Lastly, NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon welcomed Jon Lovitz. This is a bit of inspired casting, considering Lovitz used to do a whole character based on a pathological liar. (“Yeah, that’s the ticket” was, indeed, a bit of a catchphrase back in the day.) At first, the gags come off a little simple (just listing famous stuff and claiming to have been behind it all), but Lovitz wins points by doing a weird James Mason-like voice that sounds nothing like George Santos, then saying he created gravity.
Rarely do we have an opportunity to do such a clear compare and contrast between the three big late night shows (some of the individual jokes are almost the same), so we should take advantage.
In this reporter’s opinion, Kimmel’s staff was the most creative in the writing and physical production. Nelson Franklin had to hit his marks and choreograph with the camera while keeping a straight face—that ain’t easy! However, his take on the material, perhaps because so much else is going on, is the most straightforward. Guillén, on the other hand, really sinks his teeth into it, and is clearly enjoying camping-it-up. Some of the individual jokes, however, are repetitive and kinda fall flat. Colbert, however, is phenomenal, as ever, as the straight man.
The Tonight Show’s play, however, has a bit of magic pixie dust. (Also, Fallon-as-interviewer wisely keeps it simple.) Maybe it’s just my nostalgia for Lovitz, but the fact that it goes completely bonkers by the end, with the 65-year-old comic singing “My Way,” is some quality old-school schtick—a throwback to Borscht Belt humor Santos’s probably-not-actually-Jewish grandparents would have loved.
Assuming this scandal continues, we’re all lucky to have three game comic performers ready to help the nation get through this.
Jordan Hoffman
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