Mine that Bird on Conan Wearing Mink Snuggie for $4.8 Million

In Conan O'Brien's continuing efforts to spend as much money as he can before leaving The Tonight Show, he had a new special guest on his show on Thursday evening. The guest was 2009 Kentucky Derby Winner Mine That Bird.

Mine That Bird was wearing a mink Snuggie, and was set up in front of a television playing restricted NFL Super Bowl footage. Conan's estimated price tag for the skit: $4.8 million.

How he came up with the figure is anybody's guess at this point, but it's certainly a first in the television world. How he, Andy Richter and the writers came up with the idea to put the 2009 Kentucky Derby winning horse Mine That Bird on stage wearing a huge mink Snuggie and watching restricted NFL Super Bowl footage is also anybody's guess.

This one-ups the Conan Buggati Veyron mouse skit that aired the night before, where he put some big rubber ears and whiskers on the $1.5 million super car and called it a new character for the show.

On the penultimate The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, besides 2009 Kentucky Derby Winner Mine That Bird there were also several other guests. Robin Williams and Barry Manilow had scheduled appearances, and Ben Stiller and Pee Wee Herman made surprise cameos.

Stiller showed a collection of his favorite The Tonight Show moments, which was simply a series of clips from his last time on the show. Williams, for his part, took part in a raucous interview segment in which among other memorable moments he mock flashed the audience, suggested Conan should host a show in Italy with naked women wearing nipple tassels and sang an Irish folk song he worked up directed at the NBC execs including the catch phrase, "F*ck the bastards who can't take a joke!"

The final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien airs on Friday night, January 22, 2010. Jay Leno is slated to reassume hosting responsibilities for The Tonight Show in March, after the natural buffer provided by the Winter Olympics. It was alluded to on Thursday night's show that as a part of Conan's settlement deal, he won't be able to be on television hosting his own show again until the following September.

For the last episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien you can be sure there will be some crazy antics. Will Ferrell and Tom Hanks are slated to appear, and there will certainly be some surprises and expensive new characters and bits along the way as well. Will it outdo 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird wearing a mink Snuggie and watching restricted NFL Super Bowl footage for $4.8 million? We'll just have to wait and see.

Source: Live Footage of "The Tonight Show" with Conan O'Brien January 21, 2010