JD Vance could have prevented his fumble seen ‘round the world had he watched more Jimmy Fallon. While the vice president has caught the internet’s eye for his struggles with the CFP trophy at a White House event yesterday, Fallon nearly suffered a similar mishap months ago on The Tonight Show.
Vance was appearing alongside Donald Trump and the Ohio State Buckeyes at a ceremony recognizing the football team’s NCAA championship when he attempted to lift the team’s College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy from its very heavy base, unaware the top of the trophy could be lifted separately.
When TreVeyon Henderson grabbed the top piece, the base Vance held went crashing to the stage floor, becoming an instant viral moment.
Followers of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’s Youtube channel discovered the proper way to lift the trophy months ago. A behind-the-scenes clip uploaded to the channel in January found Fallon learning the easy way to hoist up the gold statue.
Fallon was welcoming Ohio State coach Ryan Day to the show when he tried to raise up the trophy on display between them.
“I’m not joking, I can’t even lift it,” Fallon admitted as he tried to hoist the statue from its base. When Day told him it’s about 50 pounds, Fallon replied, “Please, just tell everyone for TV it’s 200 pounds.”
It wasn’t until the commercial break that Day told Fallon the right way to do it: “Lift it from this,” he said as he revealed that the top part of the trophy could be removed.
“This is a joke,” Fallon said, lifting the much lighter top half.
“You just told me that?… You are the worst,” Fallon chided Day for not correcting him on air. “I can’t believe you did that!”
“I just liked watching you struggle,” Day joked.
For his part, Vance attempted to save face on social media after the incident. The Ohio native and former Ohio senator shared the viral clip on X, writing, “I didn’t want anyone after Ohio State to get the trophy so I decided to break it.”
But it was arguably the few late-night shows cranking out new episodes this week that had the most fun with. Here’s how Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Daily Show tackled the moment last night:
The late night shows had a field day with JD Vance's CFP trophy fumble. Here's how Colbert, Stewart and Kimmel covered it last night. pic.twitter.com/BJMUTPh4HA
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) April 15, 2025
Of course Fuckface Fallon can relate. He’s a fucking idiot!