"
O'Brien and guest Teri Hatcher were in a footrace when he tumbled, forcing Friday's show to be halted. He was taken to a hospital for examination, and a "Tonight" rerun aired instead of the planned episode.
"Last thing I remember was enjoying the play with Mrs. Lincoln, and the next thing I knew I was in bed being served cookies in juice," O'Brien said in a statement after the incident.
In his monologue Monday, O'Brien joked that he gotten so much media attention that he's planning a sequel with one of Hatcher's "Desperate Housewives" co-stars.
"So tune in tomorrow when Eva Longoria pushes me down an elevator shaft," O'Brien quipped.
Before showing clips from Friday, O'Brien suggested parents "wake up your children because this is a cautionary tale."
The race between him and Hatcher was to end at the studio with the two rushing down stairs to the finish line. His memory was fuzzy, O'Brien said Monday, but he thinks he was trying to slide on a slick floor when he lost his footing.
"Why don't we show people what happened. Set your VCR to record, and your friends can all laugh watching this later," he said before the tape rolled. "'His pumpkin really got pounded' — that's my father talking."
O'Brien took over as "Tonight" host in June, after Jay Leno's 17 years on the job. Leno is host of a new daily prime-time comedy show for NBC.
Fellow late night host Jimmy Fallon weighed-in on O'Brien's return during his monologue, which follows "Tonight."
"Apparently that thing on his head is not a protective helmet…it’s his hair," Fallon joked.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Los Angeles
First Published: Sep 28, 2009 8:55 PM PDT
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