Late night comedian Jimmy Fallon had the audacity to treat then-candidate Donald Trump like a human being when he was interviewed on his show in mid-September. For such a grave sin, Fallon sat down with The New York Times for a lengthy confessional presented as an interview: “Jimmy Fallon was on top of the world. Then came Trump,” reads the headline.
Viewers “have a right to be mad,” confessed the former Saturday Night Live cast member.
Fallon was lambasted by unhinged left-leaning critics and social media warriors after his “softball” interview with Trump. Apparently Fallon was supposed to drop all comedy and morph into Bret Baier, or perhaps sucker-punch Trump to appease the Trump-haters.
“If I let anyone down, it hurt my feelings that they didn’t like it. I got it,” Fallon pathetically told The Times.
The Tonight Show host went on to apologize for jokingly tousling Trump’s iconic hair. Seriously.
“I didn’t do it to humanize him,” sin-stained Fallon rationalized. “I almost did it to minimize him. I didn’t think that would be a compliment: ‘He did the thing that we all wanted to do.’”
The Times noted that the hair-tousling still haunts Fallon.
The NBC host continued, explaining that the online-backlash from keyboard warriors left him “devastated.”
“If there’s one bad thing on Twitter about me, it will make me upset. So, after this happened, I was devastated. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just trying to have fun,” he said.
Fallon labeled himself a “people pleaser.”
You don’t say.
The confession-spree continued: Fallon said he should have addressed the interview with his late-night audience.
“I didn’t talk about it, and I should have talked about it,” he said. “I regret that.”
“I feel like it’s sailed,” added Fallon in shame. “I haven’t talked about it at all.”
Showing a smidgeon of tolerance and awareness, The Tonight Show host admitted, “I tossed and turned for a couple of weeks, but I have to make people laugh. … People that voted for Trump watch my show as well.”
“There’s only so many bits you can do,” concluded Fallon. “I’m happy that only 50 percent of my monologue is about Trump.”