I want Jimmy Fallon to be my best friend in the whole world. And moments like the one I’m about to blather on about for 400 words or so are the reasons why.
There have been a lot of beautiful moments thus far on Fallon’s just-more-than-two-year run as host of NBC’s Late Night.
There’s his brilliant serial uber-mini-series, like “The Hills” parody “7th Floor West” and faux-spinoff “The Real Housewives of Late Night;” his news “Slow Jams,” often featuring Brian “Brilliams” Williams along with house band The Roots; writing his Friday Thank You Notes; singing “Scrambled Eggs” with Paul McCartney; playing beer pong and Password with Betty White; dueting with Bruce Springsteen to Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” …
Oh, sorry about that. I got distracted imagining myself playing “Wheel of Carpet Samples.”
In all fairness, Fallon has had his downs, like any other first-time talk show host. His debut back in March 2009 was generally panned by critics, and his penchant for laughing mid-sketch during his “Saturday Night Live” days was Fallon’s defining characteristic in his pre-Late Night days.
But now the laugh is just another part of the show, and he’s made Late Night his own — no easy task, since the last guy to have the spot has enough personality that he doesn’t really need a last name anymore.
But Mr. O’Brien could probably never pull off this gem: a dead-on musical impersonation of Bob Dylan — performing the theme song to hit ’80s sitcom “Charles in Charge.”
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Thank you, Jimmy Fallon, for giving me the chance to write a sentence I never dreamed I could.
It’s moments like this that make Late Night with Jimmy Fallon so unbelievably entertaining. Fallon’s not afraid to take a leap of faith, and he and his writing staff have the brainpower and creativity to make sure they sketch out some great places for him to start jumping.
The best part is I have no idea what’s coming next. Before this week, I never even realized Fallon could do a Dylan impression, much less while performing my new favorite version of a classic TV theme song and making the “Scrubs” a capella group look like a bunch of posers.
All I know is I’ll be tuning in to find out. And to figure out how to win “Wheel of Carpet Samples.”
