An oft-retold bit of late-night lore has Zsa Zsa Gabor appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson with her pet cat. Lounging on Carson’s couch, Gabor is said to have asked if he’d like to pet her pussy. “I’d love to,” Carson allegedly replied, “but you’ll have to remove that damn cat.”
It’s a great story—but it never happened. No tape of the incident exists, and when contacted by the rumor quashers at Snopes.com way back in the 1990s, both Gabor and Carson issued denials. Other versions of the same tall tale involving Raquel Welch, Farrah Fawcett, and Ann-Margret have also been disproven.
That hasn’t stopped the story from circulating for decades—just as other too-good-to-be-true tales about late night continue to spread online.
Here are a few of the most persistent rumors that are as false as they are outlandish.
Barack Obama pressured NBC to fire Jay Leno
A sitting President calling for the removal of a late-night host? History has proven that it’s possible, but viral claims that Barack Obama urged NBC to fire Jay Leno in favor of agreeable Jimmy Fallon are not true.
In fact, Obama, who was the first sitting President to appear as a guest on The Tonight Show, playfully supported Leno on his way out. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, he taped a video farewell message for Leno’s going-away:
“Jay, you’ve made a whole lot of jokes about me over the years, but do not worry. I’m not upset. On a totally unrelated note, I’ve decided to make you my new ambassador to Antarctica.”
Not exactly the behavior of a president orchestrating a behind-the-scenes takedown.
A rattlesnake attacked Jimmy Kimmel on-air
This one gained traction because there’s video evidence—a clip appears to show a rattlesnake biting Jimmy Kimmel during a 2007 broadcast.
What viewers may not realize is that the “attack” was part of an elaborate bit. The episode turned into a full-on spoof, with Kimmel transported to the set of Grey’s Anatomy, where he was “treated” by the show’s cast and continued hosting from a hospital bed.
Which isn’t to say that all late-night animal bites have been fakes—David Letterman was once actually bit in the mouth by a dog during a “Stupid Pet Tricks” segment, but soldiered on through the segment.
Pete Hegseth stormed off The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
A viral video last year claimed Stephen Colbert had confronted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a tense, escalating interview that ended with Hegseth storming offstage.
The clip was entirely fabricated. Snopes identified it as “altered or synthetic content”, and YouTube ultimately removed it for violating its policies.
The biggest tell: Hegseth has never actually appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, although he has been a frequent target of Colbert’s barbs.
David Letterman delivered racist Top Ten lists
For years, chain emails circulated so-called “Top Ten” lists attributed to David Letterman that leaned heavily on racist or political humor.
Examples like “Why There Are No Black Drivers in NASCAR” bear little resemblance to Letterman’s voice or sensibility—and are complete fabrications.
The likely goal: give offensive jokes a layer of plausible deniability by attaching them to a trusted comedy brand. As Snopes notes, the implicit message is, “Don’t blame me—it’s Letterman.”
It wasn’t.
Donald Trump canceled Saturday Night Live
Shortly after Donald Trump first took office in 2017, social media lit up with news that he had signed an executive order cancelling Saturday Night Live.
Posts even included a link to an AP story that appeared to confirm the news, quoting Trump telling reporters that the show “mocks the very beliefs that keep this great country running smoothly. I’ve never found the show to be humorous and I don’t know how it stayed on the air as long as it did, but I made sure to put an end to that today.”
While Trump has indeed expressed contempt for the show—that is, when he wasn’t hosting it himself—he did not sign an executive order cancelling it.
The story originated as a work of satire (falsely attributed to the AP) on the web site the St George Gazette, and although it’s tempting to point out here that the President of the United States has no jurisdiction over the shows aired on television, some might argue that recent history would suggest otherwise.
Conan O’Brien was jailed over a college prank
Blame none other than Harvard Magazine for spreading this 2004 story that undergrad Conan O’Brien and his buddies once posed as construction workers and tore up a Boston street with stolen jackhammers.
The complicated hoax had O’Brien calling local cops to arrest the student pranksters, then contacting the state police to report that students dressed as local police were harassing construction workers. In the confusion, state officers squared off with local lawmen, earning O’Brien a night in jail.
Or not. The tale is just an urban legend, a version of an oft-told story of college frat guys posing as police officers. The 1998 Norm Macdonald comedy Dirty Work has an extended bit based on a similar scheme, which should have clued Harvard that the story was bogus.
Versions of the same legend have spread in Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the United States—they’re all equally false.
Late night may be built on punchlines—but its mythology runs on fiction.
“A sitting President calling for the removal of a late-night host? History has proven that it’s possible, but viral claims that Barack Obama urged NBC to fire Jay Leno in favor of agreeable Jimmy Fallon are not true.”
Uh, Trump
The Conan story also reminds me of ghostbusters 2 when they jack hammer the street to find the pink glob river.
It happened.
I came walking out of the bathroom just after he said it and my brother was about doubled over laughing.
It was the main topic of conversation on the school bus the next morning and at school.
Within a few weeks, she filed a law against Johnny Carson because the remarks then then withdrew the lawsuit that summer.
One of the biggest myths about late-night TV was that Leno replaced Carson as host of The Tonight Show because he was the best choice over Letterman, not because of the backstabbing and behind-the-scenes deals of Helen Kushnick, the slimy manager who represented him.
Oh, and I heard Carson say that to Zsa Zsa, so it was true regardless of what some network mouthpiece said almost 30 years after it happened.
“The best choice” is subjective. As it is, Leno had the top-rated late night show for virtually his entire run, so it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t. And I say this as a Letterman fan.
Does it?
The Johnny Carson one is the only one I’ve ever heard of.