Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Many people will tell you Jimmy Fallon was the bane of Saturday Night Live in the 2000s. He laughed during sketches and seemed to just be there for his “boyish charm” and sex appeal instead of any real comedic talent. He sucked in movies too. Why should you watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon?

Getting hired as a late night network talk show host is like getting tenure at an Ivy League institute. And as is such with tenured professors, being fired from Princeton doesn't mean you couldn't get a good gig going at Cornell, or at least NYU. The dust has settled with Jay Leno back at The Tonight Show, Conan on basic cable and Carson Daily still on Mars. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon managed to get through its first year on air, surviving Chevy Chase syndrome. Jimmy Fallon is not Craig Ferguson or Chevy Chase or Conan O’Brian or Jay Leno or Letterman and that is why Late Night is a success.

Unlike other the other late night hosts, Jimmy Fallon’s strength is not primarily his persona, but instead the production surrounding it. Fallon is the opposite of what a late night host should be according to the standardly followed Johnny Carson precedent. His monologue is usually weak (and smartly kept short) and he is usually too star-struck by his guests to ask any seriously investigatory questions. Though the interviews and monologues have both improved over the past year, the highlights of Late Night are the fantastically absurd comedy creations by Fallon’s writers and producers.

The Fallon writing staff includes A.D. Miles of Wet Hot American Summer and Tim and Eric Show fame; fellow Wet Hot writer with credits including Strangers with Candy and the gone to soon Stella, David Wain; Morgan Murphy, who recently won the ECNY award (the New York City comedian’s Oscar) for best female standup; and Jon Friedman, creator of the cult hit Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre Rejection Show, who may or may not be responsible for Late Night’s distinct New-York-underground-comedy-scene feel. Put all these writers in a room and you have material not even Jimmy Fallon could screw up.

One consistently risible segment of the show that is a prime example of the Late Night writer’s skills is “Thank You Notes.” Root’s pianist Jamal plays a melodramatic lifetime movie esque tune while Jimmy reads aloud in as sincere a tone as he can manage his weekly thank you notes. For example, “Thank you crutches, for letting me know how people would walk if our legs came out of our armpits.” or “Thank you ponytails, for making the backs of girls heads look like horse butts.”

The production quality of Jimmy Fallon has to be the most creative if not best in late night. The visuals are practically as aesthetically intriguing as they are funny. “Ultimate Moustache Fighter” involves two giant sized famous moustaches (the most recent match up: Santana vs. 80’s John Oates) fighting in a UFC style octagon competition enclosure complete with authentically ridiculous commentary by Jimmy and sidekick/announcer Steve Higgins.

Consistent with its hip humor is Late Night’s outstanding online content which is the key to retaining a television audience in this day and age of YouTube and DVR. Late night talk shows traditionally have to compete with sleep- Jimmy Fallon does not.

If you’re still not convinced, did I mention The Roots are the house band?

Aqua

Taking a walk through the city on a sunny day, one may find there are as many masterpieces in the infrastructure surrounding the Chicago Art Institute as there are housed inside. Inside the Institute hangs Georges-Pierre Seurat’s impressively meticulous painting “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte”. Outside, on the corner of State St. and Madison stands Louis Sullivan’s “Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building” romantically dripping cast iron. Inside, Edward Hopper’s cool and iconic “Nighthawks”. Outside, Miles van der Rohe’s tall, dark and handsome “IBM Building”. And then, as pure and ethereal as Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Sky Above Clouds IV”, there is Jeanne Gang’s “Aqua”.

Completed in 2010, the award winning skyscraper stands 82 storey’s tall and houses retail and office space as well as 18 floors of hotel rooms, 476 rental units and 263 condominiums. “Aqua” echoes the breezy waves of nearby Lake Michigan with curved concrete balconies that wrap around the structure creating a soft sculptural facade. The structure is a visual relief in (as described on Studio Gang’s website) “an increasingly dense city like Chicago.” The building somehow captures innocence and purity, a rare feat for a mass of concrete and steal.

As impressive as its aesthetics is the building’s simplicity, efficiency and use of green technology. The wavy face of “Aqua” is not only beautiful, but actually disperses high winds allowing for balconies on even the top floors of the building with minimal enclosure. The architecture is technologically advanced without the convoluted mess of materials that exemplifies some contemporary skyscrapers. It seamlessly integrates into its environment, coexisting instead of imposing.

Perhaps “Aqua” is so invigorating because Jeanne Gang’s studio doesn’t primarily build skyscrapers. Studio Gang’s structures come from a fresh perspective with strong principals of both sustainability and creativity. “The Feeder” is a proposal to build suspended hothouses above the Ohio Feeder ramp on I-90. These hothouses would act as an urban farm, producing fresh and local food for downtown Chicago. Locally grown produce in the middle of a city? Brilliant! Then there is “Eco Casino” where gamblers would be entertained and educated with environmentally themed games such as betting on the weather. All profits would go directly to the State’s green initiative. The City Chicago is lucky to have a daughter as talented as Gang and her team of innovators.

Urban architecture such as “Aqua” in its practicality and inspiration is art for the common man. Gang’s work is an invaluable addition to Chicago’s collection that will forever be enjoyed by its passerby’s.