When it was first announced that Jimmy Fallon would be taking over Late Night, I was unenthused. I never found Fallon to be funny or charming in his past work, and the flight to Florida wherein I watched him and Queen Latifa in Taxi was the longest and most uncomfortable two hours in my recent life to not involve work or girls. When he confirmed that his house band would be the Roots, I was simultaneously interested and disappointed. Hurrah, the Roots get a regular paycheck, but did they really need it so badly as to stoop to being a late night house band? When Fallon started talking asking the Twitter community for interview ideas and promised his show would treat video game releases as if they were movie releases, well, then my interest was officially piqued. Maybe this show will actually be okay. Better yet, maybe it will be worthwhile.
I watched the first week. Outside of "Slow-Jamming The News" and his interview with Tina Fey, it was not very good.
I wish I'd watched last night, though. Musical guests Yeah Yeah Yeahs are always fun, even if feelings are still mixed on the sound of It's Blitz!, but the guest lineup of rapper/actor Ice-T, muppet/pop-culture-icon Elmo, and video game news anchor/commentator Morgan Webb appeals to my nerddom perfectly. Throw in Tobias Frere-Jones and I might have just freaked the hell out while everyone else scratched their heads.
Morgan was there to talk about her new show G4 Underground, but she also brought along the new Punch-Out! for Wii. Jimmy embarrasses himself with that, of course, but the true beauty is before that when the whole panel of Jimmy, Morgan, Ice and Elmo chatting about games. Ice-T even shouts out is gamertag (sorry kids, his list is full, but he does challenge you all to Gears of War). Check it out:
More moments like this and I may actually watch Jimmy on a regular basis. And please, Jimmy, do "Slow-Jamming The News" more often. I would watch an entire show of just that.
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