Jimmy Fallon had a very musical Golden Globe opening monologue. Is anyone surprised?
(No. The answer is no.) The Tonight Show host has long shown his audiences his love of music, whether he’s performing The History of Rap or doing his infamous Neil Young impersonation, so it’s only natural that he bring that passion to Hollywood’s greatest stage. Oh, and more than a few of his famous friends tagged along for the ride.
Fallon kicked things off with a huge bang…by his own La La Land impersonation, of course! This is Los Angeles, so it’s only natural that he have a traffic jam chock-a-block full of A-listers like Nicole Kidman, Amy Adams and the cast of The People v. O.J. Simpson, among others.
The best part of the cold open (because we need some allusions to Saturday Night Live, right?) was of course the Stranger Things reunion, complete with an awesome rap by Millie Bobby Brown and the news that Barb is, in fact, back from the dead. Or was that all a prank? We’re not sure.
Or perhaps the best part was the romantic piano moment between Jimmy and Ryan Reynolds. Or was it Ryan Gosling‘s face while Jimmy did his best Ryan-Gosling-playing-the-piano-in-La La Land impression? Wait, no, it was definitely Justin Timberlake pulling off Jimmy’s fake clip-on bangs before they gave the world a beautiful tandem tap dance. Damnit, we can’t decide. We guess that’s the point?
Wait, no, the point was to set up the monologue. Yes, while the musical open is all good and fun, we’re really here to see what the host has to…you know…say.
“Already the teleprompter’s down, so this is a great way to start the show!” the host joked amidst a pseudo-panic, while the crew brought in a new monitor. “This is the Golden Globes, one of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote.”
The zingers went on from there. “Manchester by the Sea is nominated for five awards—you might remember Manchester by the Sea as being the only thing in 2016 that was more depressing than 2016,” Fallon riffed, before taking yet another step at our future president. “Florence Foster Jenkins is nominated tonight; the character has been dubbed the world’s worst opera singer, and even she turned down performing at Donald Trump‘s inauguration.”
Yes, no one was safe from Jimmy Fallon’s razor-sharp tongue. Not Ben Affleck: “We all remember Matt Damon from his greatest acting role…telling Ben Affleck that he liked Batman v. Superman.”
Burn!
And not Russia’s president: “As always, the ballots for tonight were carefully calculated by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young & Putin.”
Double burn!
It wasn’t all full of zingers, though. Fallon decided to end things on a high (and positive) note, telling the audience, as he stood alongside Questlove, who will be the evening’s DJ, “Let’s make tonight a celebration, it’s the biggest party of the year.”
Of course, as much as we love our Jimmy Fallon, we have to give it up to tonight’s true raison d’etre: The movies. Because, truly, this monologue is just a vehicle to take us straight to the biggest awards of the night. So, one cheer for Jimmy Fallon, but three cheers for the movies.
