Some people might be concerned about the spy balloon detected over Montana this week, but not Jimmy Fallon. During his monologue on Friday’s episode of “The Tonight Show,” Fallon found the silver lining: “The balloon part makes it kind of cute.”
And then he did the exact joke we’ve been waiting for people to make about it — involving “Yellowstone,” of course, and that was delightful too.
If you just woke up from a two day nap and need a catch-up, what happened is that on Wednesday, defense officials in the U.S. and Canada announced that what appears to be a surveillance balloon originating in China had been spotted floating in the stratosphere above Montana.
Now, in case you have relatives who consider Tucker Carlson a reliable news source, the reason officials aren’t shooting it down is because it’s 31 miles up, its size has been roughly compared to three buses, and contains some kind of “technology bay,” meaning it has electronic equipment of some kind. Google Isaac Newton for more on what happens when an object of any weight or size crashes into the ground from that height.
Since the balloon is currently floating much higher than commercial air traffic and doesn’t pose a threat to civilians, officials are waiting until it drifts over a large body of water before shooting it down.
Anyway back to Fallon.
“U.S. officials spotted what they say is a massive Chinese spy balloon flying over Montana. You know, the spying is scary, but the balloon part makes it kind of cute,” he joked.
“It’s like Putin saying,” Kimmel continued as he affected a Russian accent, “I’m hiding in my underground bouncy house.”
Kimmel then said he wanted to check in on the balloon. At this point a scene from “Yellowstone” played, but heavily edited to look like John Dutton (Kevin Costner) shoots the balloon down. We’re really impatient for the return of “Yellowstone” season 5, so this was a nice tide-over.
There’s plenty more in the monologue, and you can watch the whole thing above now.