Jimmy Fallon Adresses Rip Hashtag On The Tonight Show

On Tuesday night, hashtag #RIPJimmyFallon began trending on Twitter, apparently originating from a series of tweets where users jokingly mourned the comedian’s death and included black-and-white pictures of other late-night hosts like James Corden. The hashtag took off to the point that Fallon asked new Twitter owner Elon Musk to take action in halting it (Musk responded, confused, and it’s unclear if Twitter did anything to make the hashtag stop trending).

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Fallon opened the Wednesday episode of “The Tonight Show” poking fun at the fake hashtag through a musical introduction, in which he was introduced by a gospel choir chanting. “He’s alive.” “I want you all to know that I won’t leave this earth until my job is done,” Fallon said during the introduction. “And tonight my job is to entertain you, and everyone at ‘The Tonight Show.’”

In the monologue, Fallon spoke about the Twitter trend, revealing he learned about the hashtag while out at dinner with his wife. “My phone was going off, and I’m like, ‘Sorry I got to take this,’” Fallon recalled for the 30 Rock studio audience. “She goes ‘What?’ I go, ‘I’m trending on Twitter.’ She goes, ‘Oh, cool.’ I go, ‘Well, no. Not. I’m dead, I died.’ She’s like, ‘Oh man, that’s terrible. I loved you.’” Fallon then talked about the previous time he trended on Twitter for dying. The main difference was that when it first happened, people cared. “Ten years ago, Lorne [Michaels] texted, CAA, my agent Jeff Jacobs, shout out, he texted me. My parents, my sister, it just bothers everybody. It’s shocking,” Fallon said. “This time everybody is like ‘You’re good, right?’” Although Fallon mostly joked about the situation, he reassured the audience that he is healthy and isn’t in imminent danger of dying. “I’m not going to die, I’m very healthy and I have a lot to live for, I have two little girls. I’ll live for a long time. You don’t have to worry about me, I’m good,” Fallon said. “But when eventually I do die, I won’t be checking social media. You don’t need to say anything.” Watch Fallon’s monologue below.