Conan Buys An Octopus To Save Him From Being Eaten
"How does one eat this?" Conan O'Brien asked his translator while holding up a small octopus at a fish market in South Korea.
The late night TV host was visiting the country for a special episode of Conan, and he stopped by the Noryangjin Fish Market, a famous seafood bazaar in Seoul.
"I'm gonna buy this as a pet," said Conan, to which the market's owner responded with a disapproving wave of her hands. "What's her business? She doesn't care what I do with it," he replied. "He's going to live with me and my family, and his name is Samuel."
O'Brien purchased the octopus, found a slightly larger home than the plastic bag and later shared a toast with the animal to celebrate their newfound friendship.
As fun as taking Samuel home would be, O'Brien discovered that he would be violating several laws, as he noted in the show's segment.
So instead of sneaking the octopus in his luggage and risking confiscation, O'Brien decided to donate Samuel to the COEX Aquarium in Seoul, where he learned that Samuel was actually a girl.
"I took a one-dollar octopus from a fish market," O'Brien said in the segment. "And [I] brought it to an aquarium where thousands and thousands of dollars will be spent to care for it."
"I've ruined another country," he concluded.
Samuel and O'Brien's friendship even inspired artwork on Instagram, with one illustrator replacing O'Brien's iconic wavy hair with Samuel's tentacles.