Posted by Lex Friedman on Mar 5, 2009
Last night’s show was solid. I thought Jimmy actually seemed more nervous during (and immediately prior to) his monologue; he showed some nervous laughter before he even got underway.
This was honestly my least favorite of the first three monologues Jimmy’s done. The opening Madonna joke did nothing for me. The Chris Brown / asteroid joke was funny (“The asteroid could have done as much damage as two atomic bombs. Or one night with Chris Brown!”), but I’m thinking Jimmy needs to give himself a roll of punchlines to run through on great setups like that. (“Heck, it could have done as much damage as Rosie O’Donnell at a buffet. Or OJ Simpson at a place where people are living.”)
As promised, Jimmy continues to make lots of references to modern living and technology, with his second Facebook reference in two shows (Iraqis can get on Facebook now — if your face is covered with a veil), and his second dig at Microsoft, too. But there weren’t enough solid laugh lines — more the “applause” lines. Jimmy showed on Weekend Update that he can generate actual laughs at his topical jokes, and doesn’t need to settle for the Jay Leno-esque “that was a joke” recognition applause.
The “Bromance Novels” bit was cute, and the audience seemed to really enjoy it.
I’ll post some joke suggestions for tonight’s show a bit later on.
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Tags: Bromance Novels, Chris Brown, Facebook, Iraq, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, jokes, Madonna, Microsoft, OJ Simpson, Rosie O'Donnell, Weekend Update
Posted by Lex Friedman on Mar 3, 2009
“A smart man would leave now.” Great line to start off his first-ever monologue, after the cheerful, loud, greeting ovation.
Jimmy kicked off his first show with a great Conan bit, and really ran a very nice show straight through. He was clearly a little nervous, but the show was well-written, and Jimmy wore his nervousness charmingly.
The “snow day” joke was cute, although I’ll admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the Rush Limbaugh joke. I would have loved a few more jokes about his Day 1 jitters.
Definitely think it was the right move, though, to include monologue jokes on other topics. I loved the Microsoft/Apple store joke — that the difference between the two stores will be that, at the Microsoft store, the staff will freeze when you ask them a question. Great line.
“Slow Jammin’ the News” with the Roots behind him wasn’t just a funny conceit — the implementation was great. The camera switching focus between Jimmy and the band behind him was excellent. Just before the show started, I was thinking about how great Jimmy is at funny music, and was hoping it would have a place in his show. Well done!
Tonight, Jimmy’s hosting Tina Fey, his old co-anchor. I’ll post some monologue jokes for the day a bit later on.
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Tags: Apple, Jimmy Fallon, jokes, Microsoft, music, Rush Limbaugh, Slow Jammin' the News, The Roots, Tina Fey