Part 21 (2/2)

Jimmy: He was the best at it.

Judd: It must have been odd to go up against Letterman, since he's the one that made us all want to be funny.

Jimmy: Yeah, but it's just the way it worked out.

Judd: Do you ever interact with him?

Jimmy: I don't. You know, we started joking back and forth a while ago. He would say-he would try to tweet me. Almost like he didn't understand Twitter. He's like, ”I'll tweet Jimmy Fallon!”

Judd: That's funny.

Jimmy: It was a funny bit. Then, I would try to teach him how to tweet through Twitter, and then I think CBS asked him to stop.

Judd: (Laughs) He was sending too many people to your Twitter account.

Jimmy: Yeah. They were like, just stop saying his name. I think they have a blanket rule, CBS isn't allowed to talk about me or something. So silly.

Judd: Everyone in late night right now is great. It's a weird moment, as a fan of comedy and good things: You go, What am I going to do, get up every morning and watch five hours of talk shows?

Jimmy: You can't do that. That's a waste of your day. But the b.u.mmer for me is that I can't watch anyone else now because I don't want to take any of their bits. Being an impressionist, I imitate everybody, so if I watch Letterman every night, I would start doing him in my show, and if I watch Kimmel, I'd do his bits, you know. So I get nervous and I just can't watch anyone.

Judd: Is there a part of this job that still blows your mind? For me, watching your show, when you're standing next to Bruce Springsteen singing a song and doing a bit, I think, there must be a feeling of nirvana in that moment that I can't even imagine.

Jimmy: But when it's happening, you don't feel it. The idea of it happening-it's almost happening, it's about to happen-that's the excitement. Once it's happening, you just don't want to screw it up and embarra.s.s him and I want to make sure he's having a good time, so I'm really kind of nervous and just want to focus and do well.

Judd: The one that made me laugh was when you were singing with Paul Simon, and I realized, oh, there's no joke here. Jimmy just forced Paul Simon to sing a song with him.

Jimmy: (Laughs) I will never do anything like that again. I did that once and I sang ”With a Little Help from My Friends” with Ringo, and that was the last time I'll ever sing.

Judd: No, you have to keep doing it. It just made me laugh so hard. This is a fun moment in late night. I would watch The Tonight Show, I never felt I was like Johnny Carson, but it's funny for me now to have almost all those late-night slots filled by people I'm friends with or know a little.

Jimmy: Yeah, you know them, and you're like, wait, what?

Judd: You can't imagine Carson being as excited about doing his show as you are and we are. Like I don't think Carson ever thought, Oh my G.o.d, I can't believe Dean Martin was here tonight.

Jimmy: (Laughs) Judd: Those shows were driven by such darkness. Carson was funny, but he also looked like there was so much more going on here, which we didn't understand. And I guess Letterman is that way, too. We were fascinated to see how these guys would interact with people because, on some level, we thought they were miserable.

Jimmy: Yeah, well, you could tell when Dave hated somebody or when Johnny hated somebody.

Judd: I think that people are generally struggling, and a lot of people are having a hard time and are miserable. To watch someone who is genuinely enjoying themselves is an elixir, and it shocks people. I think they watch you and think, I wish I was that f.u.c.king happy, and they get a real-it gives them a break. I think we watch Letterman out of our angry side some of the time.

Jimmy: That's not my style, so I'm not good at that.

Judd: It taps into the national neurosis in a way, where people are so happy to not be unhappy. You know, we all want to be around the piano, singing the song.

Jimmy: I don't know if you had this, but I always wanted to please everybody. I always wanted to make everyone proud of me and happy.

Judd: Yeah, but what is different for me is that, when I go home, I feel shame at the need to make people happy in order to feel good. I don't know how you are afterwards, but it doesn't feel like you have the bad aftertaste.

Jimmy: When it's the TV show, I don't really, no. But if I'm at a party or a wedding and I have to get up and do some bit that I think is funny-and if it goes well-I just go like, Why did you have to do that at the guy's wedding? Can't he just get married without you being the big star?

Judd: How is the social part of this life for you, where you get to know all these people that you look up to?

Jimmy: It's odd, but you get used to it after a little while. I don't know, all of this is fun and surreal, and it's just been getting crazier and crazier.

Judd: And now you have two kids.

Jimmy: I do.

Judd: You have two girls?

Jimmy: Just like you. I'm like, I finally get it now. It's like, this is why you're doing what you're doing. This is the future. And also, G.o.d, it's so worth it. It's just the greatest feeling in the world. The little arms, they hug you and it's like, ugh, it's a crusher and I'm a mush. I'm an Irish emotional mess.

Judd: You understand how people get needy with their kids because you're like, ”You're still going to talk to me when you leave, right?”

Jimmy: Totally. It's so embarra.s.sing. And you always say, ”Well, I won't do that, I'll be the cool parent.” But you can't help it.

Judd: You can't and you just-that balance of how do I give them rules, which they want to fight me on, and guarantee they want me to be their best friend at the same time is impossible.

Jimmy: You invented this human, so you're like, I made the best human I can make. This is my Sistine Chapel, and I should be able to appreciate this. Not someone else.

Judd: And then there's that weird moment-and everyone tells you about it your whole life and you think, No, that will never happen to me-where, for a year or two, your kids tell you to f.u.c.k off.

Jimmy: Yeah. It does happen. Right around twelve or thirteen is what everyone's telling me.

Judd: That little kid who's just, like, ”I want to show you the teddy bear I bought”-twelve years later they're like, ”Get the f.u.c.k out of my room!”

Jimmy: ”Get the f.u.c.k out.”

Judd: I have the thing with my daughter where I hate any boy that comes by-like, in my bones, I hate any boy that is circling.

Jimmy: Yes.

Judd: But there's one kid that is like a super-goofy, nerdy kid, who I realize, Oh, that's me. That's exactly who I was in high school. And I'll say, ”What about dating that guy?” And she's like, ”Oh, he's such a nerd.” And I'm like, ”You don't understand him. He's special. He's going to fill out one day. He'll show everybody.”

Jimmy: (Laughs) Judd: I'm like, ”How come you don't want to date my doppelganger?”

Jimmy: But she will date someone like you.

Judd: That's the scary part. I wish I had self-esteem so she would like a guy with self-esteem.

Jimmy: I'm going to be so b.u.mmed out because my daughter is going to marry some feminine guy that laughs at himself too much. And I'm going to go, That's me. She did it.

JON STEWART.

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