You didn’t see the mistake Jimmy Fallon made during his surprise visit to Saturday Night Live UK this weekend—and that’s because it happened while he was crouched under the “Weekend Update” desk.
Fallon confessed to his SNL UK miscalculation during Monday night’s episode of NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Fallon first popped up on the April 25 SNL UK during first-time host Nicola Coughlan’s opening monologue. There, the onetime SNL cast member encouraged the Irish actress to embrace the chaos and “magic” of live television.
He then returned in a pre-taped sketch, playing a caterer on Coughlan’s new movie.
Fallon completed his cameo trifecta by joining “Weekend Update” anchors Ania Magliano and Paddy Young for a new installment of their “Hand in Hand” segment—this time dubbed “Hand in Hand in Hand.”
“They have a bit called ‘Hand in Hand’ where they hold hands and talk people through stuff, an issue or whatever…,” Fallon explained to his Tonight Show audience. But whereas Magliano and Young typically just hold one another’s hands, this time a third set of hands emerged from below the desk to stack on top of theirs. Fallon himself then ascended beside the “Update” duo, to join them for the actual bit.
Thing is, Fallon quietly hid behind the anchors far too soon, leaving him hunkered ‘neath the “Update” desk for an awkward period of time.
“I was waiting for the guy to cue me so I could sneak out, so that the audience didn’t see that I was behind the desk, because I was a surprise,” he recalled. Fallon got anxious, though, “and I went out five jokes too soon.
“I was sitting under the desk for about 10 minutes,” he admitted (with a bit of exaggeration), while sharing a BTS photo of his crouched self.
“I was so nervous,” Fallon sheepishly explained. “I don’t know the stage manager. So I was like, ‘I don’t want to disappoint anyone, so I’ll just go out.’ So I just crawled out,” with much time to spare.
All told, Fallon said his trip across the pond to appear on SNL UK was “so fun”—and yet “odd.”
“Because it’s exactly like SNL here, except I don’t know anyone,” he noted. “And they all speak with a British accent.”
SNL UK continues its eight-episode freshman run this Saturday with English White Lotus breakout Aimee Lou Wood as host and rising British artist MEEK as musical guest.
Fallon’s The Tonight Show—with only one NBA playoff game airing on NBC—should kick off this Tuesday night at its usual time, 11:35 pm. ET, with guests Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada 2), Chet Hanks (Netflix’s Running Point), and comedian Francesco De Carlo.
