Jimmy Fallon: All Around Nice Guy and Indy's New Bestest Buddy

The J-Man himself.

For those of you who may or may not know (and if you don’t, are you living under a rock? What’s wrong with you?), the Super Bowl has come to Indianapolis, which just so happens to be where this writer is from. Now the thing about the Super Bowl is that when it arrives at its destination (as sporting events anthropomorphized as a traveling being are wont to do), it brings with it the national spotlight, and if it’s one thing Indianapolis isn’t necessarily accustomed to, it’s the national spotlight. 

In the week leading up to the grand sporting event, part of the host city is transformed into party central. Since Downtown Indianapolis is a fairly small city, essentially the entire place is now one giant party. As I write this, visitors from all over the country are converging onto our fair city. And they’re not just football fanatics. Celebrities are hanging out like it’s some kind of miniature New York or something. In the last few days, werewolf/llama/human hybrid Taylor Lautner was sighted on IUPUI’s campus and Baby Goose himself, Ryan Gosling was seen perusing paintings at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. For the first time in, I assume ever, Indianapolis is in the national news for something other than Peyton Manning doing things, Ron Artest storming the stands, or the Indy 500 merely existing. 

One of the individuals who have decided to take on the role of Indianapolis’ temporary ambassador to the rest of the world is former Saturday Night Live star and current host of Late Night, Mr. Jimmy Fallon. He has brought the Late Night show, and his house band, The Roots, to the Circle City and has fully embraced it with open arms. His stage has not one, but two different Indianapolis skyline back drops, his opening theme montage is nothing but scenery of Downtown Indianapolis, and the show is being filmed in Hilbert Theater, home of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, which was on hand to play music with The Roots for the episode. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to obtain free passes to the taping of Late Night’s first episode in Indianapolis. 

Jimmy seen Downtown in drag. Sexy.

I braved the traffic and pedestrian hell party that was downtown to make it to Hilbert Theater, procure my ticket, and get inside for the taping of the show. After everyone was seated and the douchey hype guy warmed the audience up, Jimmy Fallon finally took center stage with a fantastic opening shot of himself and the screaming audience in the background as he welcomed the rest of the world to Indianapolis for his show. The show featured guest appearances from Tracy Morgan (who was fantastically weird), Tim Tebow (who is…just Tim Tebow, I guess), and The All American Rejects (who dress like douchebags and whose first album was better than their first album).

During his admittedly mediocre opening monologue, he had one line where he stated “I promised I wouldn’t pander to the Indianapolis audience with a bunch of local references. I promised this while hanging at Larry Byrd’s house drinking a root beer from Mug N Bun to wash down my shrimp cocktail from St. Elmo’s Steakhouse.” The crowd roared, and continued to do so any time anyone made any reference to Indianapolis. The first sketch of the night was filmed in Indianapolis and featured Jimmy Fallon racing Marco Andretti in a Chevy Malibu at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (with Bob Costas tied up in the back seat as a ransom plot to get Super Bowl tickets. As a journalist, it tickles my funny bone greatly any time a famous news personality does a comedic cameo. See: any time Brian Williams appears on 30 Rock. Anyways, moving on). Later in the night he briefly mentions David Letterman, who is a Hoosier. Fallon’s also been seen filming another sketch in drag on Monument Circle. The man knows how to get as much out of Indianapolis as he can, and Hoosiers couldn’t be happier about it.

Just as citizens of any city should be, Hoosiers are ridiculously happy to have their hometown featured in the national spotlight, because like I said before, we don’t get a chance to stand in it as often as most other cities. The first time I ever visited Chicago, I was a little overwhelmed and star struck about the whole thing. I told my companion I felt like I was finally part of the rest of the world. After wandering the Super Bowl Village and seeing an amount of people Downtown Indy won’t see again for a very long time, I got that same feeling again, and I’m fairly certain a lot of other Hoosier also got this same feeling as well.

Indianapolis’s bid for the Super Bowl is ultimately a bid for more national attention. We’re essentially the main character from almost any 80’s high school movie. We’re throwing a giant party and inviting the rest of the country so we’ll gain more popularity with the popular kids like New York City and Los Angeles. If all goes according to plan, Indianapolis will hopefully become more likely to pop into someone’s brain as a potential travel destination for something other than a concert or sporting event. Jimmy Fallon, along with a handful of others, is like the cool kid that takes Indianapolis under his wing and helps him make that ragin’ party happen, and it’s for that, we salute you Mr. Fallon. You’re helping a great cause for a great city. Oh, and you helped me get on television. 

Look at this fuckin' asshole.

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(Check out my Twitter account for my live-tweets from the show. GIVE ME UNDESERVED ATTENTION!)

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