Paul Drinkwater/NBCWho lives better than Jimmy Fallon?
Tonight...nobody.
The Tonight Show star had the grand task of kicking off the 2017 award season, and boy did he do it in style. It wasn't his first rodeo—Fallon hosted the 2010 Emmy Awards—but the pressure riding on the comedian to set this year off in high fashion was not to be underestimated. And, ladies and gentleman, pressure looks good on Jimmy Fallon.
It all started with a malfunctioning teleprompter, because what else can really throw you into the fire besides something going wrong immediately after you've set foot on the stage for the first time? (Sure, Fallon had just killed it with a hilarious La La Land-themed musical opening number, complete with some super intimate moments with Justin Timberlake, but no matter).
Contrary to nobody's opinion, Jimmy handled the roadblock like a champ. Or, rather, like a total jokester. He took the opportunity to riff while the production team no doubt scrambled their a--ses off, sweating with panic all the while.
"Welcome to the Golden Globes, and already the teleprompter is down," he began. "This is a great way to start the show. I can do impressions. What do we do here? I can think of something. Cut to Justin Timberlake, please. Just wink at me or something. You know what, I'll make up this monologue."
Whether he made it up or not (just kidding; the monologue was totally scripted), it brought the laughs. Some at the expense of the electoral college: "This is the Golden Globes, one of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote." Some at the expense of the year 2016: "Manchester by the Sea is nominated for five awards—you might remember Manchester by the Sea as being the only thing in 2016 that was more depressing than 2016."
And some at the expense of the upcoming inauguration: "Florence Foster Jenkins is nominated tonight; the character has been dubbed the world's worst opera singer, and even she turned down performing at Donald Trump's inauguration."
After the monologue the show really belonged to the movies (and the actors and the directors and the writers and...you get it), but Fallon managed to sneak in a few barbs whenever he could. He tossed a zinger to our dear Mariah Carey, who recently suffered a technical malfunction during her recent New Year's Eve performance: "I just got off the phone with Mariah Carey and she thinks that Dick Clark Productions sabotaged my monologue."
He tossed a zinger to Sting by doing a bizarrely spot-on impression of "Roxanne." And finally, he tossed a zinger to Leonardo DiCaprio: "He calls me, 'Will you hold my drink for me?'"
Burn, Jimmy. Burn.