The athletes of the 2018 Winter Olympics might be breaking records in ice hockey and speed skating, but Jimmy Fallon has just set his own Olympic-style record for shortest talk show ever.
Due to preemption by NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage, “The Tonight Show” will be cut down to just five-minute segments every night this week. The first edition of what is being called “Fallon Five” aired last night.
“Thank you, please stop clapping, we only have five minutes,” Fallon told the audience as he rushed through the opening monologue. “The show’s already over.”
The late-night host didn’t miss a beat, however, as he nailed timely pop-culture jokes, interviewed Paul Rudd, and even found time to perform a musical number.
“Today is Day 11 of the Winter Olympics, but it is Day 12 of Fergie’s national anthem,” Fallon joked, making fun of the singer’s controversial performance at this past Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game. “I don’t wanna say it was rough, but even Trump took a knee.”
He also touched upon the Games themselves, turning his attention to German ice skater Paul Fentz who performed his routine to music from “Game of Thrones”. Taking the TV-inspired theme even further, the host reintroduced the clip with the Spongebob Squarepants theme song dubbed over the top.
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Fallon just had time to squeeze in a one-minute interview with Rudd, who was there to promote his new Netflix movie, “Mute”, which he was able to give a two-word description of (“sci-fi noir”) before introducing a very, very short clip.
The pair concluded the fast-paced show with a quick rendition of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout”.
“Fallon Five” will air every night this week. Watch last night’s edition in the video above.
