By DONNA BALANCIA
When everything should have been right, it all went wrong on the fifth anniversary of the The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Monday night.
The special show was inspired by the Larry Sanders Show and was a spoof of large proportions.
“Everyone’s mad, I should have been a mailman,” Fallon said in exasperation after taking a ration from his coworkers sniping at him from backstage.
Even his sidekick Steve Higgins was caught pitching his Barbecue cook book on the air.
The night started off with an angry interview with Tina Fey, and was followed by an argument with the affable Robert Irwin, son of conservationist and beloved Steve Irwin. Fallon tells the 15-year-old kid “who cares” about his animals.
“You’re a very bad person,” Irwin tells Fallon backstage. On stage, Fallon and Robert get cheeky with a Monitor Lizard, the largest owl in the world and then Robert presents a plain house cat, because as he whispers “who cares.”
Guests were Florida Georgia Line, Robert DeNiro, Fey and Ben Stiller who proved once and for all it’s been him in the Hashtag The Panda costume all this time.
But even the typically happy Hashtag was having a rough night.
“It’s no big deal just heard it was your fifth anniversary show,” Stiller said. “I flew across the country to see the look of surprise on your face when I surprised you.”
“What’s his problem?” Fallon asks after Stiller storms off. “The surprise got blown.”
Musical guests Florida Georgia Line also had some issues with Fallon, as did DeNiro, who also stormed off the set. But as weird as the show was, it was all in good fun as the best part of the offbeat show — the outtakes — proved.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon began Feb. 17, 2014.