A couple days ago, Fallon did yet another skit on his show, where he takes popular rap songs and re-imagines them as lounge music. This last time he did it with Anne Hathaway and it was all over the media outlets. The problem is, this skit is a total ripoff of another performer who goes by the name "Richard Cheese". He doesn't even give him credit at all, or at least invite him on the show to perform his act once in a while. For a comparison, Fallon's skit is below: Log In Now here is the Richard Cheese version which came out many years prior: Log In This isn't the first time Fallon has done this. As a matter of fact, he even went so far as to copy his leopard print jacket. Another thing annoying me with Fallon is that he keeps joining in on all his musical acts, in some "character", usually impersonating another musician - this is so annoying. I tune in to see a live performance from a band I like and I gotta deal with him clowning around during the whole number, ruining it.
Wow, this is the first time I've seen or heard about any of this. The last girl I dated really turned me on to Jimmy Fallon and now I think he's hilarious, I love his skits, especially where he sings Reading Rainbow like he's Bob Dylan. I like the guy a lot actually but I can see how someone would get irritated at the stuff you described =\, to each his own I suppose!
I might be wrong, but I think most of the segments on these shows are made more by the writers in it than the host themselves, so I'd assume that a writer in that show might just have been a fan of the act you provided as comparison. As for his other actions, it might just be attributed to generation gap, as these types of shows usually do cater/pander to certain generations and it just might be the type of thing the current generation is into. I myself grew up with Conan and my uncles can't stand him for being too "silly", while I never found much amusement from the previous generations of talk shows such as Leno's and Letterman's for being too tame.
Funny thing was Letterman used to be considered edgy when he first debuted, but now he's ancient. I like him, but he needed to get off the air years ago, he doesn't even tell jokes anymore, it's more like senile rambling and weird facial expressions. I used to like Fallon and Seth Meyers when they were on SNL, but I'm not crazy about them at all as late night hosts. Fallon is too one-note, I cant imagine his show several years from now and he is *still* doing the same gags over and over, and inviting Justin Timberlake on the show like once a week. I know Leno had his funny headlines bit, and Letterman had his top ten lists, but those were more suitable to doing on a regular basis, because they changed with the current events. Fallon's gags, such as with the bands he has on the show, are just him getting nostalgic over some older songs and singing them poorly, it gets old real quick. Seth Meyers show needs to fire their writers asap, and bring on some better talent. His jokes are so awful, I sometimes feel like he is even uncomfortable telling them because he knows how much they suck. Plus Fred Armisen as his band leader? Fred's band is like a bunch of 50 somethings trying to act like 20 something mid 90's hipsters.
I had a feeling that Letterman was considered edgy before, as I've seen a good amount of his earlier interviews and even watched and liked him to some degree when I was younger and didn't even understand most of the jokes. He certainly seems to be just phoning it in now, but in my opinion, some of the old edge is still visible in his style. As for the new hosts, to be fair, it does take a while to get used to the job and really find one's identity in it. Even Conan, whom I like, admittedly took a good number of years to get settled in and it's arguable that he's taken a decade or more to get really good at it, so hopefully, the new hosts will find their own voice and grow into their roles more in the years to come.
