Every late night host has to figure out their President Voice. Are you gonna do an impression? And if so, when will you pull it out? Seth Meyers does impressions sparingly, and off the cuff. He seems to not put a ton of thought into them, coasting on vibes. James Corden gets the gist of a person across, but doesn’t really go for an American accent. Trevor Noah, on the other hand, lays on the rhoticity like there’s a sale on the letter “R.†But Jimmy Fallon, as a guy who got his start in comedy doing impressions, brings a rasp to his Joe Biden that is sorely missing in other performances. Nobody can sound desperately in need of a lozenge like Fallon’s Biden, and The Tonight Show is using that to great effect. On Wednesday night, Fallon dubbed over some masked Biden footage to give us folks anecdotes of Biden’s days as a youngster. If you miss Grampa Simpson go-nowhere stories, they have found a new home on The Tonight Show. Fallon’s Biden recalls frying peanuts on a Woodrow Wilson pinball machine, as well as the women of Scranton coiffing their beehive hairdos with the oil slick left by his old car. This is grade-A Old-Timey Nonsense.
In Praise of Jimmy Fallon’s Joe Biden Impression
