Jerry Seinfeld Helps Jimmy Fallon With Damage Control

By Andrew Sanford | TV | September 8, 2023 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | September 8, 2023 |

This morning, I took my twin boys to the park. One of my sons hit the other in the nose at one point. The son who was whacked started crying. The other son saw this and proceeded on like everything was normal. He succeeded in getting his brother away from the water spout he wanted to use and did not care if that upset his hermano. It wasn’t until I clarified that he was in trouble that my son apologized. He wasn’t sorry he did something wrong. He was sorry he got in trouble.

My sons are two and a half years old. I can cut them some slack. They’re still learning, and the one who was struck has just as much to learn as the striker. I won’t give the benefit of the doubt to a 48-year-old man who was outed as an abusive boss and decided he was suddenly sorry. That’s what happened with Jimmy Fallon yesterday.

If you haven’t heard, Rolling Stone released an article yesterday in which scores of Fallon’s current and former employees labeled him as an abusive drunk. It was a scathing indictment, which carried over into social media. Suddenly, people across the entertainment industry were admonishing Fallon or praising his more respectable colleagues (the Conan love was immense).

Thinking of him today pic.twitter.com/nmQJqbgqVL

— loo shag brolley (@iamBevRage) September 7, 2023

Later in the day, Rolling Stone reported that Fallon held an all-hands Zoom meeting with his staff to apologize. While the apology feels half-assed (and conveniently timed), Rolling Stone reported that writers in attendance said it felt earnest, and that Fallon committed to his current showrunner, as the position being somewhat of a revolving door was labeled as an issue in the initial article.

Another aspect of the article was an event that allegedly took place during a taping. Fallon was so rude to his cue card holder that the guest at the time, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, urged Jimmy to apologize. The piece of the segment never made it to air. Still, Seinfeld reached out to Rolling Stone to allege that the whole thing was being blown out of proportion.

“This is so stupid. I remember this moment quite well … I teased Jimmy about a flub, and we all had a fun laugh about how rarely Jimmy is thrown off,” Seinfeld said. “It was not uncomfortable at all. Jimmy and I still occasionally recall it and laugh. Idiotic twisting of events.”

Setting aside that this is the same man who tried to defend Michael Richards, this is an intriguing development. On one hand, this could be seen as admirable. Seinfeld is standing up for his friend when no one else will. Seriously. Rolling Stone reached out to more than 80 current and former employees, and none of them would go on record to say something nice about him. Seinfeld decided he would be the one.

That said, Seinfeld should have taken the hint. Referring to the allegations as idiotic is incredibly tone-deaf. Enough people felt confident in what was being said about Fallon’s demeanor that they didn’t defend him. There’s nothing noble about sticking his neck out in this instance. Nice? Sure. But also obstructive.

The fallout for Fallon will be going on for a while. Who knows if he will be able to weather the storm? He’s taking the right steps, but maybe not for the right reasons. He got caught, so now he’s sorry. It’s going to take a lot more than that.