The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Recap – 12/8

The Tonight Show chugs along into the shows from the middle of the week. Tuesday’s show includes presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, John Cena and YouTube musician Troye Sivan. Here’s how it went down.

Monologue

Fallon didn’t make any exceptions in his monologue just because presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders was in attendance. His first couple jokes were targeted at Sanders himself, stating that Sanders claimed “outrage” over being named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and not Sexiest Man Alive. Fallon doubled down on the joke stating that Sanders said he would be cutting back on fossil fuels because they were made of his high school friends. What a burn (Bern)!

Jimmy poked fun at the recent announcement from Donal Trump, in which Trump advocates to stop letting muslims into the country. He didn’t comment on the controversy, but instead played some humorous news clips from candidate Carly Fiorina and Trump not allowing CNBC host Joe Scarborough to talk.

Joke of the monologue: One of the above Bernie Sanders jokes.

To the Desk

Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons isn’t my favorite desk bit in Fallon’s arsenal. Nine times out of ten you can see the joke coming after the pro is revealed. It’s not quite as bad as his “In Reply To” segment, but it’s down there. Tuesday’s Pros and Cons bit was about the modern holiday tradition of Elf on a Shelf.

Best Pros and Cons:
Pro: Parents call him “Santa’s Little Helper.” Con: Kids call him “a narc.”
Pro: Waking up and finding him in a different spot every morning. Con: Remembering you live alone.
Pro: Your kids can’t sleep because they’re too excited. Con: You can’t sleep because you have to wake up at 4 in the morning to hide a damn elf.

10 Days of Christmas Sweaters

Jimmy continued his own holiday tradition of unveiling a new hideous Christmas sweater in the ten shows leading up to Christmas. Tonight’s recipient was a friendly Brooklyn native who was more than excited to receive a sweater from Jimmy. That’s always a nice touch.

The Guests

Bernie Sanders

Jimmy started the interview by commenting on the fact that Bernie is a Brooklyn native. If elected, he will be the first New York native president since FDR. Bernie said that FDR is a model to follow and that he was a great president. The conversation of course took a turn to Donald Trump. Jimmy asked Bernie about his thoughts on Trump’s recent comments. His response: “Throughout history, you’ve had demagogues trying to divert attention from the real issues. This country has some enormous problems. We have a middle class that is disappearing. We have almost all the wealth and income going to the top 1%. What somebody like a Trump is trying to do is divide us up. A few weeks ago, we were supposed to hate Mexicans. Now we’re supposed to hate muslims. That kind of crap is not going to work in the United States of America.” He says he would love to take down Trump in the general election.

Bernie eventually plugged his new push to end global warming and limit the use of fossil fuels. That conversation segued into a discussion about campaign finance reform. In a nutshell, Sanders says that politicians should not have the best interest of their financiers in mind. Who can argue with that? It’s rare for Jimmy to have a meaningful conversation with a guest. If there’s one knock on his show, it’s that it rarely treads into serious territory. Sanders was a nice change of pace.

The Whisper Challenge 

The Whisper Challenge is one of my favorite bits jimmy does with his guests. Like last night’s Pictionary, it brings out a genuine honesty in the guests. If you don’t know about it, one person puts on noise canceling headphones while the other person picks up a card and reads the card. The person with the headphones has to try to read the lips of the person saying what’s on the card.

It took a second for Sanders to understand how it work since he actually just tried mouthing the phrase. Jimmy, who had headphones on, couldn’t tell the difference. Check out the confusion in the clip below. Line of the bit: Jimmy to Bernie: “I love that you’re yelling and the headphones aren’t even on.

John Cena

John shared a nice story of meeting show producer Lorne Michaels backstage. Apparently, John was utterly star struck by meeting him. All he could say to him was “America” after he was complimented by Lorne on his work in the upcoming “Sisters.” I forgot he was even in the upcoming movie led by Tina Few and Amy Poehler, but that’s what he was on to promote. Cena is a great guest; very down to earth, legitimately funny. He’d be great on SNL.  He’s an excellent fit of light hearted fun of The Tonight Show. 

Jimmy was smart to work Cena into a bit in which he monologues about what love is and former love that got away. The lights dim, and the music comes on while John addresses the camera about love. Jimmy played it perfectly in the background, totally confused about what’s going on. It eventually broke into “Hello” by Adele. Lorne needs to sign Cena up for SNL ASAP!

Troye Sivan

The Tuesday show concluded with a performance by YouTube musician Troye Sivan. Check it out below.

Fallon is prepping for a great Wednesday show with former SNL star Amy Poehler. It’s always great when former SNL stars drop by the tonight show.

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