the roots

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."

A lot of comedy geeks called "shenanigans" on NBC when they announced Jimmy Fallon would get Conan O'Brien's Late Night slot when he moves to Los Angeles next year. I wasn't a big fan of the Fallon when he was on SNL and his movie career lacked a certain something (like entertainment value), but late night comedy is a different monster. Even O'Brien had problems establishing himself and I was willing to give Fallon the benefit of the doubt.

Then NBC announced that Jay Leno would get his own primetime spot when he leaves The Tonight Show, an announcement that couldn't have shocked me more if NBC delivered it with a 20-watt tazer.

Then I watched the first episode of Jimmy Fallon's web premiere and I understood why.

The first wave of shock hit when it was announced that Conan O'Brien would be switching coasts to take Jay Leno's seat. I didn't mind that so much, as I've never been a fan of Leno and am rather glad to see him go. The second bit of news about Jimmy Fallon taking O'Brien's spot consisted of more mixed feelings. I was a big fan of Fallon back in the day, but I was, like, a teenager then.

Times have changed, I've grown up, Fallon's made a lot of crappy movies, and guys playing with their hair when they're nervous isn't so endearing anymore. That last one was a lie, but regardless, I'm unsure of how to feel about Fallon's new job. Now here comes the news that The Roots will be Fallon's band on the show. Now, I must borrow from ?uestlove's name for my "What??!"

Back on the night that Stephen Colbert announced that he'd be hitting Philadelphia, taking the show on the road for the first time, I had decided to go to bed early and just catch the rerun in the morning. My friend called me just as I began to doze off and immediately told me that she had gotten tickets for us to see Colbert in Philadelphia. I had no idea what the hell she was talking about, so when I hung up, I just shrugged it off as a late-night half-dream. The next morning, I watched the episode and it finally made sense: We were about to go on another Colbert Report adventure.

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