A Sudden Entrance and a Wild Setup
That evening, as Frank Sinatra sat down for an intimate conversation with Johnny Carson, out came Don Rickles — uninvited but always welcome. With his signature bravado and razor-sharp timing, Rickles turned the table on Sinatra immediately.
“I just want to say, Frank, I worship you,” Rickles said earnestly before taking a comedic turn. “Since I was a kid, I used to whisper into girls’ ears with your records playing — you were singing, and I was getting nowhere!”
Sinatra laughed, the crowd erupted, and Rickles, never missing a beat, kept going: “I just can’t picture you on your wedding night standing in the bedroom going, ‘And did it my… way…’”
The audience was in stitches, but Sinatra was only getting warmed up.
The Prank of a Lifetime
Carson, smiling at the chemistry between the two men, leaned in. “Frank, didn’t you have a story about Don?”
And Frank told it — calmly, but with that iconic twinkle in his eye.
“I was eating at a restaurant in New York,” he began. “Don walks over and says, ‘Frank, I’m on a date with a beautiful girl, and I told her I know you, but she doesn’t believe me. Can you stop by our table and say hi?’”
Sinatra agreed. After finishing his espresso, he walked over and gently tapped Rickles on the shoulder.
“Hey Don, nice to see you,” Sinatra said.
Rickles looked up without hesitation and snapped, “Not now, Frank! Can’t you see I’m eating?”
The room burst into uncontrollable laughter. Carson leaned back, nearly in tears. Sinatra stood there stunned, and then burst out laughing too.
A Bond of Respect and Laughter
Behind the jokes was something deeper: mutual respect. Rickles and Sinatra, though different in style and delivery, shared a decades-long friendship rooted in loyalty, wit, and love for performance.
To pull a prank like that on “The Chairman of the Board” — and get away with it — you had to be more than funny. You had to be fearless. Rickles was both.
The Legacy of a Moment
In an age of perfectly curated appearances and scripted interviews, the spontaneous brilliance of that Carson moment reminds us why Rickles and Sinatra are legends. Not just for their talents, but for their authenticity.
A joke, a setup, a punchline — and a friendship sealed forever in late-night history.
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