Despite the fact that he no longer hosts The Tonight Show, or even the Sorry, Conan, I’m on at 10 P.M. Now Show, Jay Leno still has his fair share of devoted fans. After all, he continues to tour the country doing stand-up shows, and hosts a YouTube show in which he test drives classic cars. Thankfully, no episodes have ended in a fiery wreck so far.
One of Leno’s fans, it seems, is Canadian mechanic Peter Solly, who owns an auto body shop in Windsor, Ontario. In his spare time, Solly is a sculptor. But instead of using typical materials like marble or clay or even human feces, he creates replicas of famous people and recognizable pop-culture characters exclusively using old car parts.
Some of his past subjects have included The Blues Brothers, Taylor Swift and SpongeBob SquarePants. And he’s been doing this for quite a while too, as evidenced by this 11-year-old interview with what appears to be the world’s only YouTube Dr. Evil impersonator.
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Impressively, Solly has crafted between 400 and 500 sculptures. And he’s putting them to good use, too, auctioning them off to benefit a local charity. His Freddie Mercury sculpture went for a whopping $23,000.
Recently Solly turned his artist’s eye to the former Tonight Show host. Appropriately, his Leno is all decked out in denim, complete with a “Jay Leno” belt, just in case there was any confusion as to whether or not he was supposed to be Leno or the Michelin Man’s sleep paralysis demon.
Leno is obviously a perfect choice for this highly unusual medium, thanks to his obsession with everything car-related. In an interview with CBC News, Solly claimed that he’d like to free up space in his shop, and is hoping to do that by sending the sculpture to Leno (the real one) as a gift. “I met him 30 years ago and I met him three months ago,” Solly explained. “We’re trying to get (the sculpture) shipped out to him. It’s a really good one.”
While it’s clearly not perfectly lifelike, auto part Leno may still be the best attempt at capturing his likeness. If you don’t believe us, please check out this Leno wax museum dummy that’s currently being sold on eBay for nearly three grand, and kind of looks like if Colin Farrell’s Penguin character ran in the Republican primaries.
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So the ball’s in your court Leno. Why not use some of that Tonight Show dough that’s been sitting in a bank account and arrange to ship the Leno sculpture to California?
Worst-case scenario: It takes up too much space in your garage. Best-case scenario: In the near future we’ll get some kind of Black Mirror-eque technology that will allow you to download your consciousness into your giant metal doppelganger.
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