Years ago, this writer couldn’t get enough of Jimmy Fallon. He was fun, he was charming, and he offered up a quick party before bedtime on Late Night. He wasn’t Conan weird, but weird enough (see: Let Us Play With Your Look), and it helped that he booked the best musical guests out of anyone in the game (see: The Replacements).
Well, then he got The Tonight Show, after good ol’ Jay Leno decided to retire for the fifth time, and he turned into something else. “He’s playing ball,” one might argue, but not even The Incorrigible Chin felt this pandering. That laugh, that fist pump, that feel-good, “everything’s gonna be alright”-mindset … it’s just so goddamn plastic.
So, of course, nobody was surprised how things turned out when he interviewed Donald Trump last week. Samantha Bee put it best in her recent takedown, saying: “Why do so many Americans think playing footsie with fringe hate groups isn’t a disqualifier from polite society, much less the presidency? Maybe because that’s the message they get from entertainment giants like NBC.”
This morning, however, Vic Berger’s own Super Deluxe series summed up the entire reason we’re still shaking our heads. Now, if you’re used to Berger’s style of comedy — see: everything he’s done with Steve Harvey — then you won’t be too confused by the fast cuts, instant-closeups, and manic repetition. This one’s for the bookmarks, folks.
