Conan Unveils Bobblehead, Jumps Bratwurst Over State Street Bridge, Becomes Honorary Chicagoan

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 12, 2012 1:40PM

Conan O'Brien is in Chicago this week taping a week's worth of shows at the Chicago Theatre. It's the first time Team Coco is back in Our Town since his 2010 tour in his downtime between leaving NBC and joining TBS. And he's bringing out all the stops, apparently, playfully sending up Chicago cliches for a rapt audience. For example, O'Brien paid a visit to the Irish American Heritage Center in an attempt to connect with his Gaelic roots.

During yesterday's show O'Brien unveiled a 17-foot tall bobblehead of himself that he is donating as a piece of public art "until the cops tell us to take it away." Suggestions for where the bobblehead should be displayed are being taken on Twitter—hashtag #COCOBOBBLE—although we think something of this magnitude should go up in Pioneer Court, since it has a history with displaying trashy public art with the recently departed Marilyn Monroe statue.

O'Brien also became an honorary Chicagoan, courtesy of the camera-shy Mayor rahm Emanuel. "I just want you to know the whole concept of citizenship and residency is a touchy subject to me," Emanuel said, referencing his own residency issues during his mayoral campaign last year. (Conan, in fairness, got two questions wrong. First: it's always the Sears Tower. Second: the dirtiest sounding streets in Chicago are "Melvina, Paulina and Lunt," the punchline to the joke "What three Chicago streets rhyme with 'vagina?'")

In a scene reminiscent of The Blues Brothers, O'Brien and his crew launched a 10-foot bratwurst across the State Street Bridge. Team Coco will be launching a different object over the bridge all week.