Leno: Story Behind Super Bowl Commercial

On Monday night, Jay Leno told the story behind the Super Bowl commercial he did with David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey.

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Transcript

JAY LENO: I want to tell you a story about this commercial, how this all came to be. I'm sitting in my office. Rob Burnett, Dave's producer, calls my producer, Debbie, and says, 'Hey, Dave has an idea for a Super Bowl commercial.'

So-- 'All right. What is it?'

He tells me the idea, and this was Dave's idea, and I thought that's great. Because, you know, no matter what animosity there is among comedians, a good joke is a good joke. And I thought, you know, it just makes it all go away.

So they said we have to do this in complete secrecy. So I fly to New York. I tell my staff we have to do some personal business or something. I have a mustache. I have all this, disguises on, you know. And I get to New York. I have all this mustache, and all this stuff, and I pull up in front of Dave's studio. We're in a black SUV, all the security. We sneak in. Even Dave's staff-- nobody knows anything about this.

We shoot the commercial. Well, I walk in. I see Dave. He puts his hand out, and I shake hands. You know, whatever happened for the last 18 years disappeared. It was great to see my old friend again.

(Applause)

It was wonderful. He was very gracious. We talked about the old days, and we told some jokes. And, you know, it was really, it was really good to see him.

So we shoot the commercial with Oprah and everything. Then I put my disguise on. We sneak back. I come back here. Nobody knows. Next day, NBC executive comes to see me: 'Jay, we have a problem.'

I say, 'What is it?'

'Last night, I got word Dave Letterman shot some kind of secret show.'

I said, 'What happened?'

'Well, what happened was, that we know, a black SUV pulled up. There was security. A hooded figure, there was a thing over his head, came in the side of the building. They had massive security. Nobody...'

'Who do you think it was?'

'We think it was President Obama.'

(Applause, laughter)

So I said, 'President Obama did a commercial for Dave?'

'We think that's what it is. Yeah.'

I said, 'OK. Well look, keep me posted.'

So every day last week I would call, 'Anymore news? Anymore news?'

So, it was great fun. They got a bit of surprise from it as well. But I just want to thank Dave for making me a part of his promo. Glad to promote his show. When I did his show in the 80s, I promoted it every night of the week. And it was fun to do it again. So, Dave, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Some wars never end.

Some do.