The Most FUNNY Animals On The Tonight Show ht

 

Hello, did you hear that?   He said hello.   The funniest comedy on The Tonight Show   came from unpredictable animals that   refused to follow any script. These are   the most funny animals on The Tonight   Show. The dog who sang to Carson. Ah,   now that is a very big rat.   No.   This is a bush dog.

 

 A bush dog? She was   sent to us from the West Berlin Zoo and   they received her from South America.   And they’re an endangered species and   they    Can you hear? Can you hear it? hunt in   packs.    Hey, do you talk?   You good girl, huh?   You good?    Aw.    Huh?    [crying]    Aw, she loves people.   A bush dog? They’re   not too commonly found in zoos.

 

 We’ve   raised   about   12 of them.   You want to hold her? She likes you to   hold her on her back and rub her belly.    Well, so do I.   Joan Embery hands the bush dog to Johnny   and he spontaneously starts serenading   it with ridiculous lyrics as though   performing a duet with a furry co-star.   The baby mountain lion.

 

   Is this a mountain lion?    It’s a mountain lion, puma, cougar, or   catamount. All names    That’s all the same family or all the   same animal. You can call it a puma, you   can call it a mountain lion.    But it’s all the same. Different names   for the same cat. Well, she’s   she’s staring over here.

 

 I Well, you   have a remote control, right?    Yeah, somebody told me about this. We’re   going to show you what happens because   they still, even though they haven’t   been trained to do this, right?    She now she was bottle raised, hand   raised by people. She has never hunted.   She’s never lived in the wild and I want   you to see that the behavior is   instinctive to hunt and if you bring out    They gave me this remote control device   and they’ll    mechanical rabbit If they’ll set it out   there.

 

  Now, if I move this   The lion gets lured into pouncing on a   toy using Carson’s remote control   creating a segment that balances cute   with threatening undertones. The cute   koala. Probably on commercials for   Qantas airline more than any other   thing, right? Right.    And that is a koala bear. Right.

 

 They   are koalas and they’re called bears but   actually they’re not a true bear.   They’re a marsupial or a pouch bearing   mammal.    Right. Isn’t that one of the most unique   faces you’ve ever seen in your life?    They have beautiful faces.    Yeah. Can you Can I   Look at that.   When you look at a close-up, you expect   it to talk.

 

 You know, you know, they’re   going to say something to you.   This hilarious Tonight Show set   transformed Carson’s sleek television   set into something resembling actual   wilderness in seconds. Oliver the baby   gorilla. Well, this is the real thing.   This is the baby gorilla?    This This is baby gorilla Jim. Was that   Look at that kiss here.

  We’re going to come in with a close-up.    [laughter]    He’s looking at you. He’s looking at me.   Yes.    could set him up here where he Hi, Jim.   How are you?   Jim’s 4 months old.   How are you, Jim?   He He was the biggest gorilla ever born   in captivity.   I know, it’s a drag, isn’t it, Jim?   He weighed 6 lb when he was born.

 

   Yeah.    [laughter]    Jim   Oliver captivates Johnny so completely   that Carson forgets he’s the host and   starts treating the baby gorilla like a   celebrity guest as the entire studio   falls in love. The tiny monkey that   refused to let go of Johnny. Not even   Booboo’s but another female   on the breeding loan.

 

   [applause]    He’s really cute. What At what age will   he be when he’s really difficult to   handle? It’s not going to be long, like   maybe tomorrow, the end of the week?    [laughter]    He only weighs about 8 or 10 lb. She   weighs about 10 lb.    I JUST SAID THAT.    [laughter]    AND IT’S A HANDFUL.

 

 I WANT TO PUT DOES   SHE EVER STOP MOVING? She’s fairly   active right now. She sleeps a good part   OF THE DAY.   THE MONKEY DECIDES Johnny belongs to it   creating clingy chaos as he has to keep   hosting while clearly losing control.   The laughing bird.    Hello, did you hear that?    hello. He said hello.    Nice way to START A CONVERSATION.

 

   [applause]    WHERE WERE YOU DURING THE MONOLOGUE?   I GOT    [applause]    WELL, 23 is good deal, Howard.    Howard, do a cat.   Howard, do a cat.   Do a cat.   Do a cat.   Do a cat, Howard.   The bird’s mechanical sounding chuckle   gets huge laughs from the crowd because   the timing feels deliberate even though   it’s completely random. The wild possum.

 

  They’re a little bit unpredictable. Let   me show you the teeth   Let me show you the teeth on this one.   Can you hand me that banana?   Put that banana by the mouth and let’s   see if it   Well, let’s see. Maybe I can    You’re right, they’re dumb.    [laughter]    The   Sometimes they’ll Sometimes they’ll open   their mouth with the with the   I don’t want to make the the possum   think that I’m trying to hurt it but    No, I don’t do that.

 

  Here we go, Johnny.    Yeah, oh, yes. Oh, look at those. Very   sharp, curved curved teeth.    Exactly. And they eat garbage, is that   about it?    That’s right and meat. Uh   This Carson appearance features possums   sharing the stage with a vulture and   tigers making for the most bizarre   animal assortment in Tonight Show   history. The singing dog follies.

 

            [applause]    Dogs on a stage late night spectacle are   already a laugh as the fun comes from   how uneven and unpredictable the whole   performance becomes while Carson   presents the nonsense with total formal   seriousness making the silliness feel   even bigger through contrast.

 

 Beazer the   lonely parakeet.   Everything in good taste on this show.    Yes, always. Some teeth The The Beazer   dinner roll relationship. You’ll have to   watch the monitor.   For example, when Beazer first met the   dinner roll    [clears throat]    she was seeing another man and he   thought she was way too seedy.   That’s right.

 

  But there was something fresh about her   and Beazer sent her a touching poem.   Though I am but a bird and you are but a   roll, smearing you with Land O Lakes is   now my fondest goal.   We thought this was going to be better.   The setup is weirdly specific right from   the title as a lonely parakeet already   sounds like a Tonight Show problem   waiting to happen creating immediate   comedic potential before anything even   occurs. The distracted dog.

 

   just tried, you know, just a few simple    Yes. If you come out here and say hi   Donnie over there. Hi Donnie. Come.   Come. Come. Come on, Donnie.   Come.   Sit.   Sit. Sit down.   Sit. Sit.   Good dog. That’s a good dog. Slow motion   film. Speed up film. That’s a good dog.   That’s nice. Stay.    [laughter]    Stay.

  Come Donnie. Come.   Come Donnie. Donnie, come.   This moment turned legendary because a   distracted dog is often funnier than a   perfectly trained one showing. Carson   was always strongest when an animal gave   him something imperfect to play off   creating genuine unscripted moments. A   snake gets comfy with Carson.

 

 This is   right.    [applause]    It’s a heavy snake. What does he weigh,   about 50, 60 lb?    She weighs about Yeah, SHE WEIGHS ABOUT    [cheering]   [applause]   [applause]   [applause]    IF ONLY IN REAL LIFE.   This one is funny because Johnny   instantly adopts that extra careful   overly polite tone he always used around   snakes while trying desperately to stay   composed as the animal clearly has more   control of the moment than he does.

 

 The   baby squirrel monkey.   They are more closely associated to   humans in their blood type. They feel   they’re the only member of the great ape   family which could receive a blood   transfusion from a human.    [laughter]    When they become excited, their hair   will stand up all up their back.   And they are very dependent for about 4   years of their life.

 

   Aw.   What a face. Looks like he ran right   into a door.   Joan Embery’s archive description says   the baby squirrel monkey hugs a paint   roller and eats mealworms during the   appearance showing the perfect mix of   cute and genuinely ridiculous that made   these moments work. With David Brenner   guest hosting the bit gets a slightly   different late night rhythm than a   standard Johnny clip creating fresh   dynamic for regular viewers familiar   with Carson’s style.

 

 The monkey sounds   like the kind of tiny animal that   instantly takes over the room making it   feel perfectly in line with the funniest   Tonight Show animal spots. Affects   animal segments in subtle ways. Joan   Embery brings a cougar. This is also   from the Los Angeles Zoo. That is an   absolutely beautiful animal.    an animal that beautiful? That is a   beautiful animal.

 

   And the feet, this is developed for   living in the high very very high   altitudes in the Himalayas and   northern Afghanistan, Pakistan.    the size of the paws.    And the paws are just like snowshoes.   That’s a snow leopard. They live in the   high mountains of the Himalayas. That’s   right.

 

 And these you say are    therefore Yes.   You say these are    want it to sort of go at my throat right   here in front of   Aren’t they rather nervous?   I should    Listen, this one   I    Look at that face on that animal.   Streaming listings for this episode   identify Joan Embery bringing a baby   gorilla tiger cougar and a 13-foot   python creating the most diverse   dangerous lineup imaginable for late   night television.

 

 The cougar sits right   between elegant and dangerous making   that dual nature excellent fuel for   Carson’s nervous reactions throughout   the segment. A cougar on Carson works   because it’s simultaneously beautiful   and genuinely threatening creating   perfect tension that comedy thrives on.   The mix of baby animals and full-grown   predators creates varied energy keeping   the segment unpredictable throughout as   audiences never know what’s coming next.

 

  The cougar probably moves with graceful   power across the desk area making   everyone acutely aware of contained   danger. Johnny maintains careful   distance while appearing casual to the   camera demonstrating his professional   composure under pressure. The episode   took place in 1974 showing these risky   segments performed consistently   throughout Carson’s entire run not just   early years when standards were looser.

 

  Embery’s zoological expertise allows   riskier animal appearances that other   handlers couldn’t safely manage on live   television with millions watching. The   cougar likely prowls the desk area   exploring freely while Johnny tracks its   movements carefully without appearing   panicked.

 

 Carson’s nervousness shows   despite professional composure as his   eyes never leave the predator for more   than a second. The elegant movements   contrast sharply with underlying danger   creating beautiful but tense visuals   that keeps audiences engaged. The   audience reacts with nervous laughter   throughout unable to fully relax despite   Embery’s calm assurances that everything   is safe.

 

 The cougar’s presence changes   the entire studio atmosphere making   everyone hyper aware of the wild animal   among them. Johnny probably cracks jokes   to mask legitimate concern using humor   as a defense mechanism against fear. The   segment balances educational content   with pure entertainment as Embery   explains cougar behavior while   demonstrating it live.

 

 The python   mention suggests multiple dangerous   animals appeared in the same episode   creating escalating stakes throughout   the show. Tonight Show bird callers get   the tickets out a little earlier and   that just didn’t work because the   demands are exponential. Each time we   get down here there more tickets that   they want.

 

 So what I decided to do is I   established a committee and took it   completely out of my hands and the   tickets are handled through the   committee. That’s the smartest thing you   ever did. Get it out of your hands. This   [snorts] is animal adjacent rather than   actual animal guest but it still fits   the same Tonight Show oddball lane   perfectly showing Carson’s impressive   range across different content    types.

 

 The comedy comes from people   bringing bird behavior and bird sounds   into a polished late night format and   treating it like a serious legitimate   act deserving professional respect and   analysis. Carson was always especially   funny with that kind of offbeat   specialty guest knowing instinctively   how to let the strangeness breathe   instead of stepping on it with forced   commentary or condescension.

 

 The segment   lands because it’s clearly related to   animal content while being clearly   different and not repeated anywhere else   in Tonight Show history. The bird   callers probably perform various species   with surprising accuracy demonstrating   genuine talent in this bizarre   specialized skill. Johnny interviews   them with straight-faced seriousness   asking about their training methods and   competitive circuit as though this were   a major sport.

 

 The studio audience   doesn’t know how to react initially   caught between appreciation for the   skill and bewilderment at the concept.   The teenagers take their unusual talent   completely seriously treating it like   varsity athletics or a debate team with   the same competitive intensity. Carson   lets awkward silences develop    naturally understanding that dead air   can be funnier than constant commentary   filling every gap.

 

 The bird sounds fill   the polished studio bizarrely creating   surreal juxtaposition with the glamorous   set designed for celebrities. The   segment works because it’s too specific   to fake requiring real skill from these   students who clearly practiced   extensively. Johnny probably requests   particular birds creating interaction   and demonstrating his genuine curiosity   about the craft rather than mocking it.

 

  The performers demonstrate techniques   explaining their methodology with   earnest detail that makes it funnier   through their complete sincerity. The   wholesome earnestness makes it funnier   somehow as there’s no irony or   self-awareness in their presentation   just pure dedication. Animal chaos on   The Tonight Show taught everyone   watching that live television’s greatest   gift wasn’t perfection but rather those   unrehearsable moments when a host had to   choose between following the script and   following a cougar across the desk while   pretending everything was fine. Johnny   Carson built his legend not by   controlling every second but by   embracing the beautiful disaster of a   parakeet ignoring him or a monkey   deciding his shoulder was home showing   that comedy’s best moments happen when   nobody including the host knows what’s   coming next. Which animal moment on The   Tonight Show do you think was the   funniest? Let us know in the comments   and don’t forget to subscribe for more   funny Tonight Show moments.