David Letterman got back to his roots in Iowa over the weekend, looking for laughs by eating off the floor of a grocery store and cracking a can of soup right off the shelf as he “worked” as a clerk.
The bit was a promotional spot for the Hy-Vee grocery store chain, which sponsored the latest tour stop of IndyCar, for which Letterman owns a team.
“I spent a considerable amount of my life in a grocery store in Indianapolis,” Letterman tells a manager of the store. “And it was the last of the independent, singularly owned grocery stores. And I loved it, and if I can give something back to the marketing community, I would like to do that. But I don’t have all day, of course.”
Letterman then dons a store-clerk bib — thanks to the manager’s help, whom Letterman asks, “Can you get this for me? Just be a dear and tie that up,” before feigning injury and calling his new boss “captain.”
Letterman also cracks a can of cold soup right off the shelf and takes down a mouthful, before turning to one his two associate-helpers for the day and asking him if he’d like a swig himself.
“Whoa! Minestrone. Wow, that’s good,” Letterman says before passing it off to a less-than enthusiastic fellow clerk. “You want some? Go crazy.”
Not to be outdone by himself, Letterman then makes an even bolder food choice.
“This is Hy-Vee,” he said. “Any other grocery store, I wouldn’t eat stuff off the floor.”
Watch Dave’s antics in the full three-minute video at the top of this post.
