I happened to be rewatching this clip from Jimmy Fallon's first night and it struck me that it was a good example of something you see too often in TV comedy routines — performers who either don't understand the bit they're in or don't care. And by the way, I think this was a funny, clever segment in spite of what I'm about to point out.
Okay, so here's the premise. Fallon addresses some unnamed friend who supposedly bet him $100 he'd never host The Tonight Show and tells this person to pay up. Then we have a parade of stars, each one coming out to pay off, then exiting. The way this should work — and I'll bet this is how the writer imagined it — is that each one comes out looking annoyed and slaps down the money grudgingly, then walks off. That's probably what they told each celebrity to do: Act like you're pissed off, pay off your damned bet and get the hell off stage.
Some of the people got it. Some didn't. Some thought they had to call a little attention to themselves, buddy-up to the new host of the premiere late night show, act like it's a big deal they did a cameo, etc.
So first, out comes Robert DeNiro. He could have looked madder but he's fine. Then Tina Fey does it right.
Then out comes Joe Namath…and I'm wondering how and why they dug him up. He's the only one Fallon has to identify just in case the audience doesn't recognize him. Anyway, he tries but he kinda looks happy to be there. I guess if I was Joe Namath and someone called me to be on an important TV event, I'd be happy to be there.
Then the next one is Rudy Giuliani, who's grinning — probably because he's on and Bill de Blasio isn't — and he can't resist thanking Fallon for bringing the show back to New York, which is him thinking like a politician instead of as a player in a comedy sketch. Then you have Mariah Carey, who at first doesn't look pissed-off either but she recovers.
Then Tracy Morgan does it exactly right. Then Joan Rivers makes it all about herself, as she does with everything, and even waves to the audience. Then Kim Kardashian does it about as well as you'd expect Kim Kardashian to. Then Seth Rogen does it exactly right and so do Lindsay Lohan and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Then Mike Tyson does it wrong and whispers something the audience can't hear to Fallon and gives him a letter, which I guess means that no one backstage wanted to tell Mike Tyson not to do that. Then you have Lady Gaga who also takes away from the joke by whispering something to him.
Then along comes the payoff, which is Stephen Colbert. When I was watching this on TV, I was wondering who they'd bring out last. The funniest possibility would have been Jay Leno but I knew it wouldn't be him. The Fallon people wouldn't have wanted him there because they want to establish this is Jimmy's show now, not Jay's, and Jay wouldn't have done it because the press would have made it sound like he forced his way onto the show because he couldn't grasp that it's no longer his.
Second funniest would have been Conan O'Brien but he's not that good a sport. Third funniest would have been Letterman or Kimmel but neither of those were going to happen. I guessed it would be Colbert about three seconds before it was. And of course, he played it perfectly, paying off the joke with the passive/aggressive attitude that is so often show business and not showing the slightest affection or congrats for Fallon. That's the way you do it, people.
If you saw it, watch it again with all that in mind. It really is an example of what separates the skilled comic performers from the rest of the herd…