Because he’s not just ANY simpering penis,
he’s a simpering penis with name recognition.
So apparently, the mighty Conan has served up his last show and been finally (deservedly) moved up into the 11:30PM slot that Leno will be stepping down from shortly. Hopefully, his show will remain the same quirky, original and usually pretty hilarious broadcast it is now, and he doesn’t take a page from Letterman’s book (“How I Got My 11:30 Slot, Stopped Being Funny, and Turned Bitchy and Repetitive).
I’m not much of a late night viewer actually, so I wasn’t really up on all of this until recently, and I certainly didn’t know they’d given his show to Jimmy Fallon until I came across it the other night. Jimmy Fallon. The smirking little tool from Saturday Night Live (a completely empty endorsement, that) is taking over for Conan O’Brien, giving me one more good reason to go to bed early.
Look at me smirking in my Snuggie!! Can't you see I'm both funny AND ironic?
I caught some of this pool of taint-sweat last week (and just to confirm my suspicions, I tuned in again tonight for as long as I could stand it) and simply could not believe how monumentally horrible and unfunny it is. This guy is a bigger talentless hack than Janeane Garofalo, who I whined about in this piece about jumping the shark (you have my word I’ll try to avoid bringing her up again). His writers suck out loud, he’s awkward (and not in a good way like O’Brien was), he couldn’t make an interview interesting if he had naked cheerleaders on as guests, and he doesn’t seem to know that you aren’t funny just because you giggle at yourself and smirk a lot.
In the future, if I’m looking for entertainment at 12:30 in the morning I’d rather just head down to Long John Silver’s, climb into their dumpster, and play “I wonder why this tastes so funny?” for an hour.
Can we talk about why the SNL thing and the blight of it’s third tier alums will not go away?
That show has been 95% suck since the 80’s, and 80% suck before that…. It all went south not just because of the departure of the original cast, but when Mr. Mike (Michael O’Donoghue) left as head writer. Without doubt, he was one of the funniest and smartest satirists EVER. Died of a cerebral hemorrhage in the 90’s (or maybe the 80’s). I loved me some Mr. Mike.
But more to your point Jack, it’s an abomination before the comedy gods that these people have careers. That said, the show Eastbound and Down probably wouldn’t exist were it not for the terrifically uneven Will Ferrell, so for that I have to thank him. Because that is one hilarious fucking show. (2 facts about Ferrell that I just learned: he’s only 41, and his dad was a keyboardist for the Righteous Brothers)
I saw Will Ferrell on Charlie Rose on night and he was not remotely funny “in real life”. What he was, was ridiculously sober about his work and his approach to comedy -specifically film comedy. He’s going for Charlie Chaplin and who’s to say he can’t take his shot.
The only shot he deserves to take is a money shot.
You know, I just realized you were talking about Ferrel, not Fallon. My comment applies to the latter not the former, but I’m leaving it up because I amuse me.
I enjoyed Conan O’Brien’s show but I have to admit that I don’t know who Jimmy Fallon is.
Brom: Count yourself lucky.
Brad: I loved O’Dononghue and all of the funnier NATIONAL LAMPOON writers who eventually became original SNL writers and creators of ANIMAL HOUSE.
From context I’m deriving that Jimmy Fallon is an SNL veteran of one of their more fallow periods. Still never saw him do any sketches and his face is not familiar to me.
We discussed the torture of watching The Flat Walrus on Charlie Rose — I saw the youtube; we don’t get PBS on CABLE ONDA. I’ve found when Rose is with a real Washington insider, conventional wisdom, K-Street type, he’s unbearable.
On the other hand when he’s with someone outside thta world who interests him, Rose is a great interviewer and you never want it to end. He was amazing dedicating full hours to each of Noam Chomsky, David Duval and Quentin Tarantino.
You are correct: Fallon is a late SNL alum. If you like O’Donoghue, you should see if you can get a copy of his biography, Mr. Mike, written by Dennis Perrin. I believe it’s out of print but you should be able to get a used copy from amazon.com – it gives you a complete picture of what a genius Mr. Mike was (and makes me desperately want a copy of The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist, also out of print and too spendy for the likes of me).
As for Rose, I agree for the most part – though I always find him irritating to SOME degree. My nightmare: me, Rose, Friedman, and Gore Vidal on a desert island. Although perhaps the opportunity to throw coconuts at their heads would mitigate my misery somewhat.
[...] a news item for fawning commentators everywhere, be talked about on late night TV by people like that smarmy spastic colon Jimmy Fallon, and become fodder for plenty of crappy local newscasters’ giggle-fits all across the [...]