Jimmy Fallon’s take on the Knicks’ Game 2 victory over the Celtics didn’t quite go according to plan, as revealed in unaired footage of the bit posted to the show’s YouTube channel.
The bit, which was intended to be a part of Fallon’s monologue this past Thursday night, starred two Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon writers who have become its most frequent onscreen players: Brooks Allison as a New York Knicks fan and Dion Flynn as a Boston Celtics fan.
Things started off according to plan, with Fallon tossing to Allison to discuss the Knicks game from the night before, only to discover Allison had lost his voice. With Fallon unable to understand him, the Knicks fan calls over his roommate—Flynn, as the Celtics fan. Of course, Flynn has lost his voice, too.
Where the sketch would have gone from there will forever remain a mystery, as Flynn brought the bit wonderfully off the rails within his first few lines. Taunting Fallon and Allison that the Knicks’ win was sheer luck, Flynn rasped “Just wait ’til Saturday, motherf***er.”
Fallon covered his face at first, but a slew of additional‘MF’s followed, the host left frame and took a seat on The Roots’ bandstand. Flynn and Allison called him back, apologizing in character.
“You’re sorry? The first word you said was mother ‘f’-er,” Fallon retorted. “You didn’t even try to edit yourself. The whole idea [is that] you can’t talk!”
Fallon then asked them to redo the sketch from the top of Flynn’s entrance. Though Flynn kept things clean this time, he stumbled over a line and started to break—prompting Fallon to ask, “You lost your voice… did you forget how to speak English as well?”
“It was a tough day, Jimmy!” a laughing Flynn replied. “What do you want anyway?”
“Just do the bit the way it’s written,” Fallon answered with faux frustration. “Just read the cue card.”
With that, Fallon joined Flynn and Allison to show them how it’s done, where more fun banter ensued. “We can put this on the internet probably,” Fallon concluded.
Indeed, while zero percent of the bit made it into Thursday night’s broadcast, it did find its way to the The Tonight Show’s YouTube page and can be viewed in its entirety at the top of this post.
