It was only a few days ago that Conan viewers got to find out what comedian Artie Lange has done with his tongue, and now The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus stopped by to talk about his own mildly notorious tongue etiquette, which involves licking people’s faces. Note to self: keep an eye out for an upcoming Gene Simmons appearance.
Reedus, who is dressed in the opposite of anything Daryl Dixon would don, explained to Conan O’Brien how his licking fascination originated.
It started ‘cause I started licking my castmates and Denise Huth, who’s one of our producers. And then she would be like, ‘Don’t lick me!’ And it became a thing. And then I went to London and I took a bunch of selfies with monuments and stuff where I was licking monuments, or Charlie Chaplin guys on the street or whatever. And then it became an Urban Dictionary thing.
This is seriously the most amazingly blasé explanation that I’ve ever heard for such random behavior, and that’s obviously the only way that it should happen. If he had some sincerely deep and meaningful explanation – perhaps starting with, “Well, you know who Pythagoras was, right, Conan?” – then I don’t think I’d know how to deal with the world around me anymore.
And for anyone who thought that the Urban Dictionary line was in some way false or that the audience member’s T-shirt was balderdash, think again.
His taste bud placement on others’ faces has become so commonplace, Reedus tells Conan that some fathers will ask him to lick their daughters’ faces. Slapping a signature on someone’s upper boob is one thing, but the germ displacement in that case is minimal. Still, being able to say Norman Reedus licked your face is a good ice breaker.
Check out those stories, and one involving an overzealous fan with a horse mask, in the full Conan clip below.
Oddly enough, this isn’t even the strangest one-on-one that O’Brien has had with a star from The Walking Dead recently, as he and Steven “Glenn” Yeun went to a Korean spa together and got into all forms of scantily-clad activities. No licking was involved, however.
Reedus better not start licking people’s faces in The Walking Dead’s new location Alexandria, because those new people might go nuts on him. If they aren’t too weak, that is.
