The Waterboy Steps In

It’s not something much used on late night since David Letterman was out with heart surgery several years ago (or out for shingles in 2003).

But Adam Sandler strolled out Tuesday as a very last minute substitute host for Lettmerman’s “Late Show”

“Welcome to the show, this is very weird,” said Sandler, who was scheduled as a guest for the night but was quickly recruited to host instead when Letterman went home sick.

The staff apparently wrote him a quick monologue:

“I know what you’re thinking: ‘I had no idea Dave’s son got so big … and Jewish!”

"Of course you may remember me from “Saturday Night Live,’ he continued. “That is right: I am the great Jimmy Fallon.”

“Unfortunately, Dave isn’t here tonight,” he said turning serious for a moment. “It’s a little thing. We hope he’ll get better soon. He’s suffering from stomach flu. It’s a common side effect from Botox injections.”

“He told me not be shy about helping myself to anything,” he went on. “I think his hairpiece fits me pretty good.”

It seemed a shaky adjustment for him. He brought his dog in to interview first -- if only to practice.

"I've never interviewed anyone in my life," he confided. He left the dog to hang around, but his exchange with recruited guest Don Cheadle did degenerate into in-jokes about shooting the movie they are in the circuit to promote, "Reign Over Me." It got better when the two co-stars traded places and Cheadle took control. Eventually they actually sang "Endless Love" to one another.

Paul Shaffer, whose band played him on with Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” (get it?), helped mightily in his at desk exchange early in the show, prodding him for stories about his young kids and helping peddle the movie he’d continue to plug throughout the show.