The following is a list of sketches from the NBC late night talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The sketches feature host Jimmy Fallon, house band The Roots, and several of the show's writers; also, some feature celebrity cameos.
Every Tuesday on the show, Jimmy weighs the pros and cons of a topic that's currently in the news, with the pros being the setups and the cons being the punchlines. (e.g. Pro: With Tiger competing, this year's Masters promises to be the most exciting golf tournament ever. Con: That being said, it's still golf.) Special editions of the skit include: "The reissue of the Rolling Stones' album Exile on Main St.", in which Jimmy was joined via satellite by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts; one in which the topic was "The New NFL Season", where Jimmy was joined by Justin Tuck of the New York Giants; and "The NFL Playoffs" with New York Jets placekicker Nick Folk.
Every Thursday (formerly Wednesday) on the show, Jimmy reads off viewer comments from a topic for discussion he started the night before on Twitter. Topics have included "My parents are weird", "Why don't they make that?", "Beach fail", and "Aww hell no!"
Every Friday on the show, Jimmy writes thank you notes. He claims that Friday is the day he catches up on "personal stuff" like checking his inbox, returning e-mails, and writing his weekly thank you notes. He explains that he is running behind and asks the audience if they wouldn't mind if he took time out of the show to write them, and asks James Poyser to play some accompanying music (a mellow piano riff). The notes are sarcastic in tone and involve current events, people in the news, or things that annoy Jimmy (e.g. "Thank you, pony tails, for turning the backs of girls' heads into horses' butts.").
The sketch airs on Thursday during the week of Thanksgiving in deference to the holiday.
Jimmy also wrote out a special Winter Olympics-themed set of thank you notes during NBC's prime-time Olympic coverage on February 26, 2010 (a Friday); anchor Bob Costas "played" the usual thank you note-writing music (by pretending to play along on a keyboard while a pre-recorded track of the music played in the background).
It was announced on January 31, 2011 that Fallon had signed a book deal to publish entries from the series as two books, the first of which, Thank You Notes, was released May 23, 2011.[1][2] The sequel, Thank You Notes 2, is scheduled to be released May 22, 2012.[3] The new book also has a limited edition which has a sound chip that plays the "Thank You Notes" theme music.
On Thursdays, Jimmy showed a few short viral video clips from recent TV shows and YouTube, then asked Questlove to create a short remix combining parts of all the videos. This sketch has seemingly been retired.
[edit] 7th Floor West
A parody of the MTV series The Hills, documenting Jimmy's arrival to Late Night and his initial struggles in the beginning of the show, such as whether to wear a red tie or a blue tie on his premiere episode.[4] Season 1 of the series dealt with Jimmy's passive-aggressive power struggle with Miles, Late Night's head writer. Future Saturday Night Live cast member Jenny Slate appeared as Jimmy's assistant who betrayed his trust by collaborating with Miles. New installments premiered every Monday during the summer of 2009, and have a storyline focused on continuity, much as The Hills does.
Season 2 finds Miles, having moved to the costume department in the season 1 finale, unhappy with his new role and wishing he was back among the writing staff. As revenge, he dresses Jimmy in ridiculous clothes in order to make Jimmy look like an idiot. During the season, Jimmy and Miles both run for the position of fire warden of the floor. In the series finale, Jimmy and Miles decide to end their silly feud and be friends again, Jimmy gives Miles his job in the writing department back, and they appointed fire-safety enthusiast Questlove to be fire warden.
- "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" (aired March 5, 2009)
- "What's Done is Done" (aired March 19, 2009)
- "It's Come to This" (aired April 13, 2009)
- "That is So Not O.K." (aired June 1, 2009)
- "Jimmy, I'm Jenny" (aired June 8, 2009)
- "He's Got A Lot of Nerve" (aired June 15, 2009)
- "I'm So Over This" (aired June 22, 2009)
- "Watch Your Back, Man" (aired July 13, 2009)
- "I Know What You Did" (aired July 20, 2009)
- "OK, Here's The Deal…" (aired July 27, 2009)
- "It's Already Done" (aired August 3, 2009)
- "Not So Fast…" (aired August 10, 2009)
- "The Past is the Past" (aired June 24, 2010)
- "It Can Only Be One of You" (aired July 27, 2010)
- "It's Time" (aired August 12, 2010)
- "That's A Wrap" (aired September 27, 2010)
[edit] Real Housewives of Late Night
Real Housewives of Late Night is a recurring parody of the various The Real Housewives of... reality shows with 5 cast members playing the roles of their fictional "wives". The cast includes Late Night host Jimmy Fallon as power-mad Denise, announcer Steve Higgins as gravel-voiced chain smoker Lydia, Roots bassist Owen Biddle as perpetually-drunk Renee, head writer A.D. Miles as uptight Dale (who is usually accompanied by her son Caleb, who is allergic to all food other than a special paste), and 'director' (in reality, writer) Bashir Salahuddin as always-hungry Yvonne. Each segment continues from the last in an over-arching story similar to 7th Floor West. The plot revolves around alliances and over-the-top rivalries between the characters resulting in exaggerated responses by the characters.[5] Today Show's Fourth Hour hosts Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb appeared on the set of their show during one episode.
When the show was in Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI, the housewives met up with some of the "wives" of the Indianapolis Colts players, including Dallas Clark's wife Sherry, Pierre Garçon's wife Noelle, Antoine Bethea's wife Daris, Robert Mathis's wife Shay-Shay, and Dan Orlovsky's wife Marianne. During the episode, Denise inadvertently started a fight with the Colts wives when she congratulated the Colts on making the Super Bowl, and was informed they were actually the league's worst team that season, with their 2-14 record.
- "Thick as Thieves" (aired September 14, 2009)
- "Surprise!" (aired October 1, 2009)
- "Let's Get Physical" (aired October 15, 2009)
- "The Renovation" (aired November 5, 2009)
- "Giving Thanks" (aired November 20, 2009)
- "What a Difference 'Today' Makes" (aired December 10, 2009)
- "The Gift" (aired December 23, 2009)
- Bonus footage from the first six episodes aired December 22, 2009
- "We're Back" (aired February 24, 2011)
- "Glamour Photo Shoot" (aired April 7, 2011)
- "Real Housewives of Late Night in Indianapolis" (aired February 2, 2012)
Named after Late Night's location at 30 Rock, Studio 6B, 6-Bee is a parody of the FOX series Glee. After Jimmy goes to an NBC accountant (played by Fred Armisen) to request money for cue cards, he is turned down because the $375 they would cost is too expensive. However, Jimmy discovers that the first place prize money for glee club sectionals (a flyer for which is conveniently posted in the hallway outside Studio 6B across from a row of lockers) is $380, so he decides to gather the Late Night crew - including A. D. Miles, Paula Pell, Bashir Salahuddin, and Abby Elliott from SNL - together to compete. As practice, they sing the Bon Jovi song "Livin' on a Prayer".
Later, Jimmy and the Late Night squad discover that the cast of the NBC show Parks and Recreation (including Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, and Chris Pratt) will also be competing in sectionals - and Parks & Rec has recruited The Roots to be in their squad. Jimmy is so frustrated by the Roots' defection that he sings the Twisted Sister song "We're Not Gonna Take It" (which, eventually, both squads join in on).
Episode 2 of 6-Bee won an Emmy in the category "Outstanding Short Form Picture Editing" at the 2010 Primetime Creative Arts Emmys.[6][7]
- Episode 1 (aired February 1, 2010)
- Episode 2 (aired April 8, 2010)
Late is a parody of the ABC series Lost. It deals with the twelve survivors of an elevator crash on the day of the very first show of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. After the crash, the twelve are trapped on a mysterious abandoned floor in the 30 Rock building.
- "Where Are We?" (aired February 12, 2010)
- "Not Alone" (aired March 1, 2010)
- "Who Are You?" (aired March 16, 2010)
- "My Hairiest Adventure" (aired March 30, 2010)
- "Carlton" (aired April 28, 2010)
- "We Can Do This" (aired May 11, 2010)
- "And Here He Is…" (aired May 20, 2010)
[edit] Suckers
Suckers is a musical parody of several vampire shows and movies (the Twilight films, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, etc.). In the first episode, a new writer at Late Night, Angelique (Kate Simses), discovers that several of the show's writers, including Jimmy, Bashir Salahuddin, and Morgan Murphy, are secretly vampires, and is herself "turned" by Miles.
- Episode 1 (aired November 8, 2010)
[edit] Jersey Floor
Jersey Floor is parody of the MTV series Jersey Shore. It takes place on a floor in the 30 Rock building that, in addition to being a regular office floor, has a social scene filled with hot tubs, tanning, gyms and lots of partying. The floor is accessed by a special elevator that "Jersey-fies" its riders when the "Jersey Floor" button is pressed. It features Jimmy "J-Bro" Fallon, Steve "The Inflation" Higgins, Josh "DJ Josh" Meyers, Abby "Lovebug" Elliott, A.D. "Miles" Miles, Bashir "B-Hole" Salahuddin, and Rachel "Drootchie" Dratch. Episode 2 featured guest stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Episode 3 featured cameos from many members of the Jersey Shore cast, including Snooki, JWoww, Sammi Sweetheart, Deena Nicole, Ronnie, and Vinny, who were de-Jerseyfied (appearing in more conservative clothes and hairstyles) when they went back to the regular floor with their analogues, then decided they didn't like it and went back to the Jersey Floor.
- Episode 1 (aired March 2, 2011)
- Episode 2 (aired May 5, 2011)
- Episode 3 (aired September 21, 2011)
[edit] Downton Sixbey
Downton Sixbey is a parody of the ITV series Downton Abbey. When the Earl of Downton Sixbey (Jimmy) receives word that the current heir to Downton Sixbey, Carson Daly, is missing following a hot-air ballooning accident, a distant nephew (Questlove) receives word that he is to become the new heir.
- Episode 1 (aired Thursday, April 12, 2012)
- Episode 2 (aired Thursday, May 24, 2012)
The show's longest running musical skit, Jimmy joins his house band, The Roots, to serenade the audience on a topic of current newsworthy significance in the style of a slow jam. More recently, whenever the sketch has aired, NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams (or, as Jimmy calls him, "Brilliams" or "Bri Will" or "Bri Will.I.Ams") has joined Jimmy in slow jams. The following have been topics of a Slow Jam:
Jimmy and men from the show's staff plus one of the guests from that night's episode will perform the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? theme as Rockapella, except they will only sing rhythm and not vocals.
Jimmy is the frontman of a punk band similar to the Ramones called The Vanilla Wombats. Each of the band members dresses in black, with a black cape, dark sunglasses, and a platinum blonde wig. Their songs include "My Upstairs Neighbors Are Having Sex (And Listening To The Black Eyed Peas)" and "I've Finally Accepted The Fact That I Wear Size 36 Jeans".
Jimmy has performed original songs such as "I'm Gettin' Drunk on Christmas", "I'm Goin' Huntin' for Cougars", one about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill called "[Tar] Balls in Your Mouth" (which Jimmy later revealed on the October 31, 2011 episode of Conan was his first choice for the name of his Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor "Late Night Snack"), "The Ballad of Steven Slater", "Gonna Eat That Talkin' Sandwich: The Sarah Palin Song", "The Ballad of Anthony Weiner" (which repeatedly used the term "sucks, Weiner"), and "Walk of Shame" (accompanied by Dave Matthews). While Jimmy is singing, oftentimes some people wearing yellow tracksuits and sunglasses (usually including Seth Herzog and Mike Dicenzo, one of them without pants), as well as the Product Placement Preacher start dancing behind him. Jake Gyllenhaal joined in once as one of the Banana Boyz.
In 2010, country singer John Rich joined Jimmy for a duet of "I'm Gettin' Drunk on Christmas" which was later released on iTunes and became one of their most popular Christmas songs of the year.
On September 8, 2011, Eddie Vedder joined Jimmy for a duet of "Balls in Your Mouth".
Jimmy has announced a CD of the songs performed on the show called "Blow Your Pants Off" will be released on June 12, 2012. The album cover shows a bottomless Jimmy laying down, but he says a stunt butt was used.
Jimmy has solicited song titles from the audience, asking them to send him titles of songs for him to sing via Twitter; he picks the one he likes the best (e.g. "Black Thought's Favorite Dinosaurs" and "I Love Your Elbows") and performs a song with that title on the next night's show.
Jimmy impersonates singer Neil Young and sings a song. To date, he has sung the theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, "Pants on the Ground" by "General" Larry Platt, an original song based on the "Double Rainbow" Internet meme, Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" and LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" (duets with Bruce Springsteen), and Miley Cyrus's "Party in the U.S.A." (with David Crosby and Graham Nash, in a partial "reunion" of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young).
Jimmy, Higgins, Tariq and Seth Herzog appeared as a boy band called The Miner 69ers, whose members were some of the rescued Chilean miners, and performed a song called "There's Nothing Finer Than Sex With a Miner".
On little celebrated holidays such as Election Day and Groundhog Day, The Roots' Captain Kirk Douglas performs a sex ballad called "I'm Gonna Make Sweet, Sweet Love to You Woman on (holiday here)", filled with double entendres and sexual innuendos.
Jimmy performed the Charles in Charge theme song as Bob Dylan. It was shown in black and white as a parody of I'm Not There.
After a cloud of smoke obscures the camera, Jimmy, the Roots, and some of the show's African-American writers (including Bashir Salahuddin) don dashikis and sing about snack foods (such as Hot Pockets or Ben & Jerry's) in the style of African choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They once sang about Six Flags amusement parks as "Ladysmith Theme Park Mombazo".
The Ben & Jerry's version of the sketch began the show's relationship with that company, which ultimately led to the release of the show's official flavor, "Late Night Snack".[12]
Jimmy as Eddie Vedder performed a parody of the Pearl Jam song "Jeremy" about basketball phenom Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks.
Jimmy dresses in an amalgam of Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie's costume, the face makeup from the cover of the Bowie album Aladdin Sane, and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow's uniform and sings a song about events in Tebow's life to the tune of a Bowie song.
The first song (titled "Tebowie") was released as a 7" vinyl record as a 2012 Record Store Day exclusive. (The B side was a cover of the Reading Rainbow theme song sung in the style of The Doors.)
Jimmy and Steve Higgins play fight commentators Brock Leonard and "The Professor" Barry Star on NBC's "sister network", the (fictitious) Steel Channel (a parody of Spike). The fight (or as Steel Channel calls them "Stache Bash" with a number and unique name for each one) takes place in an octagonal cage similar to that used for UFC bouts, with actual UFC referee and a bikini clad ring girl. Competitors thus far include the mustaches of Wilford Brimley, Geraldo Rivera, Gene Shalit, John Stossel, Carlos Santana, "'80s Larry Bird", "'70s Burt Reynolds", "'80s Tom Selleck", "'80s John Oates", Dr. Phil, Albert Einstein, and Lionel Richie (with run-ins by "'70s David Crosby" (covered in a white powder), what was originally thought to be Charlie Chaplin's mustache that turned out to actually be the mustache of Adolf Hitler, "'80s Dr. J", "'80s Larry Bird" and "The Masked Mustache" (wearing a luchador-style mask, whose identity was revealed during the Detective Jam Face ad)). The most recent bout was Herman Cain vs. Super Mario with run-ins by Wilford Brimley and Luigi. (The mustache costumes are normally approximately six feet wide and completely cover the head and arms of the people inside them.) During the fight, a digital on-screen graphic advertising a new program on the Steel Channel - usually Detective Jam Face (played by A.D. Miles), but also once Mustaches on Ice (a Christmas special featuring the UMF competitors performing ice skating routines) - interrupts, covering the entire screen for a few seconds. When the ad goes away, we return to find the fight is over, with Brock and Barry proclaiming the finish a history-making event and the finishing move something they've never seen before.
Another program on the Steel Channel ("from the creators of Ultimate Mustache Fighter") is Kicking Stuff, where a man named Jonathan (Bobby Tisdale) takes ordinary objects, places them on top of an overturned orange bucket, and then kicks them off. After kicking the object, he points at the camera and yells "Kicking stuff!"
After showing some footage from the show, Jimmy brings out Jonathan and has him kick something live in studio.
The Steel Channel's sports report, somewhat of a parody of SportsCenter. Jimmy and Higgins play "extreme" anchors Cory van Funk and Bert Donovan, respectively. The report consists of a few segments: "Check Out This Dude", where they make fun of pictures of athletes; "Point / Counterpunch", where one anchor (usually Donovan) makes an argument and the other (usually van Funk) responds by punching him in the face; and "Making Terrible Things Happen With Our Minds", where video clips are intercut with close-ups of the anchors' faces concentrating, and then the person in the clip has an accident. In a recent version, Chris Kattan appeared as a depressed skateboarding teenager who reviews monster truck shows; when the hosts got him to open up about what was bothering him (beliefs he is unloved by his father), they cut him off and finished the skit. The sketch ends with the anchors blowing on an animal horn to summon the "T-shirt yeti", who comes out and throws T-shirts into the audience.
[edit] Bothered with Robert Pattinson
In this segment, Jimmy presents videos from a website (http://RobertIsBothered.com) that Robert Pattinson has set up to discuss things that bother him. Jimmy stars as Pattinson in character as Edward Cullen from the Twilight films. Throughout the segment he sits in a tree and talks about what bothers him, all from the perspective of Pattinson. Also making an appearance is a blow-up doll representing Kristen Stewart. Things bothering Robert include Daniel Radcliffe (a competing video shows Radcliffe - also played by Fallon - is bothered by Pattinson), Shark Week, Snickers ads in magazines, Halloween costumes and candy, the novel New Moon and vampires in general, Valentine's Day, the iPad, and the World Cup. On March 1, 2010, celebrating Jimmy's first year of hosting, the real Pattinson came on to promote the film Remember Me. During the sketch, he interrupted Jimmy, saying "I don't talk like that!" Jimmy then asked Robert how that made him feel, eventually getting him to say "bothered!"
[edit] Reflections with Justin Bieber
Jimmy as Justin Bieber will sit by a reflecting pool and discuss topics that are on his mind. He will begin by talking about his own life (his appearance on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, his new position as host of Punk'd), but then start rambling on about more serious topics, such as John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, the subprime mortgage crisis, his fears that China's economy will overtake that of the United States, and the debate over human cloning. It also shows him dancing, eating snacks, and receiving phone calls from other celebrities such as President Obama, Chuck Norris, and Alan Greenspan. (The real Bieber joined Jimmy-as-Bieber during the dance segments on the installment which aired the day before the release of Bieber's movie Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.) At the end the segment, Bieber leaves in a magical fashion, such as walking on water, opening a wormhole, or transforming himself into golden retriever puppy Gary Frick from the "If Puppies Could Vote" sketch.
After the November 2011 paternity rumors involving Bieber, Jimmy-as-Bieber came on the show and performed his new song, "(It's Not My) Baby".
Jimmy introduces a segment which will supposedly present images of two celebrities whose heads have been swapped through digital photo manipulation. A "Head Swap" song plays, ostensibly a short introductory jingle using sing-a-long lyrics and illustrated by a series of still photos. However, the song becomes an extended narrative set in the offices of Late Night, depicting Jimmy asking a member of the show's graphics department to create "Head Swap" images. In each instance of the sketch, a different set of complications ensue, involving Jimmy in outlandish situations which push the actual "Head Swap" to a secondary issue. The conflict is eventually resolved, and only one image of a "Head Swap" is shown as the song ends.
Various members of the show's crew, and often one of the guests, read letters they have written to their parents as if the show was a summer camp. While they are reading, an overlay of the actual letter slowly comes into view. Jimmy's letters, which are always done last, are written and read in a Victorian-dandy style. During the Christmas season, the letters are written to Santa Claus instead. In honor of the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the sketch aired with letters written to Oprah Winfrey.
A yearly Christmas tradition on the show (according to Jimmy) is that they bring out a large board (the Countdown to Christmas Cabinet) with 12 numbered doors in the manner of an Advent calendar. The number of the door opened corresponds to the number of days left before the show's holiday break. Behind each door is a stereotypical Christmas sweater. Jimmy picks a number out of a Santa hat, and whomever in the audience has that number wins that day's sweater.
[edit] Late Night Stocking Stuffers
Jimmy gives a gift to the entire audience each day during the last week before the show's holiday break.
Jimmy plugs in his iPhone to a monitor to show off some new applications he's discovered. One of these apps always deals with a picture of the head of comedian Paul Reiser (such as "ReiserTris", a Tetris-like game with Reiser heads instead of the regular Tetris blocks). On a recent version, Jimmy used an app designed to locate Reiser, and it displayed "I am 8 feet behind you", then Reiser did a cameo. Another recurring app is "Axl Rose Relaxation Tapes", with the Guns N' Roses frontman (actually Jimmy) singing over relaxing sounds such as wolves howling or thunderstorms, usually ending with him yelling "Take a nap!"
The official Late Night with Jimmy Fallon iPhone app, released November 10, 2010, has a feature called "Jimmy's Phone", which allows users to use some of the apps featured in the sketch, including "Axl Rose Relaxation Tapes", "Moldova Y/N" (which uses your phone's GPS to tell you whether or not you're currently in that eastern European nation), "iBanana" (which allows the user to virtually peel and eat a banana), "Lint Brush" (allowing users to virtually clean lint off themselves), "Wet Cement" (allowing users to virtually draw in wet cement), and "Bieber yourself" (allowing users to photoshop Justin Bieber's hair on to pictures of themselves).[13]
[edit] Who Cares Hindenburg
After Jimmy briefly mentions three trivial celebrity news items, he declares that the stories should be placed into the "Who Cares Hindenburg." Steve Higgins provides new narration to the classic newsreel footage of the destruction of the zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg (imitating Herbert Morrison's "Oh, the humanity" radio narration). The newsreel footage has had a news crawl featuring the three news items superimposed over the zeppelin to make it look like a modern blimp. The new narration always ends with the exclamation "Who cares?" A frequent target is Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz.
We listen in on Roots drummer ?uestlove as he thinks some quasi-intellectual thoughts such as "what do you do when the fire escape catches on fire?" or "how do you throw out a trash can?" (he cocks his head and looks off into the distance, nodding occasionally, as we listen to his pre-recorded narration).
In "Post-Apocalypse Andy Rooney", Jimmy plays former 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney as he gives his thoughts about life in a world after a nuclear war and zombie uprising.
After Rooney's retirement, the sketch became "What is Andy Rooney doing now?", showing how Rooney is spending his free time, (i.e. calling everyone in the phone book and ranting to anyone that will listen).
Jimmy stopped doing Rooney impressions after the real Rooney's death in late 2011.
Jimmy, claiming to be an expert on facial expressions, explains the meanings behind numerous expressions made by U.S. President Barack Obama. The expressions are usually explained by a short phrase (such as "determined yet hopeful"), until the end of the segment, which features pictures from President Obama's February 2009 meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper; at this point the phrases become overly long drivel about 1980s or 1990s youth popular culture (such as Bubble Bobble, Boy Meets World, or ABC's TGIF programming block), reminiscing over minute details about the subject. Jimmy once did this segment with photos of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in place of Obama.
Somewhat similar to "Obama Expressions", Jimmy shows a series of photos, each showing a man and a woman. Jimmy then explains what the people in the photos are thinking. The first person's thought is somewhat regular (e.g. "I'm feeding him! This is so romantic!" for a picture of a wife feeding her husband) while their partner's thought is a humorous rejoinder (e.g. "She's feeding me! This is so humiliating!").
Similar to He Said, She Said, photos of people with their pets are shown, with the pets' thoughts being the punchlines.
Often after a speech by President Obama, Jimmy will give a timeline of events, starting with actual statements from the speech. The bit will eventually introduce Vice President Joe Biden, who will interrupt Obama in the manner of a spoiled child.
While cleaning his office, Jimmy claims to have found some VHS cassettes from a 1980s production company named Video Vision. The videos are usually short instructional pieces (such as "Dealing with Sexual Harassment in the Workplace") hosted by Jimmy with a spiked haircut, thick glasses, cheesy sweater and faded jeans, and have many of the hallmarks of video production of the mid-80s, including low video quality, awkward scene transitions, choppy edits, low-quality special effects, and cheesy graphics which include typos and spelling errors. Portions of the video tape may have been "accidentally" taped over.
Jimmy finds some old tapes of men from a 1980s video dating service that used to tape in Studio 6-B called "Cupid's Arrow". The videos are low quality (possibly because they were produced by Video Vision). The men featured are unattractive losers, and Jimmy stated that most of them were probably still available.
The skit was later made into a Dating Game-style TV show hosted by Tony Sanders (played by Higgins) with three of the men: Chester Mann (played by Salhudtin), a perverted part time shoe salesman and freeloader; James Spadge (played by Miles), a nerdy virgin who lives with his mother; and Jose (played by Jimmy), a flamboyant musician; and a female audience member as the contestant, with the video quality downgraded to look like it was from the 1980s. Jose is always the winner.
To get the audience excited about the show's sponsors, a fake gospel preacher named Rev. Daryl Bivens (played by Bashir Salahuddin) preaches about the products. Products have included the Big Philly Cheesesteak from Subway, Previlosec heartburn medication, and Toby's Rock Salt.
After Jimmy gives a shout-out to someone, Questlove asks Jimmy if he can give a shout-out to someone as well. After doing so, other members of the cast and crew (usually including Kamal Gray, writer Morgan Murphy, director Dave Diomedi (always to his wife and about their sex life), Tariq Trotter (usually about some sort of craft or cooking project; Trotter wears a blondish-red wig while demonstrating it), or a character played by Bashir Salahuddin) interrupt and ask for shout-outs to people or things of their own. At the end, Jimmy quickly recaps each of the shout-outs.
Jimmy shows a series of velvet Elvises (or "velvet Elvii" as Jimmy claims they are also called) showing Presley in contemporary situations, such as listening to an iPod, skydiving, or appearing alongside people like Neytiri from the movie Avatar, Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, or the cast of The Big Bang Theory. One of the velvet Elvises will usually include a pull-string activated "voice box" (Jimmy pulls the string and holds the painting in front of his mouth so the audience cannot see him providing the voice).
The last painting is often of Elvis in a beige jumpsuit performing a particularly boring activity (e.g. taking a nap after doing a crossword puzzle, sitting on a park bench feeding birds). After Jimmy comments on just how boring the activity is, a Boring Elvis impersonator comes out and sings a song about the activity.
Jimmy claims to have had a character left out of various movies and video games, such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He shows us a series of outtakes of him spouting bad attempts at catchphrases. Jimmy will also sometimes enlist actors promoting new movies to be in outtakes from those movies with him (including Jude Law for Sherlock Holmes and Kim Cattrall for Sex and the City 2).
Jimmy opens this sketch by saying, "We're always striving to get better here at Late Night." This is followed by him and The Roots imitating a bar from Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, which punctuates the camera zooming in on Jimmy four times. Suggestions ranging from the mundane ("book Sandra Bullock soon" or "more audience member close-ups") to the silly (such as "have a stuntman dressed as Abraham Lincoln fall down the stairs" or "recreate the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind with a grown man instead of a baby") are supposedly contributed by audience members. Some suggestions are for things Jimmy should do for fun in his free time, like "Go see the new Transformers movie, it's pretty good."
After Jimmy passingly mentions the Hubble Space Telescope, a man in the audience dressed head to toe in New York Yankees apparel named Milky J (Bashir Salahuddin) enthusiastically begins listing and showing photos of astronomical features photographed by the telescope, each one punctuated by him yelling "Hubble gotchu!" He also sang a song about it, and later showed a rap video he made. This sketch's timing may be based on the song "Rock You" by The Roots.
He appeared in a recent shout-outs skit, sending shout-outs to molecular models. Jimmy said he recognized him and Milky J explained that since Hubble is being phased out and replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope, he'd found a new interest. Jimmy then convinced him that Hubble is still something to get excited about, which made him go back into his old shtick.
Later, Jimmy mentioned a new planet, and Milky J showed up and went into his routine, but Jimmy once again mentioned how Hubble is being replaced by the James Webb telescope. Milky J then did a rap video about his trip to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland to try to convince them to stop the new telescope from being launched.
Milky J recently appeared in another shoutouts skit, this time giving a shoutout to gravity: breaking his unfaithful wife's valuables by dropping them and saying "gravity got it".
Jimmy begins telling a story, but a man in the crowd wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a New York Mets bucket hat (Mike Dicenzo) interrupts, linking the beginning of Jimmy's story to Late Night via an extended word association, after which he says "how you like me now?". After he does it twice, Jimmy does one as well, causing the man to declare Jimmy the superior player and leave the studio in shame, despite Jimmy's repeated attempts to make him stay.
Jimmy shows a clip from a late-night Tennis Channel show starring Roger Federer (played by Jimmy) called At the Bar with Roger Federer, where the tennis star hangs out in a bar and does strange things, including performing yo-yo tricks, identifying objects (incorrectly) by smell, and discussing his love/hate relationship with his good friend but fierce competitor Rafael Nadal. The skit only airs during Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments, the current one of which Federer discusses during "The Sports" segment. The most recent edition of this skit involved Federer buying "a round of drinks on the Federer," then serving a tennis ball between his legs so it causes John McEnroe's drink to spill, which in turn provokes McEnroe to stand up angrily and yell, "Come on, Roger! God! You cannot be serious!" The camera then cuts back to Federer, who casually says "That one's on me," as if nothing happened.
Less a full sketch and more a recurring bit, Jimmy will look directly into the camera and jets of fire of will emanate from his eyeballs. Sometimes, he will instead shoot laser beams. Less frequently, gobs of cooked spaghetti will come out. Jimmy will also have Steve Higgins, Questlove, and his celebrity guests play along with the gag as well. Jimmy claims the ability to do these things is a side effect of his LASIK surgery.
When Jimmy has a professional wrestler as a guest, they will usually enter the studio through a cloud of smoke via a trap door in one of the aisles of the audience area.
Jimmy will read a pamphlet from an upcoming small town festival for that weekend. It is only done in the summer.
Once a month, Jimmy reviews several terrible (real) books (such as How to Avoid Huge Ships: Second Edition, Castration: The Advantages and the Disadvantages, Cooking With [Winnie the] Pooh, and Knitting With Dog Hair) and suggests people not read them.
In the wake of Charlie Sheen's post-rehab media blitz, Jimmy appeared as Sheen in two commercials: one selling his cologne "Winning", and the other selling a Time Life collection of CDs containing outrageous quotes by him. Later, in response to the news that Ashton Kutcher would replace Sheen on Two and a Half Men, Jimmy as Sheen made a new version of Kutcher's old show Punk'd called Sheen'd in which he goes around acting obnoxious and bothering people at their jobs. The real Sheen (who also promoted his new show Anger Management) later appeared along side Jimmy-as-Sheen in an ad for "Clone" cologne.
[edit] Celebrity Whispers
Jimmy plays British TV show host Peggy Hess, who presents a series of clips of celebrities making small-talk at functions where they are not hooked up to microphones. Whispering voices are added to the soundtrack to show what the celebrities are saying, such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie discussing putting Cool Runnings in their Netflix queue, Pope Benedict XVI showing Barack Obama his fan art of Garfield, and Gary Busey explaining to John C. McGinley how he punched a mountain lion in the face and then became best friends with it.
[edit] Father & Son
A series of animated shorts featuring a father (voiced by Jimmy) giving advice to his (silent) preteen son.
Jimmy showcases some items that he has found on sale at various stores. The price-reduction stickers have been strategically placed so that their names are more suggestive, turning a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar into The Very Hung Caterpillar or a DVD of the show Picket Fences into Picket Feces. A bath toy called "Rub-A-Dub Work & Squirt" was left alone.
Jimmy showcases some interesting electronic greeting cards he's discovered.
Jimmy talks about going onto a website that does computer text-to-speech conversions, and then mentions that the computer voice is based on that of a man named Walter Kump (John Haskell). He then brings out Kump for an interview, which shows off some of the comical mispronunciations and disregard for punctuation that are prominent of computer-generated voices.
Jimmy reads a somewhat depressing story from the news and then gives the silver lining. (Example: There are growing concerns about the level of privacy on Facebook. On the bright side, there's a way to post all of your information online without anyone ever seeing it - join MySpace.)
When Jimmy tells a joke in the monologue that he thinks is particularly cheesy, he will apologize then give away its cue cards to members of the audience.
Jimmy often refers to fictional men as Gary, who are usually unintelligent or acting obnoxious and people are letting him know this. He also refers to fictional misbehaving boys as Garrison (who hates that name and wishes his parents would call him Gary).
A segment introduced on the show's first episode, in which Jimmy invites audience members to come on stage and lick objects, such as a lawn mower or a bowling ball, for ten dollars. Drew Barrymore and Kelly Ripa have played the game as celebrities.
Introduced in the show's second week, this segment features a game with loosely-defined rules and bizarre scoring. Three audience members are chosen to spin a wheel containing various carpet samples. The wheel includes a "mystery sample", which is revealed by the announcer to both the audience and the contestants prior to game play. Each contestant spins the wheel just once and is awarded a seemingly arbitrary point value (Jimmy tells the second contestant that the point value the first contestant scored is the maximum number of points a contestant can possibly get, and then asks if the second player thinks he or she can beat it). Each game contains the speed round with a "carpet sample fun fact": a piece of trivia, and the "lightning round" in which the contestant must "name as many things as possible" in three seconds (after which Jimmy names a thing that is none of the things the contestant mentioned), and a "carpet sample cartoon break". If a contestant lands on a piece that has already been won, Jimmy turns the wheel back five spaces. A seemingly arbitrary winner, chosen by Higgins, wins the sample of carpet on which the wheel stopped during their spin. The other two contestants each receive a consolation prize that turns out to be much more valuable than the winning contestant's prize, usually a $300 gift card to the Apple Store (the winning contestant is ultimately awarded the consolation prize as well).
Jimmy picks 3 random audience members to come down. They are shown a table covered in various "prizes", including a large-screen plasma TV (or a MacBook, or other similarly desirable popular item), tickets to a cleaning products convention, a used trumpet, lingerie, recorded VHS tapes, donuts for the entire audience, a box of rocks, a coffee mug, a year's worth of back issues of Orthopedics magazine, a pipe carved into Jimmy's likeness, a 15-second rave, and other similar kitschy items. A large screen shows a rapid-fire series of images of the objects available to be won, with each image only visible for 1/6 of a second. When Jimmy gives the cue, the contestants must snap a picture with their cellphone of whatever item is on the screen. The contestant wins whatever item of which they have taken a picture. One unlucky female contestant's phone was so slow to take a picture that all she photographed was the game's logo after the prizes had stopped flashing. As a consolation prize, she was awarded "donuts for the entire audience". A frequent prize is "The Call of the Wolf Waker": a man (Mike Dicenzo) covered head to toe in furs performs a wolf call using his cupped hands; while he is performing the call, footage of sleeping wolves waking up is shown. Another grand prize was 15 seconds in the VIP room with two Victoria's Secret models.
In a parody of Dance Your Ass Off, Jimmy invites 3 audience members on stage and challenges them to put on a yellow wool knit cap and yellow rubber gloves and try to get them off only by whipping their body parts around. Jimmy warns that "smurfing" (wearing one's cap loosely and high on the head in the manner of a Smurf) is not allowed. Two points are awarded for removing a hat, with one point each for the gloves; ties are broken based on audience applause. The winner receives $300 in one dollar bills, although the bills are presented in strange ways, such as wadded up and stuffed in a plastic bag, stuffed into the hollow handle of a snow shovel, or taped end-to-end in a long chain. Losers receive a t-shirt. Jimmy closes the segment by reciting a rhyming verse, which in some instances of the sketch becomes absurdly long.
Jimmy challenges 3 audience members to a karaoke contest where they sing quotes from a celebrity, including Nicole Polizzi, John Madden and Mel Gibson; most installments use quotes from American conservative politicians and commentators, including South Carolina governor Mark Sanford; Tea Party convention speakers Tom Tancredo, Joseph Farah, and Sarah Palin; Fox News hosts Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity; and, most frequently, Rush Limbaugh. The winner, determined by audience applause, receives a karaoke machine, and losers receive t-shirts.
Jimmy invites three guests on stage, and they must attempt to throw the most hot dogs through holes carved in the mouths of large (about 6 feet tall) celebrity faces. The celebrities are usually related somehow, such as the cast of New Moon, the three men from the TV show Full House, hosts on Fox News Channel, or politicians. (An installment of the game after the House vote on the 2010 health care legislation featured Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA); the Congressman's face had a smaller-than-usual mouth hole but added cutouts for his nostrils.) In the case of a tie, contestants participate in a sudden-death toss-off. The winner receives a hot dog toaster, and the losers receive a package of hot dogs.
[edit] Late Night Air Drum Challenge
Three audience members play air drums (similar to air guitar) along to a short drum-heavy instrumental track played by The Roots. The winner is selected by audience applause, who receives a drum kit donated by Yamaha and Zildjian. The two losers receive drumheads autographed by The Roots.
Three audience members are each shown three close-up photos of different man boobs, and are asked to pick which one belongs to a particular celebrity. The three photos are given punny names such as "Areola 51" or "Yo Flabba-Flabba". Winners receive a man boobs-themed wall calendar, and losers receive a "Man Boobs" t-shirt.
Two pairs of audience members compete. One member of each pair rolls a specially marked die to determine whether they will be spitting or receiving. The spitter takes a sip of water, and then the receiver recites the punch line to a provided joke (usually in the form of "[Normal phrase]? I thought you said [similar-sounding sexual phrase]!"), at which the spitter performs their best spit-take. Audience applause determines the winning team. Sometimes, Jimmy will have the spitter and receiver switch positions if their first spit-take is particularly good or they have extra time. The winning team receives a pair of hand towels embroidered with the "Competitive Spit-Takes" logo, while the losing team receives a pair of moist towelettes.
Three audience members select styles of dance (e.g. Irish stepdance, ballet, or disco) out of Jimmy's "Velvety Dance Bag", and then attempt to perform that dance style after being hung by a harness ten feet in the air. The winner is selected by audience applause. The winner receives a dancing-themed prize, such as Nintendo Wii and a dancing game or Arthur Murray dancing lessons, while the losers receive t-shirts.
Before the show, Jimmy selects members of the audience who are musicians but do not otherwise know each other. They are split into two "instant bands" and are given about half an hour to come up with a band name, design an album cover, and write a song to perform. Winners are determined by audience applause. Winners receive the instruments they played and a $300 gift certificate to Guitar Center, while the losers receive t-shirts.
On the June 15, 2011 show, Jimmy hosted the finalists in Rolling Stone and Garnier Fructis' "Choose the Cover" contest (Lelia Broussard from Los Angeles, CA and The Sheepdogs from Saskatoon, SK). Prior to the show, a member of the audience (Terry Patterson from the San Francisco area) was selected and both bands had to write a song about her. Each member of both bands received a Late Night t-shirt, and the winning band (The Sheepdogs) received 20 pints of Jimmy's Ben & Jerry's flavor, "Late Night Snack".[14]
Similar to Battle of the Instant Bands, Jimmy assembles two dance crews from the audience and has them each choreograph a dance routine in under an hour. The winners each receive $300 gift cards from J.Crew, while the losers win $100 gift cards.
Two audience members are given a scene to perform with Jimmy in reverse (walking backward, etc.). After they complete the scene, the footage is then shown reversed so that it looks normal. The winner is determined by audience applause, who receives a piece of reversible clothing (such as a jacket or a jersey), while the loser receives a t-shirt with a reversed Late Night logo.
Two teams of three male audience members race in a relay to pass a Spanx body-shaping undergarment over their bodies as fast as possible. After taking the garment off of a mannequin, the first person steps into it and then pulls the garment over his head. The next team member then pulls the garment over his head and off over his feet. The third team member reverses direction once again and pulls the garment on feet-first. After pulling the garment over his head, the third team member then races to deposit the garment in a basket (the "Spanx Bank"). The other team members may assist in the passing of the garment, but cannot bunch it up or fold it onto itself. The winning team wins Late Night compression t-shirts and a pair of Spanx, and the losers receive regular Late Night t-shirts.
Three audience members "try to decipher the garbled-mouth ramblings of Rickie Johnston, a pig farmer with a real anger-management problem," according to Jimmy. Johnston (played by Bobby Tisdale) is a stereotypical redneck, dressed in a pair of overalls, a trucker's hat, and no shirt, in addition to a huge mouthful of chewing tobacco and an exaggerated Southern accent. The game has three rounds, worth 10, 100, and 1000 points. The first two rounds vary, but the third round is always "What's On Rickie's Mini-Dish Tonight?", which involves Johnston acting out a scene from a movie and the contestants must guess its title. The winner of the first installment of the game had the choice between a chocolate-covered horseshoe and a "beer-amid" (a pyramid made from cement-filled beer cans) as a prize and chose the beer-amid. The second installment of the game had as its prize a package of paper plates. The third installment awarded a watch made from a can of chewing tobacco. The losers receive a bag of frozen tater tots, with Jimmy giving Rickie a bag as well (they're his favorite).
Three audience members are shown pictures of non-celebrities and each must guess the first and last name of the person shown. The images of non-famous men flashes quickly with one of a famous man second to last (usually 1990s sitcom stars). Winners receive a spectacular prize, such as $15000 and "a lifetime supply of zebras", a large flatscreen TV, or large sums of money. Losers (and all contestants are invariably losers) receive a T-shirt with their person's name on it (Higgins encourages all contestants to "wear your shame in style"). The spirit of the game is similar to "Wheel of Carpet Samples". Due to "lack of budget", the segment uses scene transition graphics from Home Improvement between contestants. It also features "Name That Guy Fun Facts" like "[non-famous man]" was born in was born in Cincinnati, Ohio".
Jimmy claims this is "the game that everyone is talking about." This is followed by five brief video clips of five different people strung together so it sounds like they are saying the sentence, "I love Models and Buckets." The models are brought out and Jimmy will ask them an open ended question like "How was your weekend?", with them all giving a different answer at the same time. Jimmy then brings in two male members of the audience who, one at a time, choose from 12 buckets, each held by a model (similar to Deal or No Deal) and filled with various items such as food (e.g. orange soda, baked beans, or chocolate syrup), confetti, or packing peanuts to be poured on their head by the models. One of the buckets contains $100 in cash instead; the contestant picking that bucket wins that prize and the game ends. The loser receives a Late Night bucket hat. The initial installment of the game used 16 buckets instead of 12. When only six buckets remain, the game enters the "double trouble" phase, where both contestants select buckets each time around and the models pour the contents simultaneously. If a contestant wins early in the game, Jimmy will have the models reset with new buckets and the contestants play a second game for another $100.
Jimmy had audience members roll a twenty-sided die with a letter on each face (likely taken from the game Scattergories) and say as many words that start with that letter, with rules such as no proper nouns, no long pauses between words, etc. Contestants win $10 cash for each correct word.
While two audience members are blindfolded and wear noise-canceling headphones on stage, Jimmy selects another audience member to come down and photocopy their face; after doing so, that person returns to their seat. One at a time, the two contestants are given the photocopy and must run into the audience to find the photocopied person. While they are searching, the Roots play music whose tempo slows or fastens depending on how "hot" or "cold" the contestant is in their search. The contestant that finds the photocopied person fastest is declared the winner and receives a desktop printer/fax/scanner/copier, while both the loser and the photocopied person receive a ream of copy paper.
Three blindfolded audience members attempt to break ball-shaped piñatas with smiley faces on them (which "bear a striking resemblance to celebrities in the news") rotating around them using only karate kicks. Ties are broken by "kicking awesomeness" (as voted on by the audience). The winner receives $300 worth of boxed taco kits, while the losers receive Late Night black belts.
Five audience members each donate one of their possessions to a communal "jackpot". Jimmy spices it up by adding the contents of a wallet in his pocket, including $500 (sometimes in cash, sometimes as a gift card to the Apple Store).
Each of the five audience members has their name on a tile in a bucket. One at a time, Jimmy pulls a tile from the bucket to eliminate contestants until only one contestant is left, who wins everything in the jackpot. The other four contestants receive Late Night t-shirts or sweatshirts.
Three audience members are, one at a time, shown a collectible doll for five seconds, and then have thirty seconds to assume the pose of the doll as closely as possible using a box of props and costumes. Contestants that have yet to play are placed beneath large blue sensory-deprivation "domes of silence". The winner is chosen by audience applause; in the first installment, the winner received a three-foot-tall Barbie doll, but in later installments the prize was $100 and the doll the contestants were imitating. Losers receive doll-sized Late Night t-shirts.
A series of stunts, each with an associated point value, cycles rapid-fire on the "Dartboard of Insanity" (the same video screen used in the "Cell Phone Shootout" game). Three audience members, one at a time, shoot a Nerf dart gun at the Dartboard, stopping the cycle on a particular stunt. Whichever contestant completes the stunt with the highest point value is declared the winner. All three contestants receive $100 and either a t-shirt or a "beer koozie sweatshirt" (a sweatshirt with a pocket for a beer bottle on the front), although only the winner receives his $100 in the form of a giant check.
Only a few of the "available" games are ever played. Some of the games are highlighted by Jimmy before the game; some are named and also described - these are usually over the top. Still others only ever appear in the rotation. The last game to be played is always "Dude Spoon". (One contestant landed on "Dude Spoon," but was given the option to spin again; he landed instead on "Double Dude Spoon", where he had to spoon with two dudes instead of just one.) The point value of games can vary from episode to episode.
Available games include: Beat Your Meat (3 points), Pickle Tickle (3/6 points), Peanut Butter Pickle Face (3/5 points), Bride of Spanxenstein (5 points), Veggie Wedgie (3 points), Hog-Tied and Lovin' It! (6 points), Honey Nut Pantyhose (6 points), Whack-A-Sack (3 points), Emission Possible (3 points), Believe it or Snot (6 points), Nip R.I.P. (12 points), Jelly Sock of Death (3/10 points - the contestant is hit with a sock filled with jelly), Stank Hose (12 points - the contestant is whipped with a smelly garden hose), Expired Milkshake of Pain (12 points - the contestant must think about an expired milkshake while being shocked with a cattle prod), Fondles the Clown (3/10/12 points - a guy is taken off the street, dressed up like a clown, and tickles the contestant in his "swimsuit area"), Guac Head (3/4 points - the contestant has guacamole smeared into his hair), Puppy Chow (5/10 points - the contestant has a can of dog food eaten off his stomach by puppies), Dude Spoon (10/15 points - the contestant must spoon with a guy named Sebastian (Seth Herzog)), Syrup Hat (6 points - the contestant must reach into a large jar filled with warm maple syrup, retrieve a baseball cap, and put it on), Nutsack Attack!! (10 points - the contestant must search through a large sack of peanuts for the "money nut" [a red walnut]), Yuck Uggs (3/5 points - the contestant must put on a pair of Ugg boots [one filled with chocolate pudding and the other with tapioca] and dance for 10 seconds), Grab the Balls in Your Nutsack (10 points - while blindfolded, the contestant must determine how many blue balls are in a large sack filled with circus peanuts), Shake Your Balls Off! (5 points - the contestant wears a Velcro diaper covered with balls and must shake them all off without using his hands), Blindfold Balloon Pop (5 points - a blindfolded contestant must pop 3 balloons by stomping on them), Pickle Tickle (6 points), Honey Nut Pantyhose (6 points), Fish Sandwich (3 points), and Melt Your Face Off (15 points).
Two audience members compete, at least one male. One of the contestants tries to answer trivia questions; each correct answer earns the team $100, but for each incorrect answer, the non-answerer has a portion of his chest hair removed with hot wax. Unfortunately, all of the questions are in obscure Jeopardy!-like categories such as "Latvian Prime Ministers", "13th-Century South American Architecture", and "Much Ado About 'Quantum Mechanics'" ("you'll notice 'quantum mechanics' is in quotes", says Jimmy). The last regular question is played in the "double trouble" format, where two portions of hair are at stake. The question is usually in the category "Numbers", and the question is usually "I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 1000 - what is it?" (After the contestant gives his guess, Jimmy offers him the chance to change his guess. After doing so, Jimmy reveals the correct number was actually their first guess.) The "lightning round" features categories flashing by quickly, with easy categories like music, TV, and movies being skipped over for another difficult category at the end. As a consolation prize, the contestants are given "Ed Zeppelin" t-shirts (also a prize in the "Wheel of Game Shows" game) and a 24-pack of Nad's body hair removal strips.
The person being waxed in the installment that aired May 15, 2011, was New York Jets center Nick Mangold.
Another surreal game in the spirit of "Wheel of Carpet Samples". Three audience members play mini-games selected by pressing the "game pud" (a buzzer) as the options rotate on the monitor (similar to the game show Press Your Luck; the monitor is probably the same screen used in "Cell Phone Shootout" and "Darts of Insanity"). If a player lands on a picture of actor Steve Guttenberg, however, they lose their turn and owe the show $75 (similar to Press Your Luck's "Whammy"). To this end, Jimmy urges the contestants to shout "No Guttenbergs!" as the monitor rotates.
Games available include: "Heads or Tails?", "Word of the Day", "Wet Nap Face Slap", "iCarly Trivia vs. the Roots", "Number Scramble", "Hands in Your Pants", "Hide the Shoe", "Animal Farm", "Dance Dance Dance", "Where Did You Get That Shirt?", "True or False", "Yes or No", "Grab the Cupcake", "Remember That Episode of Full House", "Jellybean Jar", "Grocery List", "You Can't Possibly Win!", "Brownie Points", "Magnet Scramble", "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Nuclear Warhead", "Tarantula Bonanza", "What's In The Box?", "Guess the Card", and "Drawing Board".
After all contestants inevitably tie at zero points since Jimmy doesn't tell them how to play the games, even after a "tiebreaker" (such as "Brownie Points", "Shut Your Pie Hole", or "Egg On Your Face"), they all receive copies of the Saturday Night Live board game (with three pieces missing) and Led Zeppelin t-shirts where the first "L" has fallen off so that they read "Ed Zeppelin".
Two audience members compete. Each is blindfolded and fed a cracker with three different foods on top (such as pepperoni, peanut butter, and Swedish fish). They must try to name as many of the ingredients as they can. The winner receives a $300 gift certificate to Whole Foods, while the loser gets to interact with a celebrity impersonator (such as Abraham Lincoln or young Santa Claus) (and is also given a $150 gift certificate to Whole Foods).
Three audience members compete. They are each given three nouns (an object, a place, and a name - e.g. Barbie Doll, France, and Charlie Sheen) they must work into a 30-second freestyle rap. The nouns are generated by "Rhyme Wave", a "robot" with a computerized voice that appears on the Sharp 108. The winner is determined by audience applause. The winner receives a TASCAM pocket studio digital recorder, while the runners-up receive Late Night t-shirts, notepads, and pens to write down their own raps.
Two audience members compete. Each is played a new song by the Roots that they must memorize and then immediately perform. The contestant that has yet to play is placed beneath a large blue sensory-deprivation "dome of silence". The winner is determined by audience applause, who is given a $100 bill and a burned CD with their song rendition on it, while the loser receives a Late Night t-shirt.
This game is similar to The Dating Game. A woman is blindfolded and three male suitors try to impress her by reading a random pick-up line selected by spinning a wheel. The woman then selects the suitor who she was most impressed by. The winner gets to spend the show at a dinner table with the woman for the rest of the show, and they are served glasses of wine by announcer Steve Higgins. This game has only been played once thus far, during 2009 Fleet Week in New York City. A US Marine was picked as the winner of the contest, mainly because the other Marines in the audience gave him extra cheer support.
[edit] Late Night Recognizes the Olympics
During the week before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a series of not-quite-Olympic games were played. The first was "Bobbing for Gold", where three audience members bobbed for plastic medals of several colors in an attempt to find a gold one. The second was "Ski Boot Dash", where three audience members wearing ski boots competed in a speed-walking race around the studio. Third was "Finger Skating", where three contestants put tiny ice skates on two of their fingers and performed skating routines on a miniature rink. Gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded for each event, and the Roots played five seconds of "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the winner as the contestants stood on a podium.
Jimmy pronounces the name of the game with vocalized 'h's before "winds" and "war", as if it were "Hwinds of Hwar". Two audience members blow into a transparent tube to try to push a ball to their opponent's end of the tube using only their breath. The winner is given a military-style medal, while the loser receives a t-shirt. To date, this game has only been played once, possibly due to some technical difficulties with the game equipment during the first playing.
In a parody of Dancing with the Stars, three audience members are each given a sequined vest and a life-sized cutout of a celebrity (wearing a sequined bow tie matching the audience member's vest). They perform a short dance with their cardboard partner and then give a short "backstage" interview with Morgan Murphy. The winner is determined by audience applause, who wins a 2-D trophy and gets to keep their cardboard cutout. The losers receive t-shirts.
Jimmy and Higgins are presenters at an awards show for the category of "Winner". Three audience members are nominated, and whichever person's name is in the envelope comes to the stage and gives a five second acceptance speech before being played off by the Roots. In the first installment, the winner also received a trip to Costa Rica.
Three audience members come to the stage, are made up to look like Jersey Shore cast members and have to read quotes from that show from a teleprompter which runs increasingly faster. The contestant who is able to read the longest without making a mistake is declared the winner and receives a t-shirt that says "I READ WELL", while the losers get shirts that say "I DON'T READ WELL".
Two teams of two audience members each dress as a mother bird and baby bird. The "mama bird" grabs (gummi) worms from a pile of "dirt" using their mouth and then spits them into the mouth of the "baby bird", who then spits them into a nearby eggshell. The team with the most worms in their egg shell at the end of 20 seconds wins. Ties are broken via bird-calling contest. The winners receive a bird feeder, while losers receive bags of bird seed.
Two audience members are fitted with large clear plastic conical collars (similar to the Elizabethan collars used by veterinarians). One at a time, they are given 30 seconds to make a lap of the audience. Each of the other members of the audience is given two foam balls (one for each contestant), which they try to throw into the collars of the contestants as they pass by. The contestant who collects the most foam balls is declared the winner, and gets to stand under the "Late Night Cash Dump" (a basket with a hatch in the bottom, filled with dollar bills, suspended from the ceiling) and try to collect as much cash as they can in their cone. (During the initial playing of the game, the Cash Dump malfunctioned, dropping the cash before the winner could stand under it; Jimmy gave the winner all the dropped cash to make up for the mistake.) The other contestant receives a "beer koozie sweatshirt" (a sweatshirt with a pocket for a beer bottle on the front).
[edit] Silent Library
To commemorate Jimmy and the Roots appearing on an episode of the MTV game show Silent Library, Jimmy invited six audience members to play a few rounds of the game. For three rounds, one of the six contestants was chosen at random using a deck of special cards. That person must complete a laugh-inducing stunt within a specified time frame, but all members of the team must stay quiet enough to avoid setting off a noise meter. Each contestant earns $50 for a completed stunt, but loses that money if the noise meter goes off or they fail to complete the stunt. The contestants played three stunts: "Fish Music", where one person had to play a harmonica wedged in the mouth of a fish; "Eat Cake", where one person had three cupcakes snapped against his face using a slingshot attached to his head; and "Balled Pedal", where one contestant had to pedal a Rube Goldbergish device that shot tennis balls at his face. Even though Jimmy judged that the group had made too much noise during the second stunt, he ended up giving each contestant the full $150.
Two teams of two male audience members play. After "drawing brushes", the "short brush" has his face made up (usually sloppily) by his teammate according to a theme, such as "prom". Audience applause determines the winning team. The makeup "victims" each receive a $100 gift certificate to Kiehl's and Late Night t-shirts.
Jimmy challenges 3 audience members to a search contest on bing.com. The winner gets a brand new laptop computer. This game was only played in the weeks surrounding the bing.com launch and has been seemingly retired.
Introduced in the third week of the show, this segment consists of the audience and show members participating in an experience together. In the first show, these experiences were to eat a Warhead sour candy, wear a Snuggy, and make a bird call. Other "Shared Experiences" have involved playing with an inflated beach ball and shooting Nerf guns at A.D. Miles while he quietly played Jenga by himself.
During the show's first week, on March 5, 2009, Jimmy picked 3 random audience members and elected one of them to be president of the audience for the night. Later that night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow appeared in a breaking news segment and reported that his approval ratings were dropping. Attack ads from his opponent were also shown, accusing the president of being a flip flopper when it came to liking Jimmy's jokes. The old president was later "impeached" on April 17, 2009, and a new president was appointed. On March 10, 2010, after Jimmy complained that neither of the previous presidents ever showed up to work, he "elected" a new president by picking one audience member at random. Jimmy gave the new president a "presidential starter kit", including a copy of the Late Night by-laws, a quill pen, a carton of cigarettes, a stapler, and a first lady with "shapely arms". After an attack ad on behalf of another audience member, NBC Nightly News weekend anchor Lester Holt gave a news report about the president's short term thus far.
A recurring sketch in which audience members are called upon to stand in for celebrities who are having public feuds and come to a mutual understanding. Segments have included two men as Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston, two white women as 50 Cent and Rick Ross, Perez Hilton and Carrie Prejean, Adam Lambert and Clay Aiken, and Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann. One skit involved four audience members reenacting the feud between Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, and Ryan Seacrest regarding the new contract offered to Mr. Seacrest as the host of American Idol and the fact that she wasn't made a similar offer by the show's producers (she would eventually announce that she was not returning to the show).
Jimmy asks audience members random questions. House band The Roots then makes up a song about them on the spot using that information in a music style of Jimmy's choosing (reggae, '80s pop, doo-wop, etc.). When Ringo Starr was a guest on the show, there was an all-Beatles version; during "Rolling Stones Week", there was an all-Stones version. While the show was in Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI, the Roots were joined in freestylin' by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
The camera isolates on random audience members and a Facebook status for them appears which says an intimate personal thought about them.
Similar to What's on Your Facebook?, the camera isolates on random audience members and a graphic of an iPod appears showing what songs the person has on theirs, which is usually something extremely personal or obscene.
Three audience members are hooked up to the "Think-O-Sync-ometer" (a box with a red button, later renamed the "Intel Think-O-Sync-ometer 8500") by wearing a "wireless Think-O-Read-ometer headband" (an elastic headband with a suction cup), making sure that the "cerebral cortex nipple" is facing out. They are then asked to concentrate for 15 seconds on a particular subject provided by Jimmy. Then, after pressing the button on the Think-O-Sync-ometer, Jimmy "pokes" each contestant's cerebral cortex nipple, allowing the Think-O-Sync-ometer to "project" the audience member's thoughts.
Jimmy selects members of the audience and puts their cellphones into the "Hacker 9000" (which Jimmy claims is top-secret technology that only he and Rupert Murdoch know about), which scans the phone and plays the last received voicemail, which is usually something embarrassing (like a bookstore calling to let them know the Justin Beiber books they ordered have come in).
Jimmy provides the audience with paper and packs of markers and asks them to draw whatever they want. He then goes into the audience and reads off some audience members' names and has them show off their drawings.
Every night during the week of February 7 to 11, 2011, the Late Night crew choose one male audience member with straight hair and gave him a perm. He was interviewed with friends before the procedure, then the perm was revealed during the show. Jimmy wore a perm wig during the skits. Late Night Perm Week returned May 21 to 25, 2012.
Jimmy showcases children with weird talents like reciting 86 digits of π or contorting their body into the shape of a pretzel while eating a soft pretzel. Jimmy then gives each child a Hawaiian shirt and a metal detector (an homage to his own childhood pastime of searching for buried treasure in his backyard).
Jimmy plays the popular drinking game beer pong with a celebrity guest, including Serena Williams, Ivanka Trump, Betty White, and John McEnroe. They play the paddle-less version ("Beirut"). The first player to sink two balls wins (increased to three balls when Jimmy played McEnroe). When Jimmy played Kathie Lee Gifford, they played the "classier" version "wine pong" using glasses filled with chardonnay.
Current standings:
In a light-hearted attempt to reclaim the honor of his The Proposal co-star Betty White, who at the time was the only celebrity Jimmy had defeated in beer pong, Ryan Reynolds played Jimmy in a game of beer shuffleboard. The two later played another game after a dispute arose over an interpretation of the rules of the game.
[edit] Saved by the Bell / California Dreams Reunion
On the March 27, 2009 episode, Fallon explained that he had watched an episode of Saved by the Bell that morning. The episode he watched was The Prom, where Kelly opted to give the money she had saved to go to the prom with Zack to her father, who had just lost his job. Fallon commented on the absurdity of Kelly's father losing his job at a weapons plant because "world peace had broken out", and also pointed out that the year 2009 is the twentieth anniversary of Saved by the Bell. Fallon then decided to launch a campaign to persuade the original cast of Saved by the Bell to appear in a reunion special on his show. Dennis Haskins, who portrayed Mr. Belding, was the first to agree to take part in the reunion, and appeared on the show the same night Fallon launched the campaign. On April 3, 2009, it was announced that Lark Voorhees, who portrayed Lisa Turtle, would also be joining the reunion, making her the second Saved by the Bell guest. On April 24, 2009, Mario Lopez appeared on the show. After helping Fallon re-enact almost verbatim the climactic scene of the episode Save the Max in which the Saved by the Bell gang put together a pledge-drive to save The Max (altered to Late Night putting on a pledge drive to reunite the Saved by the Bell cast), he agreed to appear on the reunion.
On June 8, 2009, Mark Paul Gosselaar appeared on the show as a guest to promote his series Raising the Bar. When he came out on stage, he was dressed as his Saved by the Bell character Zack Morris and claimed that since graduating college, he had been living in Los Angeles, working as an actor named Mark Paul Gosselaar because "there was already a Zack Morris in SAG". After agreeing to appear on the reunion, he received a phone call, on his signature over-sized early 1990s era cell phone, from Jessie Spano; Gosselaar then informed Fallon that Elizabeth Berkley had also agreed to appear on the reunion. At the end of his appearance, Gosselaar sang Friends Forever, a song performed by the Saved by the Bell gang's band Zack Attack. Fallon and The Roots also performed with him.
The reunion is currently on hold indefinitely. In an interview with IGN, Tiffani Thiessen has stated that she will not be taking part in the reunion at this time.[15] In response to the fan pressure for Thiessen to take part, Funny or Die produced a comedic video of her in which she states she is "too busy" with her other projects, including a live action cat comedy, an Indigo Girls tribute band, and lying out by her pool.[16] (Thiessen had left the original show prior to the final season, being replaced by Leanna Creel; there has been no word on whether or not Creel would be interested in taking part.) Dustin Diamond, who portrayed Screech Powers on the show and others in the franchise, is apparently opposed to a reunion and is no longer on speaking terms with most of the show's cast after writing an exposé on the show entitled Behind the Bell.[citation needed]
On March 4, 2010, Fallon said "it looks like the dream [of a reunion for Saved by the Bell] is over." However, on that night's show, he reunited the cast of the show California Dreams (which aired "right after Saved by the Bell" on NBC) instead. Dennis Haskins made a brief appearance, confusing the two reunions. California Dreams cast members Brent Gore (Matt Garrison), William James Jones (Tony Wicks), Heidi Noelle Lenhart (Jenny Garrison), Kelly Packard (Tiffani Smith), Jay Anthony Franke (Anthony Sommers), Jennie Kwan (Sam Wu), and Michael Cade (Sly Winkle) briefly discussed what they're doing now: Gore is working with a non-profit in Los Angeles, Jones is attending Pepperdine University in pursuit of a masters degree in clinical psychology, Lenhart is a mother of two, Packard is a mother of three and had a small part in the then-upcoming film My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, Franke is living in Australia with his wife and had recently finished filming a television pilot he created himself, Kwan (who became tongue-tied and blushed after being introduced) had toured with the traveling production of the musical Avenue Q and did a lot of voice acting (including the character Suki from the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Cade works with the company Oxcyon and had a couple of films coming out that summer. The seven cast members then played the California Dreams theme song as the show went to commercial.
Jimmy and a celebrity guest take turns trying to make three-point shots on a basketball goal using objects like a telephone or a bowl of Count Chocula cereal.
Jimmy and a celebrity guest each pair with an audience member to play charades. Jimmy has played with Cameron Diaz, Amy Poehler, and teamed up with Poehler to take on the then-husband/wife team of Fred Armisen and Elisabeth Moss. He also teamed up with his former SNL Weekend Update partner Tina Fey to play against their successors as Weekend Update anchors, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers. Jimmy teamed up with Nene Leakes to take on the team of Donald Trump and Lil Jon after Trump announced Leakes and Lil Jon as cast members for The Celebrity Apprentice on that night's episode. Sometimes Jimmy and Steve Higgins will each pair with a celebrity to play (Tariq Trotter from The Roots sometimes also plays if only one other celebrity is playing).
Jimmy and a celebrity guest each pair with an audience member to play a version of the board game Pictionary.
[edit] Space Train
While Jimmy is interviewing an actor, he casually mentions a mid-90s action film they were both in called Space Train (about people who have to save the Earth by going to outer space, but are afraid to fly, so they take a train into space). After the actor claims not to remember the movie, Jimmy shows a "clip" from the movie (acted out live by the two of them). Participating actors include Robert DeNiro (on the show's first episode), Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, Will Arnett, and Sir Richard Branson.
[edit] The Sibling-wed Game
When Saturday Night Live writer/actor Seth Meyers appears as a guest, Jimmy will sometimes bring out Meyers' younger brother Josh and have them play a version of The Newlywed Game. Jimmy asks Seth a series of questions while Josh wears a pair of noise-canceling headphones, and then gets Josh to guess what Seth gave for answers. The brothers then switch positions, with Josh answering and Seth guessing.
Jimmy plays a game of tic-tac-toe with a celebrity guest that has them flinging slingshot "party monkeys" into buckets.
Jimmy plays a game of war with a celebrity in which the winner of each hand throws a glass of water on the loser. After one player uses five glasses, he earns the right to spray his opponent with a large water gun. He has played with Christopher Meloni, Chris Kattan, Ashton Kutcher, Hugh Jackman, and Jon Hamm.
[edit] The Late Night Invitational
Jimmy plays a round of miniature golf in the studio and in the halls around the studio with a celebrity. To date, he has played with Billy Crudup, Will Arnett, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Jimmy and a celebrity guest play an ice-fishing themed game of cornhole with beanbags shaped like fish and an ice-blue target platform. Three points are scored for a bag that goes in the hole, and 1 point for each bag remaining on the board at the end of the game. Each player has 5 bags to throw.
*Dawson manually knocked some of her bags into the hole after the game, achieving a posted score of 16.
**Moretz walked over to the platform and dropped her last bag directly into the hole.
Jimmy and Kid Rock played a game of horseshoes. Tariq served as judge.
| Player 1 |
Score |
Player 2 |
Score |
| Jimmy Fallon |
1 |
Kid Rock |
3 |
Jimmy and a guest play a game of ladder toss.
Jimmy and a celebrity guest alternate playing simple songs (such as "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" or "Jingle Bells") on a randomly-selected musical instrument, trying to get the Roots correctly guess what they were trying to play. If there are two celebrity guests, they will compete against each other. Originally, Jimmy and the celebrity would try to guess the songs each other played. The game was introduced to Jimmy by Juliana Margulies, who had played it at a birthday party for William H. Macy. Scarlett Johansson, Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen have also played it.
A sketch where Jimmy and a celebrity partner give a "makeover" to an audience member. Both Jimmy and the partner dress all in white, including blonde short-bobbed wigs, with Jimmy wearing a peasant shirt and tights. Jimmy sings "let us play with your look" over and over, rising in pitch until he gives out, while his partner makes over the audience member. The celebrity is the first guest later, and both Jimmy and the guest usually express wonder at who those two weird people were.
[edit] Jacob's Patience
Jimmy shows a scene from Jacob's Patience, a fictional 1990s Canadian soap opera he and his celebrity guest appeared on, where the actors used mannequin arms instead of their own. Will Ferrell appeared in a scene set in a sandwich shop, Zach Galifianakis played a hustler in a billiards hall, Alec Baldwin played a doctor giving Jimmy a medical exam, Chris Kattan played the proprietor of an ice cream shop trying to make Jimmy a banana split, and Matthew Broderick played a taco shop owner making Jimmy a burrito.
[edit] Other Voices
Jimmy plays a clip from Other Voices, a Canadian talk show airing at 3 AM he hosted, which featured his celebrity guest. Their dialogue is supplied off-screen and they must attempt to lip-sync along to it. The first installment featured Jimmy interviewing Steve Carell; Jimmy's dialogue was supplied by Higgins and Carell's was supplied by Chris Kattan. Later, when Jimmy interviewed Simon Cowell, Higgins and A. D. Miles supplied the dialogue. When Drew Carey appeared as a guest, in addition to Higgins and Miles providing their voices, Jimmy and Drew had people hiding behind them providing their arms.
Jimmy and a female guest star in a TeenNick show called Ew!, where two teenage girls talk about things that make them say "Ew!". Jimmy plays Sara without an H (because H's are Ew!). The character of Sara was based on an actual girl named Sara in Jimmy's audience who loudly said Ew! after a joke during the July 15, 2011 edition of Thank You Notes; Jimmy asked the girl her name and she answered "Sara without an H". Emma Stone played Sara's friend Megan in the first episode, and Claire Danes played her friend Katie in another.
Whenever Gwenyth Paltrow is on, Jimmy mentions they were in a singing duo named Shazazz several years ago. They go on to perform their top hits, originally in the style of old school rap: "Do It", "We're Gonna Do It", and "Remember When We Did It (The Reunion)". A later version had them switching genres to R&B and performing "Let's Do It", "Why Don't We Do It Again", and "We Did It".
Jimmy reminisced with Liv Tyler about the time they appeared on Star Search in the 80s as the duo "Pleather and Lace", singing a cover of Cyndi Lauper's "All Through the Night". (The Star Search judges gave them ¼ stars.)
[edit] Password
After showing a brief clip of the original black-and-white Password from the 1960s (originally hosted by Allen Ludden, Betty White's husband), Jimmy played Betty (along with two audience members) in a game of Password hosted by Higgins on a recreation of the original Password set. Jimmy later teamed up with Robert De Niro to play against Bradley Cooper and an audience member.
[edit] Pyramid
Higgins emcees a version of the classic game show Pyramid where Jimmy and a celebrity guest each pair with an audience member.
Whenever she is a guest on the show, Rachel Maddow, a self-proclaimed mixologist, makes Jimmy an obscure cocktail.
When he is a guest on the show, Denis Leary and Jimmy will usually play each other in a hockey-themed game, such as air hockey or "box hockey". They usually make a bet that the loser will donate money to the Cam Neely House for cancer patients in Boston.
Jimmy and a celebrity guest take turns rolling large, soft balls up a ramp into the audience, where audience members are holding bins and buckets labeled with different point values in a layout reminiscent of that used in a regular skee ball game.
Jimmy and a celebrity guest attempt to pour three bottles of beer, one at a time, first into a mug and then from the mug into a large graduated cylinder. The pouring is complicated by a broomstick, both ends of which is affixed to their wrists, so that their arms are completely outstretched when attempting the pour from the bottle to the mug. The person with the most liquid in the cylinder at the end of the game wins.
Jimmy and a celebrity guest each wear a clear plastic box around the upper half of their bodies. The box is divided into three zones: head, torso, and groin. Both of them are armed with a Nerf-style bow and suction-cup arrows. They stand approximately 15 feet apart and try to hit each other with the arrows. Five points are awarded for an arrow to the torso, ten for a head shot, and twenty for a hit in the groin area.
Jimmy and a celebrity guest each hit large foam balls off a tee into the audience using a large plastic bat. The audience is divided into three scoring zones:
- The front half of the middle section is the green zone, worth one point
- Both of the side sections are white zones, worth two points
- The back half of the middle section is the gold zone, worth three points
Each player hits three balls, and then a final "superball" worth double points. Where the ball lands in the audience is how much it's worth.
Once a year on the show, Jimmy has a "yacht rock" party, celebrating that genre of soft rock of the late 70s and early 80s. Jimmy will wear a captain's hat (and give out the hats to the audience) and have nautical-themed games. In addition, a yacht rock act will perform one of their hits of the genre:
On March 11, audience member Bryan Brinkman was chosen to participate in an experiment in which Jimmy Fallon and his guests (Russell Brand, Alex Albrecht, and Kevin Rose) instructed the television audience—and "tweeted" live to their Twitter "followers"—to "follow" Bryan Brinkman on the micro-blogging website Twitter.
In this sketch, aired on Nov. 22, 2009, guest Blake Lively and Jimmy play each other, reminiscing about their previous Thanksgiving Dinners. It is shown through flashbacks that each Thanksgiving both Blake and Jimmy bring the same food item or dish. Blake, enraged, slaps Jimmy. At the last Thanksgiving shown neither bring out a food dish, however Blake becomes enraged anyway when she and Jimmy break the wishbone from the turkey and he gets the bigger half.
On Halloween 2011, Jimmy and Heidi Klum bowled two frames apiece using pumpkins of various sizes instead of bowling balls. Klum beat Jimmy 19-18.
Jimmy and Justin Timberlake perform a medley of popular hip-hop and rap songs from a 30-year span in (roughly) chronological order. Thus far, they have done three installments.
[edit] Tank Tops Political Talk Show
Jimmy, Edward Norton, Arianna Huffington and Lester Holt did a sketch set on a Sunday morning talk show in which everyone wore a tank top. In the skit Jimmy and Edward got into an argument which resulted in Edward storming off the set.
[edit] Barking Points
Michael Moore and golden retriever puppy Gary Frick (from the "If Puppies Could Vote" sketches) appeared on a Michigan public-access political call-in show hosted by Jimmy. All of the calls were directed to Gary, and they were all "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?"
Similar to Freestylin' with The Roots, Jimmy asked an audience member several questions and guest Elvis Costello improvised a song using her answers.
Michael C. Hall performed "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" as Dexter Morgan, replacing certain lines with violent lyrics.
As Jimmy, wearing a red and white-pinstriped jacket, bow tie, and straw boater hat, sang a song called "Won't You Pop My Balloon?" while standing at a hot dog / balloon cart, Tracy Morgan came out wearing a blonde wig and a white unitard with a helium-filled balloon attached at the navel. After the two danced for a bit, Jimmy popped Tracy's balloon, which dismayed Tracy. ("Damn, Jim, that's all I had going for me.") Jimmy then replaced the balloon and the pair continued dancing.
Jimmy and Tracy reprised the segment on the November 1, 2011 episode.
[edit] Slappington Manor
Jimmy shows a scene from Slappington Manor, a show in which the band Kings of Leon runs a bed and breakfast he visits with constant slapping.
[edit] Tumbleweed Canyon
Jimmy and Dana Carvey played cowboys on a Canadian mini-series called Tumbleweed Canyon. They sat at the bar in a salloon drinking sarsparilla and made fun of the people who come in ("Well, well, well, looky what we've got here!") - although their insults mainly consisted of listing each person's job functions in a mocking tone - driving each of them off. After the bartender called them out on their behavior, they briefly psychoanalyzed each other before rejecting their new attitude and went back to making fun of people.
When Paul McCartney was a guest on the show, he confirmed that the working title of The Beatles song "Yesterday" was in fact "Scrambled Eggs". He and Jimmy went on to do a duet of the never-before-heard "original version", which was instead about their favorite food items.
Jimmy and Kirsten Dunst played the "traditional" German Christmas game of trying to find a pickle ornament (Hallmark's "Hide-'n'-Seek Pickles" Keepsake Ornament[17]) hidden on a Christmas tree. The first to find it won a Christmas sweater. Jimmy found the ornament, but elected to give Kirsten the sweater.
After Stephen Colbert auctioned off a portrait of himself "enhanced" by artists Shepard Fairey and Andres Serrano for the charity DonorsChoose, he declared on his show, The Colbert Report, that his "BFF for six months," Jimmy Fallon, was going to match the auction price, $26,000. On the next night's Late Night, Fallon demurred, saying, "here's the thing: I never said that." Hearing that, Colbert came out on the Late Night stage and chided him, saying, "if you can't donate $26,000 of your best friend's money without asking him first, what's the point in being best friends?" In quasi-retaliation, Fallon announced that if his viewers would donate the $26,000 to DonorsChoose, Colbert would appear with the Roots to sing Rebecca Black's "Friday". (Fallon claimed he couldn't match the amount himself due to his money "being tied up in Soul Patrol Sweatshirts".) The viewers met the donation goal (as of April 2, 2011, 2,026 donors had pledged $63,902[18]), with NBC Universal also matching the $26,000, and Colbert, along with Fallon, Black Thought, Taylor Hicks, and the New York Knicks City Dancers, performed the song on the April 1, 2011 show. During the performance, Seth Herzog held up a large placard with a QR code on it; the code led to a "secret" video where Jimmy thanked his viewers for their donations.[19]
In a later segment of The Colbert Report, Colbert noticed that NBC used a picture of the "Friday" performance in Late Night's Emmy packet, and pointed out the irony of doing so since Fallon and Colbert would be up for Emmys in the same category. Colbert then did a "Thank You Note" to Jimmy for promoting his show. On a later episode of Late Night, Jimmy wanted to remain "fremmymies" (a portmanteau of "friend" and "Emmy") rather than "emmymies" and countered with his version of Colbert's "The Wørd" (which included "Who are we kidding – neither of us is gonna beat Jon Stewart"); the show then went to commercial with the logo Late Night with Jimmy Falbert.
When the six months was up, the pair became mortal enemies and went on each others shows to feud. Anderson Cooper appeared on both skits (because Italian restaurant Sbarro gives out free tickets) asking each host if he could be their new friend, to which both replied "No, Anderson, it's just too soon!"
When Glenn Close was on the show, she told Jimmy about a new game called Shoe Golf she plays with her family.
Jimmy introduced "shoe golf" to Selena Gomez. Selena won with 6 "strokes" to Jimmy's 9.
Jimmy played a game of "slipper golf" with Nicole Polizzi. Jimmy won with 8 "strokes" to Polizzi's 10.
When Anderson Cooper was a guest on the show, he talked about the time he and Jimmy were hanging out "behind a combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell" and found two headbands connected behind a glowing wire in a Dumpster. The device allows them to look into each others brains and let one person answer questions before the other asks them (e.g. Anderson: "For a limited time only." Jimmy: "What was engraved on Kim Kardashian's wedding ring?"). They then demonstrated the device. The sketch is similar to Johnny Carson's "Carnac the Magnificent" bits on The Tonight Show. Jimmy later reprised the bit with other celebrities.
[edit] Pearls of Wisdom with Goat Leg Greg and Gilvin of the Tree
Jimmy dressed up as a pipe-smoking Scottish gentleman with one hairy, hooved leg and talked about American Idol. Ewan McGregor played his companion Gilvin, who sat in a nest, wore a Robin Hood-style outfit and a page-boy wig, and played the recorder. McGregor also wore false buck teeth, which he had difficulty keeping in his mouth.
Each year for March Madness, Jimmy picks an underdog team he thinks will go all the way. So far he is 0–3, as all of his picks have lost in the first round.
In 2009, Jimmy threw all of his support behind the Tennessee-Chattanooga Mocs,[20] who were seeded #16 and played the heavy favorite, #1 seeded Connecticut Huskies in the first round. Jimmy made signs for the audience to hold up, gave them t-shirts, had their pep band play on the show, did a brief history of the school, and did an interview via satellite with Head Coach John Shulman. He also reviewed a list of notable graduates, which includes Dennis Haskins (most known as Mr. Belding from the TV series Saved by the Bell) who made an appearance on stage in support of his alma mater and gave Jimmy a UTC hat. However, the show's support wasn't enough, as the Mocs lost the game 103–47.[21] Coach Shulman and the outgoing senior players attended the March 20th taping of the show as audience members and Jimmy had a brief conversation with the coach during the show.
In 2010, Jimmy picked the Siena Saints. He said he wanted to pick his hometown school. He once again did a school history and reviewed a list of notable graduates, which also includes his sister Gloria. The Roots then performed a ballad about head coach Fran McCaffery. The #13 seed Saints would lose in the first round to the #4 seed Purdue Boilermakers 72–64.[22] As a tribute to the team, Jimmy read off the Siena roster and had the audience twirl Saints t-shirts.
In 2011, Jimmy picked the #15 seed Long Island-Brooklyn Blackbirds who played the #2 seed North Carolina Tarheels in the first round. To celebrate, Fallon gave the entire audience Long Island-Brooklyn basketball T-shirts. Later, the Roots sang a song about the LIU head coach Jim Ferry, described by Jimmy as "the sexiest coach in the NCAA", and then Jimmy gave the entire audience Blackbirds thundersticks. LIU's mascot also appeared during Cell Phone Shootout the day before the first game to gave high fives to the audience. Jimmy's pick once again didn't make it past the first round, losing 102–87.[23]
Late Night was in reruns the week before the tournament in 2012, so no underdog pick was made that year, however Jimmy did a Pros and Cons skit about March Madness upon his return.
As an April Fool's Day prank in 2009, Yoshi Amao came out and did the entire monologue in Japanese (with subtitles) instead of Jimmy.
In 2010, most of the band was shown lounging instead of playing the theme song during the introduction (the music was pre-recorded) while keyboardists James Poyser and Kamal Gray had a pretend boxing match.
In 2011, the band briefly played the theme song intentionally poorly and Questlove's drumming "stepped on" Tariq's announcing of the episode number. Shortly thereafter, Questlove announced "April Fools!" They finished the theme song as normal.
In 2012, April 1 fell on a weekend.
In the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections, Jimmy had five Golden Retriever puppies with human first and last names (Roger Blain, Brian Johnson, Kyle McAdams, Lisa Armstrong, and "troublemaker" Gary Frick) act as "pundits" to predict the winner of various races by choosing which of two bowls of dog food to eat from (blue for the Democrat and red for the Republican). After he briefly went through the candidates' positions, he released the puppies from a small cage. The puppies selected:
The puppies correctly called three of the four races, only missing in the Sestak/Toomey race in Pennsylvania.
After the election, an "attack ad" ("paid for by cats") surfaced slamming Gary Frick for his flip-flop in the Cuomo/Paladino race.
In a final bipartisan effort, he rewarded the puppies for their work by letting them eat out of a single bowl.
Jimmy also had the puppies predict the Best Picture winner of the 83rd Academy Awards. They incorrectly predicted Toy Story 3 (The King's Speech was the actual winner).
Jimmy later had the puppies predict the results of the 2011 NFL season. They incorrectly selected the New England Patriots to be the winners of Super Bowl XLVI. The Patriots did make it to the Super Bowl, but lost to the New York Giants by the score of 21-17.
On the February 24, 2011 episode, Jimmy had the puppies predict the Best Picture winner of the 84th Academy Awards. They incorrectly predicted The Tree of Life (The Artist was the actual winner).
[edit] Harry Potter Super Fan Contest
Jimmy brought down two self-professed fans of the Harry Potter series and had them compete at a series of contests to try to win a prize package provided by Warner Brothers.
- Bean Taste Test: Contestants attempt to identify one of Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans ("rotten egg" and "vomit") by taste for one point.
- Guess the Title: Jimmy read the name of on the Harry Potter films as translated into a foreign language (Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens) that the contestants had to identify for one point.
- Repeat After the Living Painting: Jimmy brought out a "living painting" (Mike Dicenzo) who recited a recipe for Dragon Dung Fertilizer that the contestants had to remember and write down later, earning one point for each correct ingredient.
Because the contestants were tied after round 3, they went to a tiebreaker, where they had to chug a pint of butterbeer as quickly as possible.
The winner's prize was a three-day trip for two to London, staying at a four-star hotel, and the winner would film a Harry Potter movie scene. The loser received a Late Night t-shirt.
Jimmy and a choir of the show's staff sang a song about the twelve biggest news stories of 2010, to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The sketch returned in 2011 as the "Late Night Topical Carolers".
In Target Demographic, Jimmy details a very specific type of viewer which is attractive to advertisers due to their excessive wasteful spending on material goods. The first version was "Blonde Connecticut Housewives". The segment has also examined "Jersey Shore D-Bags" (actual residents of the area, not cast members of the MTV reality show), "Indian Doctors", and "Balds". This sketch was only done in the early days of the show and has seemed to be retired.
Leading up to the 2011 BCS National Championship Game between the Auburn Tigers and the Oregon Ducks, Jimmy noted that, while most schools have school fight songs, no school has a school power ballad. After some deliberation as to which of the championship teams to choose, he decided to create one for Oregon, "We are the Ducks", which was performed by former Skid Row lead singer Sebastian Bach.
Jimmy and the show's staff, plus Will Arnett and Horatio Sanz, did a parody of the "The Super Bowl Shuffle" called "The Pro Bowl Shuffle".
Jimmy played New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, Arnett played Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre, Sanz played Pittsburgh Steelers strong safety Troy Polamalu, Bashir Salahuddin played Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, and A.D. Miles played New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. In non-speaking roles, Owen Biddle played Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, Questlove played Detroit Lions tackle Ndamukong Suh, Damon Bryson played Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson, Kamal Gray played Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, with unidentified gentlemen playing Cowboys tight end Jason Witten and Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers.
Black Thought played Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson, Captain Kirk Douglas played Giants wide receiver Steve Smith, F. Knuckles played New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush, with an unidentified gentleman playing Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, even though those four players were not named to the 2011 Pro Bowl at the time (Johnson later made the Pro Bowl as a replacement for injured Houston Texans running back Arian Foster).
[edit] Mad Libs Twas the Night Before Christmas
Jimmy enlisted the help of Zac Efron, Jesse Eisenberg, Howie Mandel, Jack McBrayer, Patton Oswalt, Maya Rudolph, Jason Segel, Martin Short, T.I., and Brian Williams to recite a shortened version of the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas in a Mad Libs fashion.
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Swiffer (Mandel);
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Rod Carew (Oswalt) soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sweet and sour shrimp (T.I.) danc'd in their heads,
And Mama in her performance fleece (Eisenberg), and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's crap (McBrayer) —
When out on the lawn there arose such a caw (Short),
I sprang from the bed to see what it be (Williams).
Away to the window I flew like a virgin (McBrayer),
Tore open the shutters, and threw up all over my new loafers (Williams).
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a '71 Gremlin (Oswalt), and eight sexy (Segel) ferrets (T.I.),
With a little old driver, so sloppy (Efron) and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Herbert Hoover (Rudolph).
More rapid than yogurt tubes (Oswalt) his coursers they came,
And he sneezed (Williams), and he pooped (Rudolph), and call'd them by name:
"Now! Dasher, now! Spanky (Short), now! Gertie (McBrayer) and Vixen,
"On! Fallopia (Rudolph), on! Charles Barkley (T.I.), on! Mucus Legs (Oswalt) and Blitzen;
His eyes — how they twinkled! His nipples (McBrayer): how merry,
His cheeks were like squishy (Oswalt) birds (T.I.), his breasts (Short) like a cherry;
He had a broad face, and a stanky (Williams) hot (Rudolph) belly
That shook when he diddled (McBrayer), like a bowl full of hot sauce (T.I.):
And laying his weird sucker pads (Oswalt) aside of his spicy butt (Rudolph)
And giving a squash (Efron), up the ding-dong (Short) he wiped (Williams).
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight —
Happy (Efron) Christmas (Eisenberg) to (T.I.) all (McBrayer), and (Oswalt) to (T.I.) all (Short) a (Mandel) dried penis (Rudolph).
- ^ Paskin, Willa (January 31, 2011). "Jimmy Fallon Gets a Book Deal". New York Magazine. http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/01/jimmy_fallon_book_deal.html. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
- ^ "Thank You Notes [Paperback"]. Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0892967412. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
- ^ "Thank You Notes 2 [Paperback"]. Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Thank-You-Notes-Jimmy-Fallon/dp/0892967366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336489708&sr=8-1. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- ^ NBC.com - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - 7th Floor West Episode 1, Part 1
- ^ http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/real-housewives-of-late-night/
- ^ http://www.emmys.com/sites/emmys.com/files/62ndemmys_noms_4.pdf
- ^ http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2010/08/22/primetime-creative-emmys-roundup-hbo-betty-white-are-hits/
- ^ Hulu.com - Slow Jam the News - 3/2/09
- ^ Hulu.com - Slow Jam the News - 3/19/09
- ^ Hulu.com - Slow Jam the News - 4/16/09
- ^ Hulu.com - Slow Jam the News - 5/7/09
- ^ ""It's the Great Pumpki—, No Wait, That's Just Conan's Head"". Conan. 10/31/2011. TBS. ""We did a bit on our show - just out of the blue, they didn't ask us to do it - we did a bit called 'Ladysmith Snack Mombazo'. So they're Ladysmith Black Mombazo, but they just talk about all the fun snacks they like... We did one about Ben & Jerry's... So we did that, and the Ben & Jerry's people liked it, and said, 'We'd like to put that on our website.' Absolutely; we'd love to. 'And we'd love to work with you in the future.' And I go, 'Like on a flavor? Wait, don't hang up!'""
- ^ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (November 8, 2010). "App Watch: Late Night’s Jimmy Fallon Shows Us ‘Jimmy’s Phone’". The Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/11/08/app-watch-late-nights-jimmy-fallon-shows-us-jimmys-phone/. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
- ^ "Finalists Compete in Jimmy Fallon's Battle of the Instant Bands". Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/choosethecover/blog/finalists-compete-in-jimmy-fallons-battle-of-the-instant-bands-20110616. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
- ^ http://tv.ign.com/articles/101/1011485p1.html
- ^ http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d082b452ae/tiffani-thiessen-is-busy?rel=player
- ^ "Hide-'n'-Seek Pickles". hallmark.com. http://www.hallmark.com/online/in-stores/keepsake-ornaments/2010/ornament-detail/?id=fifa_qxg7306. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
- ^ "The Jimmy Fallon / Stephen Colbert Project (DonorsChoose.org)". DonorsChoose.org. http://www.donorschoose.org/fallon-colbert-project. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
- ^ "Did you see the QR code during ‘Friday’ with Stephen Colbert?". No Fact Zone. http://www.nofactzone.net/2011/04/02/did-you-see-the-qr-code-during-friday-with-stephen-colbert-this-is-what-it-was-for/. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
- ^ WDEF.com The Mocs Have a Late Night Booster in Jimmy Fallon
- ^ CBS Sports Game Summary - Round 1 - UTC / UConn
- ^ Siena vs Purdue Round 1 ESPN
- ^ No. 2 UNC rolls past a scrappy Long Island team CBS Sports March 18, 2011
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