When it comes to late night hosts, we’re still not quite used to Jimmy Fallon poking fun at President Donald Trump. Sure, he does the odd impression, but it’s nothing long the lines of the digs that Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, or Jon Stewart will regularly make. Yet, The Tonight Show host is starting to change tactics.
Just after recently poking fun at the takeover in Venezuela — even going as far as to call Trump a dictator — Fallon opted to put together a monologue to follow up on that. This focused on discussions about Greenland, which led to a montage of clips that focused on Trump’s poor pronunciation of words.
Jimmy Fallon pokes fun at Donald Trump
It all started with Fallon catching everyone up on the events of the week, which included Trump deciding that he wanted to invade Greenland. Fallon shared, “Trump’s threatening to invade Greenland just after he invaded Venezuela, or as he calls it…,” and then went into a video of Trump failing to correctly pronounce the country.
Now sure, there are people who will struggle to pronounce words, and they often come out and say that they’ve always struggled. Or they listen to the correct pronunciation and then correct themselves. Trump doesn’t do that and just keeps going with the conversation.
Sadly, as Fallon pointed out, it’s not just the one country, and Trump even struggled to say “United States.” Although, I will say that plenty of people get Namibia wrong and say "Nambia."
The jabs come as a surprise, as Fallon has routinely stayed clear of politics. He does impressions, but that’s it, keeping the focus on entertainment.
Is The Tonight Show trying to boost the ratings?
I can’t help but wonder if there is an ulterior motive to the sudden change of direction for the monologues. Now, it could be that Fallon and the writers just find them funny, but it comes at a time when the 2025 ratings show that the late night shows are in decline. Could this be a way for The Tonight Show to get a boost?
Jimmy Kimmel Live! tends to be at the top of the linear ratings in the demo, and it’s no surprise that Kimmel’s name is constantly on Trump’s mind. The two are constantly going back and forth against each other, with Colbert close behind. Fallon doesn’t tend to be mentioned as much, and that could be hampering the show’s ratings. If Trump talks about Fallon more, could it get more viewers interested in The Tonight Show? Or is that the type of content that the demographic is looking for?
Only time will tell. I guess it all depends on whether Fallon keeps going with the quips or not.
The Tonight Show airs on weeknights at 11:35/10:35c on NBC.