The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Recap – 12/9

Jimmy and the gang have reached hump day. The middle of the week is usually territory to coast into the later episodes of the week. Not the case for The Tonight Show. Amy Poehler from the upcoming comedy Sisters and comedian Kevin Nealon stopped and brought laughs with them. Here’s the rundown of Wednesday’s show.

Monologue

Jimmy kicked off the monologue by congratulated Germany Prime Minister Angela Merkel for being named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. That segued nicely into a congratulations to Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon for being recognized by Time for her impression of Hillary Clinton. Video of Donald Trump has surfaced from a Time photoshoot of him posing with a bald eagle. The eagle attempted to attack Trump multiple times. It was easy work for Jimmy to poke fun at the republican hopeful. The Victoria Secret models have been making the late night rounds. They showed up on Colbert earlier this week. Fallon mentioned them on tonight’s monologue. Since many of them are foreign, he joked that Trump changed his mind about immigrants.

Joke of the monologue: “It was announced that Jeb Bush has dropped by 5% in the polls. Jeb said that it’s not a time to panic, because the time to panic was, like, 5 months ago.”

To the desk

Grammy Award winning singer Lalah Hathaway joined The Roots on tonight’s show. Per usual, Jimmy thanked her for being in attendance and helping out with the show.

10 Days of Christmas Sweaters

Continuing the tradition, Jimmy is moving forward with his own show advent calendar called 10 Days of Christmas Sweaters. It’s day four. In a twist of fate, tonight’s winner happened to be jewish. He accepted the gift gratefully, but added that he would be giving it to someone else.

The Guests 

Amy Poehler

It’s always a treat when former SNL stars stop by for The Tonight Show. It’s even better when it’s cast members that shared the stage with Jimmy. Poehler came out and said she just arrived a few minutes before hand due to heavy holiday traffic. It didn’t show. She seems totally ready for showtime. Jimmy kicked off the interview by congratulating her on her role in Pixar’s Inside Out. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. It’s terrific for people of all ages.

The two laughed about there being no prep for the interview, but the two are such perfect improvisors that it was impossible to tell. It helps that the two are old friends and colleagues. They broke into a conversation about their children. Her son is apparently scared of movies, so he hasn’t seen Inside Out. 

While setting up the upcoming Sisters, Amy joked about not knowing that it was coming out on the same day the highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In her words, “Star Wars is going to be sold out anyway, so go see Sisters. Or see both. It’s not illegal.”

The two had some fun with the audience during the commercial break. Check out the clip below.

Truth or Truth

Truth or Truth isn’t my favorite bit, but it’s a good choice of bit for guests who are expert improvisors. Truth or Truth basically involves the guest and Jimmy trying to top each other with outlandish truths about themselves; all of them are fictitious. Check out the two of them flex their improv muscles below.

Kevin Nealon

Another SNL alum stopped by The Tonight Show, and his name is Kevin Nealon. In addition to being an interviewed guest, Nealon replaced the usual musical guest by performing some standup. It’s been a while since I’ve heard Nealon perform standup, but he hasn’t lost a step. As Higgins puts it, “It’s like deadpan with emotion.” He came out with the shocking thought, “Have you ever been eating popcorn at a friends’ house and wondered if it’s also their throw up bowl? Because it is our house.” He was as comfortable and confident as ever. It’s worth checking out once it pops up online.

Nealon carried that energy past his standup when he sat in the chair for the interview. He played the audience by announcing news that’s always sure to get applause: “My wife and I are expecting our second child. We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary. We’re also volunteering at a soup kitchen.” But it turned out none of it was true. Playing the audience is always a great bit.

Tomorrow should be another strong episode in an already excellent week of Tonight Shows. Superstar Chris Hemsworth and comedian show favorite Jim Gaffigan stop by. If you can’t stay up, be sure to check back here for a full recap.