Jimmy Fallon was doomed no matter what he did with Donald Trump. In today’s political climate, if you’re not staunchly choosing a side then you’re part of the problem. And in having such a volatile person like Trump on his show this late in the campaign, he already stood to lose the respect of the leftist, cultural elite, but in holding Trump’s feet to the fire he would’ve definitely lost the viewership and respect of the right. Imagine if he tussled Hillary Clinton’s hair or dressed up in a pantsuit with her. He would’ve lost both groups, not just one or the other.
In the numerous think pieces that have been trotted around, the same 15 (scathing) tweets from the same journalists were used as proof that the Internet has turned against Fallon. Vulture said Fallon completed his transformation into Jay Leno, inoffensive and popular, yet to the point that it’s become a liability. Fallon’s the late night show celebs go to because they know he’ll be a pussycat, in the same way it was with Leno.
But Leno and Fallon are still highly different. Leno held firm to a Vegas-style variety show, and with his lame “have you heard about this” stand up and his vaguely snobby snickering at dumb criminals in newspaper headlines and in man-on-the-street trivia, he got old fast because he clung to a segment of the ‘80s and the past that was long past its due date.
There was a point however when Fallon was the new kid on the block, the fan favorite and the Internet’s favorite. Back when he was on Late Night, he didn’t play as many games with his guests but instead performed goofy, often inspired sketches that firstly proved that he was an incredibly talented impressionist and performer, but also ensnared the youth demographic. Remember Tebowie, the blend of Tim Tebow and David Bowie? Or his many stabs at Neil Young or Bob Dylan singing beloved theme songs and Top 40 music? He combined nostalgia for ‘90s TV shows like Saved by the Bell reunions and an affinity for hipper music, like in his history of rap performances with Justin Timberlake, as a way of creating content that, even if you weren’t watching his show live, demanded to be shared online, thus changing the game. Like Letterman and Conan before him, both of whom earned cult status on college campuses with edgy humor, Fallon had become the hot young star all the kids loved, and he did so with inoffensive charm.
Before he ascended to The Tonight Show, the Internet wondered when NBC would finally pull the plug on Leno, while pundits elsewhere wondered if Leno’s older audience would actually follow Fallon and his younger-slanting bits, or if they would defect to Letterman or Jimmy Kimmel.
But even back in his heyday of being loved by the Internet, everyone knew that you didn’t watch Fallon for his monologue or his interviews. If a guest is ever self-deprecating on the show, Fallon deflects it with a laugh and a “no, no, we love you,” before changing the subject.
Although sometimes Fallon’s giggly, cornball friendliness behind the desk was exactly what you wanted. His inability to keep a straight face with Bradley Cooper is a web exclusive gem, something that was almost completely unusable for broadcast. And when Nicole Kidman reveals she almost dated you, you want Fallon’s sheepish astonishment, not Letterman’s snark. Fallon may have been flimsy, but at the very least he was impossible to dislike.
Still, Fallon’s Trump interview is disappointing and upsetting. You never like to see phony pandering on TV, whether it’s Fallon or otherwise. Perhaps worse than Fallon’s interview was when SNL earlier this season allowed Trump to momentarily live out a Presidential fantasy, not to mention thought it would be funny to get him to dance in a “Hotline Bling” parody. Now who’s trying to make Trump likeable? When Colbert had Trump on his show early in his run, he didn’t exactly go for the jugular. Trump even joked he kind of liked the guy. It was only much later that Colbert could be seen drawing swastikas on chalk boards.
No, what Fallon’s Trump interview is indicative of is Fallon’s complacency. He’s risen to the top, having conquered the ratings and effectively the late night wars for the time being, and now he’s stopped trying. It happened to Leno, and it even happened to Letterman. Letterman still gave the best interviews late into his career and was exactly the guy you wanted to hear give a substantive interview with a true A-lister, but he had stopped doing the elaborate pranks or the sheer mayhem that had made him famous with college kids in his NBC days.
Occasionally a Fallon lip-sync battle will go viral again, but for the most part Fallon has played out all his characters, lived out all his fantasies of reviving TV shows and performing with rock stars and now settled into playing it safe. A Conan writer got in hot water a few years back for tweeting that what Fallon had popularized wasn’t actual comedy but was just “Prom King comedy” and making us feel like we were all BFFs. It was comedy that wasn’t written but was just the cool kids getting to act cool and silly. Back then that wasn’t all Fallon was doing with his show, but it is now.
And it’s a shame that Fallon has lost his spark. Today the millennials online are flocking to Samantha Bee and John Oliver, and while their shows are a rebuke to the standard late night formula, they’re playing in the same political, topical comedy realm that’s been the norm since Jon Stewart. Fallon didn’t play that game; he played his own. And it was a welcome diversion from all the comedy activism seen elsewhere on late night.
I do hope Fallon gets back into form and takes things a little more seriously. That Trump interview was an embarrassment, and Hillary Clinton appearing on his show this week will give him what for. Salon also pointed out that with Letterman gone, Fallon is also the one late night comic who has the audience and the likability to challenge Trump and really make a difference in the race, so it’s depressing to see him play into Trump’s hand.
But stop trying to turn Fallon into Stephen Colbert, John Oliver or David Letterman. Right now Fallon isn’t a fan of the cultural elite, but don’t suggest that the only way he can get there is by walking the same line as everyone else.