The Roots are taking their new gig as the official house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon very seriously, even if their initial chances of scoring such a gig seemed like nothing more than a joke by a couple of the show's overworked staffers.

"We were the musical supervisors for [Chappelle's Show] season two and three ... and Dave's partner Neal Brennan was brought over as a consultant, and he sort of jokingly recommended The Roots as a house band," said Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson in a conference call last Tuesday with Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter. "I guess the joke was sort of like, you know, I dare you to ask them, even though they're too busy to take it."