The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Recap – 1/7

Fallon had a nearly legendary show last night on Wednesday. Billy Joel stopped by to play not once, but twice for the New York studio audience. One had Jimmy singing backup for a cover of “Beast of Burden” by The Rolling Stones. Thursday night’s episode had a lot to live up to. Here’s the full recap of Thursday’s Tonight Show.

Monologue

Jimmy’s hair was particularly unkempt on Thursday night. Not sure if a stylist didn’t check him properly, or he didn’t look close enough in the mirror, but the frizzled hair was pretty noticeable right off the bat. It didn’t cause him to miss a step with the jokes. It was a noticeably longer monologue than usual. I guess they couldn’t fill the rest of the show with games and music in this episode.

Jimmy started right into some Trump-focused jokes. He recently said in an interview that the press is starting to like him. The punchline: and the press responded, “Like you? Have you seen our ratings? We love you!” Topics shifted to Hillary after that. It was announced that Michael Bolton will be performing at a fundraiser for Hillary. That transitioned nicely into a great visual bit of old pictures of Bolton with his old hair styles from the 80’s and 90’s paired with fictional quotes from him about the performance. The quotes got more and more annoyed that old pictures of him were being used. Old Michael Bolton pictures are comedy gold on their own. Mark, the bassist from The Roots, got into a bit, which is always enjoyable. The bit was about some news that said eating late night snacks can hinder your memory. Mark apparently suffers from a terrible memory, and can’t even remember own name without referencing writing on his hand.

Joke of the monologue: “President Obama will give his final State of the Union address next week. The theme of the address will be, ‘I really was born in Kenya. What are you gonna do about it now, suckers?!'”

To the Desk

Tonight Show Hashtags

In the Thursday Tonight Show tradition, Fallon and his writers gather some of the funniest tweets out there for a specific hashtag. Tonight’s hashtag: #WorstFirstDate. Here are some of the best:

The Guests

Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo is always up for some Tonight Show hijinks he came out playing air guitar to his intro music. Fallon jumped into some questions about his Golden Globe nomination for Infinitely Polar Bear. Mark sounded bummed that not many people saw it. There wasn’t much conversation about that movie, as Jimmy went right into family talk and Spotlight. His kids apparently don’t want to see him playing anyone else’s dad or anyone else’s husband. Jimmy surprised him with something that he could show his kids: a Clearasil commercial from 1989 that starred a young Ruffalo! The commercial was certainly a highlight of the show.

After the break Ruffalo surprised Jimmy by pretending to sneeze, but pulling out a J Crew Pocket Square out of his jacket. In case you missed it, The J Crew Pocket Square is a phone case / pocket square. It’s something that Jimmy came up with and Ruffalo uses one.

Conversation eventually got back on track to talk about Spotlight. It was a tough transition going from laughing about pocket squares to something as serious as the subject matter of Spotlight. They showed an explosive clip that makes me want to see the movie even more than I already do. There was no game played with Ruffalo, which means there was no game played with anyone on this episode. So that’s a bummer.

Kendrick Lamar 

One thing I like about Fallon’s Tonight Show is that he has interviews with musical guests. They aren’t just tucked away at the end of the episode for a performance. Kendrick made his television debut a few years ago, and now he’s back to promote his album and his 12 Grammy nominations. Jimmy talked to him about those nominations and about Kendrick’s past. Jimmy played a mashup for him of his song Swimming Pools mashed with the theme from the video game Super Mario Kart. Kendrick enjoyed it, but said he doesn’t play video games anymore. Now he says he raps to blow off steam instead of video games.

Next: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Recap - 1/6

Thursday’s episode closed with a performance from Kendrick as he performed his song Untitled pt. 2. He brought the house down, as he usually does. He seems to have plenty of confidence going into Grammy season.

Check back tomorrow for a recap of Fallon’s Friday show. He’ll welcome guests Tyler Perry, Wagner Maura and Illiza Schlesinger. See you then!