The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 14 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Why bombing on stage is necessary to build a comedian's baseline skills
“You actually have to go through it. And what happens eventually is, years later, you miss those days. And you kind of laugh about those days. And I go, now I can talk to you about those days. At the time, I couldn't even walk back into the improv. I was so emb…”
Lorne Michaels threatened to quit if NBC didn't give Fallon Late Night
“NBC didn't want me for late night because the movies didn't work and I wasn't hot, you know. And so, they wanted other people, and they were gonna give it to someone else, and then I remember Lorne just stepping in, kind of, and saying, look, I know, he's like…”
Celebrities sometimes privately admit to Fallon their new project is a flop
“Sometimes people know when it's a flop. You know, they come on the show and they're like, Jimmy, this one is a rough one.”
Fallon's 8th-grade yearbook named him most likely to replace David Letterman
“I do remember graduating from eighth grade, my yearbook said, and this is true, I can, if you can believe me over this podcast I can somehow get a photo to you somehow, or maybe I'll tweet it when this airs, but it said most likely to replace David Letterman.”
Fallon plans to host The Tonight Show indefinitely
“I just think, I feel like I could do this for the rest of my life. As long as NBC and the audience would, will have me, I will.”
Fallon earned $7.13 a night for early Improv stand-up sets
“The Improv was my home club. I auditioned for them, and so they said, yeah, so you'll get like a Thursday night spot, or something like that, and I go, ok, so Thursday night, they put you up, 10 45, or 11 o'clock at night, and you get paid seven dollars and 13…”
Lorne Michaels watched Fallon's failed first SNL troll doll audition
“I'm doing this troll doll thing, and Lorne was there. I saw him walk in, he had a baseball hat on, and, you know, really pulled down, and he kind of sat in the darkness, and I think, you know, I just remember it did not go well.”
Fallon negotiated an unprecedented SNL exit clause into his WB pilot contract
“And so they put an extra page in the contract. Never been done before, never been done since, I don't think. But saying, if I get Saturday Night Live, I get out of the show, out of my contract.”
SNL used to cut absent cast members from the opening credits
“Sometimes they would actually cut your, you know, Picture and name out of the opening credits if you weren't in the show.”
SNL's Wayne's World stage area was where doomed sketches went to die
“It was in the Wayne's World section of ADH on the stage, which is It's famous for Wayne's World now, but at the time, it was also famous for where sketches go to die. So if you do, if you have a sketch in that section of the stage, it usually means you're goin…”
Will Ferrell intentionally wore a smaller shirt for the More Cowbell sketch
“Will Ferrell wore a smaller shirt on air, so when he lifted up his hands to hit the cowbell, his gut, like, fell out of the bottom of his, of under this thing”
Why Fallon chose to star in the American remake of Taxi
“And I chose to Taxi, because Queen Latifah just had a hit with Steve Martin, and it was the most successful film of all time in France.”
Why Fallon's celebrity pitches succeed: genuine fandom over gotcha moments
“I'm a fan of, a giant fan of Paul McCartney, so he knew that it was coming from, I'm a fan, you know, I'm not just looking for a hit, and just a gotcha moment, come out, we'll do scrambled eggs, then you split, and I don't ever see you again. I'm like, I love …”