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David Letterman’s New Demon Santa Look Explained

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 09:20 PST, Apr 7, 2016

David Letterman popped out of retirement with a shocking new look just the other day. His new look, which featured a long grey beard (think Santa), a bald head, and a thicker frame struck the internet down, and it was one of the only things people on Twitter could talk about. David Letterman’s name trended for hours after the photos emerged of him jogging.

Now we have the reason for Letterman’s unkempt look. According to Letterman’s good friend and former band leader of the Late Night Show, Paul Shaffer, Letterman has been wanting to grow that beard for a long time.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Shaffer quipped, “It’s like a porcupine on his chin. It’s almost like another person. I mean the beard itself is like a separate person. That beard has been a long time in the making,. You don’t just grow a thing like that overnight.”

Shaffer continued to explain the origin of Letterman’s beard,

“The more people that try to talk him into shaving, the more resolute he is about keeping it. More power to him.”

As the Inquisitr reported, when the photos first started to circulate, pull quotes emerged from Letterman about how he plans to spend his retirement. It was all about growing his new grizzly look. At the time he told Whitefish Review that it was about time he stopped shaving, after he spent decades fashioning a clean cut look for late night television.

“You know what? I used to say, every day, ‘I am so sick and tired of shaving.’ I had to shave every day, every day, for 33 years,” he explained. “And even before that when I was working on local TV. And I just thought, the first thing I will do when I am not on TV is stop shaving.”

He continued, “Everybody hates it. My wife hates it. My son hates it, but it’s interesting. I’ve kind of developed a real creepy look with it that I’m sort of enjoying.”

That said, the internet seemed to love it. Here are a few responses his look received after photos surfaced:

The last we heard from Letterman, he took to the stage with comedians Martin Short and Steve Martin for “A Very Stupid Conversation Show.” This was the first time many people saw him publicly since he signed off of Late Night television.

Letterman of course couldn’t help but joke around in his signature dry comedy.

He addressed the audience by saying,

“I know you’re saying to yourselves, ‘Why is he here?’ By the way, I am so happy to be out of the house. I retired and… I had no regrets. None. I was happy. I’ll make actual friends. I was complacent, I was satisfied, I was content. And then a couple of days ago, Donald Trump said he was running for president. I have made the biggest mistake of my life, ladies and gentlemen, I tell you.”

What do you think of David Letterman’s retirement look? Should he give in and shave off the beard, or should he do what he wants?

[Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for SiriusXM]

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