Jimmy Fallon used Thursday night’s “Tonight Show” monologue to take aim at the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, which gets underway on Netflix on Friday night. But he kicked off with a joke that doubles as a piece of NBCUniversal synergy for the upcoming “Wicked” movie.
“Tomorrow night on Netflix, 58-year-old boxing legend Mike Tyson is coming out of retirement to fight 27-year-old YouTuber Jake Paul. And to make sure people watch, one will be dressed as Glinda and the other will be dressed as Elphaba.”
Fallon then cracked one about the fight streaming on Netflix as a live event: “The fight is on Netflix, so around the fifth round I think we’re going to find out that Mike Tyson is actually made of cake.”
The host turned his ire towards the 30-year age gap between Tyson and Paul, making a pretty striking comparison. “I’m a little nervous because there’s a 30-year age gap between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. I mean, think of it the other way around — if Mike Tyson was boxing Al Pacino, would we be OK with this?”
Fallon then showed a series of signs that people were holding up at the fight, each making fun of age gap. They read:
- “These punches are softer than the food Biden eats.”
- “My ‘Girlfriend who lives in Canada’ is more real than this.”
- “Nobody’s faked anything this much since Stormy Daniels.”
The monologue then smashed into a promo video for the “undercard,” which imagined additional fights between boxing legends and YouTube stars. Fallon posited the following:
George Foreman vs. the “I like turtles kid”
Manny Pacquiao vs. the “Chocolate Rain” guy
Sugar Ray Leonard vs. the Grape Stomp lady
Evander Holyfield vs. The Dramatic Chipmunk
The fight kicks off Friday night on Netflix. Watch Fallon’s monologue below.
