Our obsessive (and, quite frankly, exhausting) documentation of The Return of Late Night is finally complete with this clip of Conan O'Brien's monologue (click the thumbnail above to watch it), one that was easily the most successful of tonight's offerings. Not only did O'Brien express his unequivocal solidarity with his absent writers' cause (not a picketing-related gripe here, ahem) and give them much-deserved credit for the comedy miracle that is the Masturbating Bear, he debuted a Strike Beard even more impressive than Letterman's; whereas Dave's new facial hair broadcasts grizzled, "I choked a drifter to death just to watch him die" menace, Conan's—the first of his life, he claims—is all Rankin-and-Bass-inspired auburn magic.

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