The Whisper Challenge is a regular go-to for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and while it is always fun to watch for its intrinsic quality of “let us observe a super successful person try to get something weird and silly right because they are a very driven person by nature,†this newest iteration offers an extra bit of incentive for the viewer: Emma Stone, on the show in a fetching pantsuit to promote her new film La La Land, herein faces off against Fallon in a song-based whisper challenge made all the more interesting because both parties can actually sing. It turns out, however, that being able to sing is less important in this game than focus and, in performance, sheer abandon. Props to Stone for guessing with gusto, even with headphones on — and even though it gives her voice a Jodie Foster–in–Nell quality. While Stone’s not the most successful Whisper Challenge player of all time, she is the most charming by far. And of course, we, too, would like to hear a Springsteen song called “Pork in the Desert.â€
