He's Come A Long Way Baby

Exactly 5 years ago today (I started this post before realizing the date was exact), I posted a classic The Roots song, "What They Do" (SOTW, 3/4/09) and the comments section became a forum to air grievances about their new (at the time) late night talk show, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

I said "The Roots are the house band for the worst late night talk show in the history of the world."
TON said "I just watched Monday's Late Night, and must admit...it was pretty bad. Jimmy Fallon seemed almost too nervous to do it...Did you see the 'lick it for 10' bit? Worst segment I've ever seen on any show."
TallSkott said "Am I the only one who doesn't think Fallon is funny?"

I think we were all correct at the time, segments like "Dance Your Hat and Gloves Off," "Wheel of Carpet Samples" and the aforementioned "Lick It for 10" were goofy ideas that just didn't work.

To their credit, the producers, writers and Fallon himself reimagined the show and started leaning on his strengths and The Roots. The show has had incredible hits with musical-themed segments that are entertaining, funny and go viral very quickly, like the 5 installments of History of Rap with Justin Timberlake.

My favorite recurring gimmick is when they sit down with an artist and play his/her popular song with kids' instruments.
The best was "Call Me Maybe" with Carley Rae Jepsen. But there was also "Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke (in which Black Thought spits a verse way doper than the cheesy one TI laid down on the actual recording). And there was also a hip-hop Sesame Street theme with the characters in studio, and Black Thought killing it once again.

The latest of these is a rendition of "Let It Go" with Idina Menzel from "Frozen."



Another recent segment I like that typifies Fallon's strength as a mimic is the hashtags segment in which they asked for viewer submissions of frequently misheard song lyrics, which Fallon then sang.



I was particularly amused by his Mick Jagger impression, "In Yugoslavia, in Yugoslavia you'll never starve."

If they continue to churn out gems like this Fallon could very well go down as a legendary late night host.

And that's something none of us saw coming 5 years ago.