America's favorite late night lanky, ginger, comic stick-insect, Conan O'Brien, (click here for the clean shaven version) showed up on TV screens nationawide all hairy and beary … and having to improve as Late Night went back on the air with no writing staff. We'll let Grizzly O'Brien explain the new choice himself: "Let's talk for a minute about the situation we find ourselves in,"

O'Brien riffed last night, "As you know, two months ago the Writers Guild of America went out on strike and we took our show…off the air in support of the writers. "This has been a tough time not only for our show, but for a lot of people in the entertainment industry. Good people right now are out of work.

And possibly worse, with all the late-night shows off the air, Americans have been forced to read books and occasionally even speak to one another, which has been horrifying." "Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to start by talking about my beard," Conan The Hair-barian continued.

"That's right, I know this looks fake. It looks like it ties on in the back, but believe it or not, I actually grew a beard. Two birds, one stone.

Now there was a blip in 2006 when beards were featured in New York Fashion Week for about a half a dozen designers showing menswear (particualrly Ralph Lauren and John Bartlett.)

That is, however, two years ago. Do Conan ... and that late night Ur-Conan David Letterman (who also re-emerged on his show last night fully bearded) signal a new trend in facial hair. Here's Conan rocking the beard. Literally.