A few years ago I had an ingrown hair at the top of my ass crack. To say that it was unpleasant is a massive understatement. It hurt to walk, it hurt to stand and it hurt to sit. Everything hurt so bad that it almost made me regret shaving there in the first place, but the rimjobs that I demand in any loving relationship are pretty much the only thing that makes me feel alive. Sure, I got one of my greatest posts out of it, but I honestly thought that I was quickly dying of asshole cancer.
And you know what? That agonizing ingrown hair was still funnier than Jimmy Fallon. It wasn't boring and it actually brought joy to dozens of people on the world wide web, two things that can't be said of the current host of NBC's Late Night.
I know that I probably take comedy too seriously. But I see it as no different than writing a song, if doing it well was easy, then everybody would be doing it. Jimmy Fallon is what it looks like when everybody is doing it and it's almost as painful as that ingrown as hair to watch.
To be fair, Fallon isn't a comedian, he's an impressionist and they're rarely very funny on their own. They rely so heavily on their gift of mimicry that coming up with an actual joke is an afterthought. Can you, for example, remember a single punchline of Rich Little's?
Then Fallon's impression of Neil Young doing contemporary pop songs started hitting the Internet. I've got to admit that the first one, where he does the The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme was a fucking scream for three reasons. First, who in the hell does impressions of Neil? Second, few people are as famous for taking themselves as seriously as he does. Third, it's an almost subversive commentary on just how much music has come to truly suck. Besides, it's an uncanny impression and I was impressed by the idea.
Of course, as soon as a Saturday Night Live hack like Jimmy comes up with something clever and amusing, he's almost obligated to drive it right into the ground. I make it a point to avoid watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but I can almost guarantee you that he's done the "Neil Sings Contemporary Pop" at least half a dozen times since spring.
So how do you top it? Well, you have Neil cover "Whip My Hair" by Will Smith's kid, far and away the most vapid song in human history. And you get Bruce Springsteen to duet on it, proving that the Boss has a previously undiscovered sense of humor. Dressing Bruce up like he's still on the 1975 Born to Run tour was a stroke of genius.
Hey, Jimmy made a funny and executed it flawlessly. Who knew that was even possible?
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