Before we go any further with this, we need to stress the need for all y’all to not panic.
He’s not going to steal The Tonight Show back *again*. We think.
Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno dropped in on Jimmy Fallon, tagging in after Fallon “pulled a hamstring” during the physically demanding opening monologue.
Leno, of course, famously announced his retirement from The Tonight Show in 2004, five years in advance. He left the show in 2009, giving Conan O’Brien a whole seven months in the chair before strongarming the show back, where he remained until 2014 when Jimmy Fallon finally took over for good(?).
But as is consistent with his habit, Leno never *really* left NBC, and instead just sat in his car in the carpark until they needed him again.
With that, Leno is preparing to launch his new NBC show Jay Leno’s Garage, showcasing the material accumulations he achieved with his childless millions.
Leno popped in to Fallon’s Tonight Show to tell a few decidedly Leno-era jokes (seriously, if he didn’t bring his own writers with him to pen these zingers, I’ll eat several hats) in front of a largely bemused way-out-of-his-demographic crowd who barely had knowledge of the “HOW BLANK IS IT?” call-and-response gag.
Careful with some of those, Jay. They’re antiques.
