Jimmy Fallon returned to host The Tonight Show in spectacular fashion after #RIPJimmyFallon blew up on Twitter.
Fallon arrived to perform his monologue on Wednesday night's show with a church choir, excitedly singing "I'm alive." He later gave his account of what happened as the phrase trended online and earnestly told the audience that he still has "a lot to live for."
The hashtag "RIPJimmyFallon" started tending earlier this week, seemingly out of nowhere. Fallon initially tweeted at Twitter CEO Elon Musk to help make it stop, and Musk seemingly played along by replying.
"Wait a second, how do we know you're not an alien body snatcher pretending to be Jimmy!?" Musk said to Fallon on Twitter. "Say something that only the real Jimmy would say..."
Fallon didn't reply to Musk's request.
After arriving on stage, he sang and danced with the high-energy choir for over a minute, saying he "paid $8 for that Blue Check Mark in the sky" before going on to make a number of jokes about it in his monologue.
After the monologue was over, Fallon explained to the audience that he had been the subject of a death hoax about ten years ago, so it wasn't as traumatic the second time around. He was out to dinner with his wife when his phone started going off and he discovered the news. "Oh, that's terrible. I loved you," Fallon said his wife told him.
"I think this one just started as a joke, like 'RIP Jimmy Fallon' and they had pictures of different hosts or something," Fallon said. "First of all, I'm not gonna die. I'm very healthy and I have a lot to live for. I have two little girls. I'll live for a long time, so you don't have to worry about me. I'm good. When eventually I do die, I won't be checking social media, so you don't have to say anything."
The death hoax came about after a post appearing to be from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon started making the rounds on the social media platform. It read, "It is with heavy hearts we announce the passing of late night legend, husband, and father of two, Jimmy Fallon. 1923-2022."
The hoax, which featured an incorrect birth date, likely caught on because the account that tweeted it featured a blue check mark, which contributed to its authenticity. It was part of a wave of hoaxes and parody accounts that cropped up on Twitter after Musk introduced a paid verification plan, which has since been frozen with an intention to relaunch on November 29.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jamie Burton is a Newsweek Senior TV and Film Reporter (Interviews) based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
