The Most SHOCKING Animal Moments On The Tonight Show ht

 

There you are. All right. They’re not dangerous, are they? Well, they have very sharp teeth. No, the question she had was The Tonight Show brought exotic animals on set for decades expecting controlled entertainment until rare moments like when sharks lunged at Carson. >> [laughter] >> These are the most shocking animal moments on The Tonight Show.

Young tigers scare Carson. It wasn’t typical for handlers to bring something as crazy as a tiger making this Tonight Show episode get one of the highest ratings among other animal segments. A parrot completely takes over Johnny’s interview. Say hi. Say hi. Hi. Good. Good. Okay, that’s one thing. >> say that a little softer? Hi.

Now we’re talking. Now we’re talking. Like all the singers do before they sing, well, sometimes they like to warm up. Can you warm UP FOR US? WARM UP. >> [screaming] >> THIS WHOLE SEGMENT IS FRAMED around the bird hijacking the exchange giving it much sharper identity than simple talking bird appearance.

Leopard shark gets out of hand. A leopard shark and leopard sharks are very common in San Francisco and sharks are well, you’ve heard of the rock. You couldn’t get [snorts] off the rock because of sharks. You’ve heard of Tiburon so-called because of this kind of shark. And there are probably more sharks in San Francisco Bay than any other kind of fish.

Is this a dangerous kind of shark? Sure. You want to deal with the business end. I brought with me some slides and film to tell you about some research that I’ve been doing. >> [laughter] >> Shark went right for Ed. That shark knows where a meal is. Just Just when you thought it was safe to do The Tonight Show. A leopard shark is already unusual enough to make conversation interesting before anything goes wrong.

A wild turkey vulture goes crazy. And what I’d like to do If you’ll stand here >> move. No, if you’ll come over here Right. Take the small piece of meat. Small piece of meat and hide the rest of me. Hide the rest of me. Ed, do you want to sit on that? >> [laughter] [applause] >> What do I just hold it up here on my fingertips? Yeah, there’s one thing you got to do though.

You got to hold it hold it out in front of you. You got to hold it higher and higher than your head. That’s right. Very good. Now I’m going to try something that >> [applause] >> A man and his bird. Out of all the exotic wild animals Jim Fowler brought on The Tonight Show stage, long time viewers say this one takes the cake.

Baboon in red diaper climbing onto Johnny’s desk. >> in the world is actually worshipped. And that’s right. Come here. Come on, boy. That’s right. He’s worshipped as a an ancestor to human beings. Hey, give me that one. >> [cheering] >> How long have you had him under control, Jim? No, I want to wonder what he’s Just a little hands gesture, he’s perfectly relaxed there. I meant to have that.

How you doing? Try to take that away from him. >> What? Just say you’re going to take it away from him. I’d like the banana. Just tell him you want the banana. >> I want the banana. Okay, I don’t want it. >> No, give me the banana. Give it here. Give it here. Come on. Give me the banana. Give me the banana.

>> [laughter] >> This is This is This is called Doc? Doc, come here. It’s called Doc. A baboon already brings rough disruptive energy and adding the red diaper makes the whole thing even stranger as the second it gets onto Johnny’s desk, the show’s normal boundaries are completely gone creating chaos nobody anticipated or knew how to handle.

Baby Jim the gorilla returns. He’s been playing with all the toys we put in there for you. Has he been on the show before? He has. This is baby Jim who is now 14 months old and part of our gorilla breeding program at the Wild Animal Park. Hi, Jim. Hi. I remember once on the show. Was that the one I was sitting with at the desk? He was about three, I think three months old.

>> But but is that Can we show the slide? Did somebody say we had a slide of one of his on the show? That’s when he was three months old. Remember that show? That’s when he was just a little toddler. Now he’s Look at him. I couldn’t do that now, could I? Well Hi, Jim. I’m just >> No, he’s been biting a lot.

This return is special as there’s already a relationship or memory attached to the animal because baby Jim had already made an appearance twice on The Tonight Show making the segment feel more specific than a first time novelty appearance. Johnny recalled years later, baby gorillas work especially well because they seem sweet and slightly overpowering at the same time.

Sharon Johansen’s crazy sheep dogs. >> [music] >> How are you, Sharon? Aren’t they great dogs? That’s a That’s a beautiful pair of dogs. What’s really What uh What kind of What kind of doggies are those? >> [laughter] >> Sheep dogs bring discipline in motion instead of just shock value making a good sheep dog act feel impressive while still leaving room for little bits of disorder on a talk show stage.

The camel circus. Oh, can I help you? Yeah, you might offer Winston a bottle. Winston? There. Winston? Tilt it up so he can GET THE MILK. OH, THAT’S GREAT. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. OKAY, YES. YES. THIS IS A THIS IS A TIGER? A gibbon, a cheetah and a camel don’t belong in the same mental picture which [music] is exactly why the segment sounds memorable making that kind of mismatch great for Carson and his show.

The porcupine and badger dual appearance. It’s very hard to tell. I think >> [laughter] >> Well, when you’re that ugly it doesn’t make any difference. These are Are you a male or female? Who cares? I love you. These are nocturnal. They live in burrows. They breed at night and they also >> Oh, there’s my coffee cup.

They breed They breed underground too. It’s a different thing altogether. Well, you wouldn’t want to see them in the daylight. Let me show you a couple Now listen, he’s very powerful. I was One of the worst times most dangerous situations I’ve ever been in was I was chasing an aardvark one night and I was trying to catch it.

Were you Were you lonely, Jim, or what? The trio feels more volatile than cute as a porcupine, a badger and a cheetah each bring very different kinds of discomfort to the set giving the segment a sharper edge than a lot of softer animal visits everyone remembers from the show’s long history. It gets lonely in the jungle, folks.

Well, I it was pretty late at night [laughter] when we went. We all have our little hangouts. We didn’t catch it. We We ran into a group of lions instead. But these are like bulldozers and they actually disappear in the ground faster than you can pull them out. >> I think you’re going to try to demonstrate Feel the strength they have.

Let’s walk over to the sandbox over here. And Does he got a name? Uh this one I think is called after the zoo it was born in, Miss Tacoma. >> Miss Tacoma? Boy, I don’t want I don’t want to see the runner-up if this is the winner. Johnny usually gets good material when the audience can feel that none of these creatures belong anywhere near a desk and couch arrangement that defines late night television’s normal boundaries and expectations.

The baby nilgai antelope with ostriches. And they’re nilgai? >> Nilgai. They’re the largest antelope from India. >> [laughter] >> But that’s the next animal That’s the yak grunting. I’ve never heard of them before. They’re They’re really beautiful animals. Anybody ever heard of a nil nil nilgai? Nilgai. This one’s hungry so it’s trying to nurse off my finger.

What do you normally uh these are antelope? Right. They’ll get quite large. They’ll be over 300 lb when they’re full grown and the male and female are very different colors. They’re also known as a blue bull because the male gets quite blue. It It What’s wrong with there? Are they hungry or what? This one is.

This one’s trying to nurse. I think they’ve been fed but actually The animal mix is odd in a very Carson way as a baby nilgai gives the segment that gentle unfamiliar quality where the audience is still figuring out what they’re looking at while the ostriches change the tone completely by introducing unpredictable movement that makes everything feel unstable.

For the love of heavens, come on over and sit down. These are all baby animals tonight, right? All babies. Oops, it’s been a very productive year at the zoo. Obviously, those are ostriches. >> Here, you can have one to hold. Really? Oh, come on. They’re really >> know. I’m not I’m not good with animals. They they always go right for the >> [laughter] >> Okay, you just pick them up by the body.

They can’t fly. They’re a flightless type of bird. Joan, when they get uh grown, aren’t they Don’t they become very tough? >> [applause] >> THE OSTRICHES ALWAYS MAKE A SPACE FEEL less stable the second they arrive as that difference in scale and energy is what gives the appearance a real shape rather than a simple zoo visit that audiences forget within days.

Johnny is at his best when the set starts to feel like it belongs to animals with no interest in show business rules, making this combination perfect for the chaos that naturally develops. A baby antelope alone might be charming, but adding ostriches makes the whole thing much stranger and more visually restless, creating memorable television that stands out from typical animal segments.

The nilgai stayed relatively calm while the ostriches provided all the chaotic movement that made the segment impossible to predict as Joan Embery tried explaining biological facts about both species, but the ostriches made education nearly impossible through constant distraction. Hula loves Carson.

Only dogs can run. You can’t run sheep. >> He thought it was a sheep. They haven’t seen before uh poodles. They’ve only seen huskies. Why did you decide to use poodles? Well, I wanted to give the breed its chance and the most effective way was to run uh poodles, which they said that uh they would never complete the race not this century or in the next century. Yeah.

So, the most effective way to break the uh name on that’s placed on the poodle is to do something like uh mushing a sled dogs. My father-in-law had a >> to give him a macho image, huh? Yeah, I give every underdog his day. Yeah. This is a great last pick because the premise is funny before the clip even starts as poodles [music] and the Iditarod don’t belong together in most people’s minds, which is exactly why the segment has such a strong hook that immediately grabs attention and holds it. Carson’s material works best when the audience can feel the absurdity instantly and this concept delivers that in one simple phrase, making [music] it memorable long after the episode aired. The comedy comes from the clash between elegant groomed image and brutal wilderness event as Johnny would naturally have endless material to work with because the contrast writes itself without requiring much setup. The poodles looked absurd in their mushing harnesses designed for stocky thick-furred huskies built specifically for Arctic endurance racing as the owner

had to explain repeatedly that poodles are actually athletic capable dogs despite their fancy reputation. You have to train them and aren’t the huskies specially trained though to pull sleds and Absolutely. Huskies are born and bred to do this for centuries and now they’re getting into the super dog area, but they’re they have a little computer chip in their brain that says go.

And so there isn’t all that much training to do with a husky, but any dog non-Arctic northern breed, a dog that’s not a husky type dog, um that dog must be educated and must be taught to run and so How do you educate him in the cold? I mean, the huskies I understand, but don’t they freeze their little paws off? >> [laughter] >> Johnny made jokes about the poodles demanding heated rest stops or refusing to continue without proper grooming facilities while the segment included photographs or video footage of the actual race showing perfectly groomed poodles running through snow and ice. The audience struggled to reconcile the image of prissy show dogs with the brutal 1,000-mile Iditarod race conditions known for taking out unprepared teams as Carson asked whether the poodles required special protective gear beyond what traditional sled dogs use. The owner defended the breed’s athletic capabilities while acknowledging how ridiculous the whole premise sounded to skeptics as the poodles brought to the studio looked

nothing like working sled dogs, creating immediate visual humor. Johnny referenced famous Iditarod champions, highlighting the absurd difference between malamutes and standard poodles in build and temperament while the segment generated controversy among both poodle enthusiasts who felt misunderstood and Iditarod purists who considered it disrespectful.

Ed McMahon contributed jokes about pampered dogs demanding room service after each leg of the race as the story raised legitimate questions about why someone would attempt this brutal challenge with a breed never designed for it. Carson asked how veteran mushers reacted to seeing perfectly coiffed poodles at the official starting line in Alaska while the poodles demonstrated some obedience skills on set, though nothing remotely resembling actual sled pulling.

The segment became legendary precisely because it challenged fundamental assumptions about both the elegant poodle breed and the notoriously difficult Iditarod, simultaneously creating cognitive dissonance that made it unforgettable. The Tonight Show’s most shocking animal moments came not from perfectly controlled demonstrations, but from the beautiful [music] chaos that erupted when wild creatures refused to follow the script, reminding viewers that no amount of television professionalism could fully tame nature’s unpredictability. Johnny Carson’s genius was rolling with these disasters rather than trying to stop them, showing that sometimes the greatest television happens when animals ignore entirely what they’re supposed to do. Which shocking and crazy Tonight Show animal moment do you think was the wildest? Tell everyone in the comments down below and please don’t forget to subscribe to see more classic Johnny Carson animal moments.