Gritty gets even creepier after he's 'unmasked' on 'Conan'

It’s been nearly two weeks since the world was introduced to Gritty, the Philadelphia Flyers new, terrifying mascot. Coincidentally, it’s been nearly two weeks since I had a good night’s sleep, which is a trend I expect to continue after catching Gritty’s latest TV appearance.

The most meme-able mascot in history has been taking his act offline, making appearances on late night shows such as “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” On Wednesday night, it was Conan O’Brien’s turn to host the massively creepy muppet, and things got weird in a hurry.

The segment starts out all well and good, with Gritty receiving a loud ovation as he dances around and works the googley eyes. But things get downright disturbing when Gritty removes the mask to reveal the man behind the costume: a bearded Gary Busey stunt double that’s been killed by orange zombies.

Seriously. Check it out in the video below:

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Now, while it’s not all that apparent, this Gritty is reportedly a fake. A similar Gritty imposter made an appearance several days ago on “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver, but Jimmy Fallon apparently got the real deal for his show. Nevertheless, you likely didn’t assume Gritty could get any creepier, but here we are.

And I probably won’t be getting a good night’s sleep any time soon.

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