Regis Philbin’s death on Saturday caused an outpouring of memories and stories from people about his life in entertainment. But the best one wasn’t a classic clip from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or Live With Regis And Kelly, but an appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman. Several people on Twitter shared a moment from 2009 when Philbin dressed up as the animated character Shrek in full green makeup and prosthetics on his head, apparently appearing as a surprise to Letterman on air.
One popular Millionaire clip that did surface was one of the most baller game show moments of all time, which deserves to be shared here as well.
But the clip of Philbin as Shrek truly brings down the house. It was shared multiple times by different people, and all of them saw wide circulation online.
here’s the clip i’ve been obsessed with for four years, when regis philbin went on letterman in full shrek costume pic.twitter.com/PKg2s6jYfI
— 𝘋𝘈𝘙𝘊𝘐𝘌 𝘞𝘐𝘓𝘋𝘌𝘙 (@333333333433333) July 25, 2020
The segment is nothing short of hilarious, with Letterman and Philbin immediately at odds with each other. The show’s host looks extremely amused, but is trying to hide it. Philbin thinks he’s wasted his time getting ready and keeping it a secret, getting annoying as Letterman plays with his fake ears.
“Are you playing with my horn?” Philbin asks. Letterman is clearly selling it hard, but it’s significantly funnier if he seems nonplussed, which he pulls off here perfectly. As the video circulated social media in various forms, Letterman himself tweeted about Philbin and his many appearances on his show.
Regis is in the same category as Carson. Superlative. He was on our show a million times, always the best guest we ever had, charming, lovable and could take a punch. When he retired I lost interest in television. I love him.
— Letterman (@Letterman) July 25, 2020
Another popular clip that was shared was Katie Nolan and the Crowd Goes Wild crew making Regis compose his first tweet.
RIP Legend @regis pic.twitter.com/CB4D3FoXm5
— katienolangifs (@katienolangifs) July 25, 2020
It was a gem.
Vote for Regis!!! Is that okay?
— Regis Philbin (@regis) December 16, 2013
Philbin clearly impacted a lot of people with his work in television, and it was a lovely coda on his life as a performer to have such a wonderfully weird moment get shared by so many.