So what kind of dorky hijinks was Jimmy the geek up to on Friday, June 26?
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon is by far the nerdiest late night show on network television. Our Twittering, video-blogging host has welcomed tech bloggers and Diggnation dudes as headlining guests; he’s showcased the latest gadgets—from XBox 360’s wireless controller to the Palm Pre—on his show and we (mostly) love him for it. With the help of Fallon’s co-producer, G4-TV Attack of the Show! vet Gavin Purcell, Late Night is courting that hyper-connected millenial audience—and they’re watching.
It was the last show of the week, so Jimmy seemed to let all his geek out for the weekend. His monologue covered Apple’s ban of the soft-core porn iPhone app, the dangers of texting while driving, a solar-powered airplane, and a robotic surgeon. Even his Mark Sanford joke was about the cheating South Carolina governor returning home to his wife and asking if he got any emails (although there was a karaoke sketch later on)!
Cameron Diaz was on to shill her new movie, My Sister’s Keeper, and was psyched to set a world record with Corey Henderson and Dan Rollman, the mustard-suited fellas from Universal Record Database. The URB is a Web-based project that is like a Wikipedia of World Records, in which anyone who shoots video him- or herself setting a record can upload the video online and challenge others to try to top it, with “achievements” including Most Candy Corns Fit in a Closed Mouth (46 pieces) and Fastest Completion of Five Cartwheels (5.15 seconds).
After airing a video of the Roots’ ?uestlove setting a record for most “afro picks” in his hair (101!), Ms. Diaz climbed into a swinging hammock, got under a bright pink blanket and had an animal handler pile rabbits all over her. She made a Most Bunnies Snuggled With in a Hammock record (48). Cute overload!
Then Bre Pettis, of Brooklyn hacker collective NYC Resistor and MakerBot Industries fame, brought on Goldie the MakerBot, a robot that makes things like plastic figurines and, with a special attachment, can squirt frosting on top of cupcakes. He set a Fastest Time for a Robot to Frost a Cupcake record. “Nobody will ever get carpel tunnel for frosting cupcakes ever again,” Mr. Pettis said. A minor gear malfunciton made the sweet stuff look a little wonky, like a “Twisted Sister logo,” Jimmy said, before taking a bite out of the cupcake.
According to the MakerBot blog, Erykah Badu, who was sitting on stage as a guest of The Roots, saw the robot make a plastic model of the Empire State Building and said, “Your machine made that? Get the f*** out!”
Before the Grizzly Bear performance, Jimmy decided to get in on the fun. Armed with a black marker, he ran out of his set and drew mustaches on audience members (including his mom!). He set the record for Most Mustaches Drawn on the Most Strangers in 30 Seconds (14).
So how did Jimmy do? Here’s the score:
Geekiness factor (out of five): 4.5
Good-television factor (out of five): 4
Total: 8.5 out of 10. Jimmy’s geeky jokes during the monologue got points for getting a bunch of laughs, and bringing on the URB guys seemed like real fun. Plus, a robot that frosts cupcakes? We’ll watch that (and sample the results) any day.
