Conan O’Brien Tells Howard Stern About the Time He Pranked Bill Cosby

Matt WilsteinFeb 25th, 2015, 12:50 pm
 

Conan O’Brien was first major late night host to make a joke about the rape allegations against Bill Cosby, but apparently the two comedians have a long history together. On Wednesday, he sat down for an extended interview with Howard Stern and while he was there, he recounted the bizarre story of how he tricked Cosby into thinking he was winning a major award when he was president of the Harvard Lampoon.

“Serial rape aside,” O’Brien wanted to meet Cosby when he was a 19-year-old Harvard student, so he and his friends invented an award that didn’t exist and actually got the comedy legend to come receive it.

Instead of hiring a limo, O’Brien decided to pick Cosby up at the Boston airport, where he had landed in a private plane, using his father’s beat-up station wagon. Somehow, O’Brien got a tuxedoed Cosby to get in the back seat. Once they got to Harvard, the group presented him with a “slightly altered” bowling trophy made to look like Harvard Lampoon’s first Lifetime Achievement in Comedy Award.

Photos of the big moment still exist, O’Brien said, as one fan demonstrated on Twitter:

Listen to audio below, via SiriusXM’s Howard 100:

[Photos via Comedy Central]

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