So I understand, Dr. Herron, you do not like the humor or shall I say non-humor of Jimmy Fallon. Well sir, I am here to introduce to you Fallon’s genius tactic of cracking jokes using the act of writing a thank you note (which we all find arduous) to expand his audience by creating a common ground among all personas from computer nerds, to cat owners, to the parents of graduating high school seniors, to church goers. In order to make this video more bearable to some of you anti-Fallon friends, please fast forward in this clip of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” to two minutes and fifty-six seconds to ensure an enjoyable experience (although I do wish for you to watch the whole thing in order to fully experience Fallon’s multi-faceted humor). 🙂
Thank You Notes: Beyoncé, Pool Chalk, W.W.J.D.
Jimmy Fallon may not be considered a true comedian due to the fact that he does not use original material and relies heavily on creating common ground between celebrities and your middle class John Doe (which in reality does not exist). Although these negative connotations against Fallon’s work should be taken into consideration when choosing what show to binge watch for the next week and a half on Netflix, I want to catch you in the moment just before you choose to move to the right of “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” so that you too might watch and experience the pure joy I do from his humor. Most importantly, I will share with you the significance and intelligence hidden within Fallon’s humor.
Six months before I left for school, my mom and I began watching “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”. We would wait in excitement for his Friday night segment, “Thank You Notes” to come on and even accompany our waiting game with some popcorn and Pellegrino. Fallon uses this soon-to-be archaic gesture of writing thank you notes to express the often hidden thoughts and emotions experienced by nearly every twenty-first century human being. For example, he foils a high school graduation being the “best three hours of someone’s [the graduate’s] life to the worst three hours of someone else’s [the attendees’]”. Fallon uses this technique of relating to man’s life experiences in order to attract not just one audience, but rather a kingdom of onlookers who too, have experienced some of the topics in this segment. Fallon is also successful at inserting off kilter bits of humor as well. He discusses in this video clip how similar the image of a cat licking its derriére resembles the keyboard character, the ampersand used hundreds of times daily by people texting, emailing, posting, and blogging alongside the household cat, who is fed, loved on, and taken care of each day, by their owners all over the globe. In this instance, Fallon takes on two things common to nearly ninety percent of our population’s daily routine, compares them, and creates a hilarious, odd, and very true observation.
Due to Jimmy Fallon’s ability to create witty remarks on commonplace topics, he unites the population which in the past year has lead him to the top of the leader board in the world of late night television. This year at the People’s Choice Awards Fallon was voted “Favorite Late Night Talk Show Host” over Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, Craig Ferguson, and David Letterman.
Dr. Herron, I now have one question to ask. If Fallon took a fall, would you help him up or let him AND his ego lie in the middle of the road?
merry tomorrow 