“[David Bowie] was on our show several times over the years, and the man was always outstanding,” said O’Brien as he introduced the tribute on his current late night show on TBS. “People are remembering today what a phenomenal musician David Bowie was and of course that was the case. He was mind-blowing talented, but in my experience, he was always an incredibly nice person, he was fun, he was always funny.”
Perhaps the most memorable sketch involved a slideshow O’Brien made depicting Bowie’s personas, both real and imagined. He began with real ones like Ziggy Stardust and The Thin White Duke, then progressed onto some that were actually larger than real life. “There was the ‘suave hunchback.’ There was the ‘bucktooth wizard’… And then this was strange here: your ‘corn on the cob’ period,” joked the host in the old Late Show clip.
In other montages, we see the Late Night host asking Bowie to sing a song he wrote, Bowie telling an entirely fake story about drinking with Elvis, and O’Brien asking if he sings nursery rhymes to his child in ‘that David Bowie style.’
“No, but I could, couldn’t I,” responds Bowie before singing a few phrases of Hickory Dickory Dock in his sultry, iconic voice.
Jimmy Fallon also honored Bowie on the Tonight Show last night, mentioning that he would sometimes exchange jokes with the singer over email. “Great artist, one-of-a-kind singer, songwriter, actor, fashion icon, mad genius who also had one of the greatest senses of humor of anyone I’ve ever met,” said Fallon of the iconic musician.
