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Maybe it’s ’cause I’m back near NYC, or maybe I’m just nostalgic, but I wanted to present yet another aspect by which Late Night with Jimmy Fallon strongly reflects the Millennial Generation. The show’s methods connect well with the Gen Y mindset, so there’s much we (as ministers who deal exclusively with Gen Y-ers) can learn from!
This is the seventh post in the Jimmy Fallon & Gen Y series; you can see all the posts right here.
One of the more surprising aspects of Late Night these days is a fairly prominent eclecticism in its presentation and programming. This is one aspect of Jimmy’s show that is less obvious in a single viewing but becomes more evident over time – and it’s an aspect that’s certainly worth thinking about for our own “presentation and programming” as we serve the Millennial Generation.
Take a look at a Late Night episode – or better yet, a week of episodes – and you might just notice a broad variation in how the show proceeds.
Even in a single episode, the number of “shifts” represents a willingness (or purpose) to provide an eclectic experience. Fallon may chat unpredictably with band members, announcer Steve Higgins, and audience members; present some sort of one-time running theme throughout the show; or tell personal stories. There seem to be any number of options and themes for the post-monologue comedy bits; Jimmy’s just as likely to appear on a prerecorded video sketch (playing a moody Robert Pattinson or his own wife, for example) as he is to host a semi-mock game show with audience members, like Cell Phone Shoot-out or Wheel of Carpet Samples. And even the number of those bits varies night-to-night.
As for Fallon’s interviewees, the guest roster itself is eclectic, too. Yes, he brings the usual late night repertoire: current actors, musicians, comedians, chefs, animal keepers, politicians. But he also brings in video game makers, technology mavens, actors and musicians with “nostalgic value,” and other celebs that might not be as likely to appear elsewhere. And often guests interact with each other in pretty interesting (and occasionally jarring) “mash-ups.” Last week, for instance, Jimmy and Laurence Fishburne spent a whole segment joking with Sesame Street’s Elmo and Rosita…
Even the Late Night house band, The Roots, has rightly been labeled as “eclectic hip hop” from the beginning; their incredibly wide range of styles shows up throughout the show in bumper music and various guests’ walk-ins. And in a unique twist on the usual TV show homepage, Late Night uses a blog – the perfect format for showcasing its eclectic nature. (Take a look, and I bet you get the picture of how eclectic this show can be.)
Yes, I recognize that there is a certain “variety” apparent in other late night shows, too. With 5 nights a week, remaining “fresh” and unpredictable is vital for these shows. But I’d argue that Fallon “goes eclectic” to a greater degree than most – from his range of discussion topics (and activities) with celebrities to his large number of go-to comedy bits – and regardless of comparisons with others, this show’s Gen Y reflections are something we can notice and learn from.
This aspect – eclecticism – plays a big part in the world of Millennials. It’s the iPod mentality (which has now been copied by the JackFM-style radio stations that I find all over the U.S.). The variety found in an average playlist (or any of the “Favorites” on a student’s Facebook page) makes it clear that Gen Y has no trouble with radical life variation, with delighting in a wide range of themes and genres and topics and activities – all at once or in close proximity.
How many of these characteristics describe your students?
- multi-tasking
- multi-chatting
- apparent short attention span
- web-surfing
- adaptable
- highly involved
- over-committed
In their own ways, these aspects all point to very eclectic existences. And though some might want to make a case that this eclectic approach to life is a bad thing, I’m more interested in noting that it simply is. So it makes sense that a show (or a ministry) catering to Millennials might consider implementing eclecticism when it can.
I don’t know all the ways this might look – nor how far we should take this theme in the ministry world. Certainly, some patterns are important or at least helpful. But might ministries – from college ministries to the church at large – be able to inject more eclecticism into our (often very standardized, very cliché) calendars and schedules? Could messages, speakers, music, announcements, events, small group opportunities, and other offerings be made more like iPod playlists and less like the Top 40 Chart? Could schedules be shifted, mixed, inverted, or discarded sometimes? I don’t know that our students would be thrown off by extreme variation nearly as much as we would be!
And at the very least, minimizing our agenda-pendence might spur creativity, breadth of connection, wider involvement of students and others in ministry programming, and a greater acceptance of the messiness that Millennial ministry always entails.
This is one I’ll continue to ponder, and I hope you will, too. As we do, we might look for a little inspiration from Mr. Fallon.
[More thoughts on eclectic college ministry? I posted some ideas two days later.]
written from Harrisburg, PA
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Exploring College Ministry Road Trip 13: Day 43 recap
recap: finished out my time in State College & began heading east! (see all explorations so far)
T-shirt: the Marauder tribe of Central State University
monday: mostly catching up on work & such
As new generations rise, it makes sense that they would often share some characteristics of the previous generation. For instance, Millennials and the members of Generation X share an appreciation of technology, desire for authenticity, and hope to find strong community.
But one of the clearest differences between the Millennial Generation (a.k.a. Gen Y) and its immediate Gen X predecessors is positivity. Millennials (as a group) seem to possess a rather audacious optimism that has broad application in their lives – while obviously one of the classic-if-caricatured observations about Gen X is that its members are hard-core cynics.
And yes, this is yet another way Late Night with Jimmy Fallon brilliantly reflects and appeals to the Millennial generation: through purposeful positivity.
[This is the 5th post in a series on Jimmy Fallon’s Millennial methods. See all of ‘em here.]
Watch an hour of Late Night, and you’re bound to see the happy optimism rear its pretty head. Just last night, for instance, Will Arnett jokingly declared it “the compliment show” after Jimmy characteristically kept praising his work.
But does that really mean this is on-purpose positivity? Couldn’t Jimmy simply be a positive kind of chap? He may very well be, but co-producer Gavin Purcell revealed here on my blog that there’s method to his gladness:
[O]ne thing that stood head and shoulders above everything that we wanted to do with the show from the beginning was build a comedy/talk show that wasn’t based entirely on being nasty. Jimmy, myself and my boss our showrunner, from the beginning wanted the show to feel positive and a kind of place where people felt like they were laughing with others rather than at them. That idea seems to fit nicely into Millennials ideals as well. [Read the whole comment here.]
It’s not that Fallon doesn’t mock on occasion; his monologue has the usual roastings of newsworthy people, and snarky comments are certainly part of his repertoire. But they’re far less frequent than you might expect from a late night host.
And meanwhile, there’s a willingness to embrace… well, everything.
Star Trek fans, video game players, goofy audience members, Spencer and Heidi Pratt, Twitterers… all these and more can expect relentless scorn in most late night quarters. But they have room on Jimmy’s show – at least for acknowledgment, and often for appreciation and promotion.
It was just a few weeks ago that Jimmy was excited to hear about a guest’s visit to Bonnaroo, the annual 4-day hippie music festival in Tennessee; by contrast, Conan O’Brien sent the infamous Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to ridicule Bonnaroo attendees to their faces.
And back in March, as Jimmy chose to zero in on one particular team in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney – the 16th-seeded Chattanooga Mocs – I expected the show to pick the low-hanging comedy fruit available by cheap-shotting this long-shot (or no-shot) team.
Only… it didn’t. The approach wasn’t humorless – but it wasn’t merciless, either. As the week progressed, the school band came on the show, the studio audience got in the act, and Fallon video-chatted with Head Coach John Shulman. And after the team got pounded by UConn in the tournament, its seniors and head coach sat in the audience as guests of the show. (For a great couple of clips from that week and a little more of the story, see this article.)
The new Late Night works a unique sort of optimism into its humor. And often it’s even vice versa – the show offers optimism, presented in a humorous way. (This helps explain why some viewers might find Jimmy unfunny and likeable at the same time.)
So what does this mean for us?
A couple of years ago, a pastor asked me an intriguing question – How do we, who are part of cynical Gen X, relate well to all these optimistic Gen Y college students? Many of us in college ministry really are in a different generation than the students we minister to, and it’s worth examining how our natural approaches might not reflect our students OR connect with them well.
We have to be careful about our snarkiness, which I know is the “mother tongue” for many of us. We can’t insensitively dismiss our students’ excitement about hope and change and impact and BIG IDEAS… (even though, yes, there are times to lovingly check students’ over-optimism). The cynicism our own youth ministers got big laughs through might not work with our particular flocks. And so on.
At the same time, there is much to gain by “tuning in” to the positivity of our students. They’re not apathetic (like we might have been!); they want to serve and lead and believe they can make a positive impact. They’re not anti-leadership or anti-”system.” They’re ready and willing to bring people very different from themselves into their circle of community – whether they be tech geeks or music festival attendees or frat guys.
This is one of the harder areas for me to get my head around, so hopefully we can all think together about how we might “become positive, so that we might win the positive.” And we have at least one (surprising) tutor hosting Late Night.
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We’ve now looked at a couple of ways “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” is a sterling example of catering to and reflecting a Gen Y audience. In fact, one of the show’s creators was kind enough to chime in last week – if you missed that, his comment is definitely worth reading. Now on to #4 in this series.
One of the most talked-about ways the new Late Night has participated in “Millennial-ness” – since before the show even began – is its implicit appreciation for technology.
Jimmy’s Late Night actually began with “webisodes” long before Conan O’Brien had turned the show over. This gave Fallon the chance to soft-start for the very crowd he’s been courting ever since – the (very web-savvy) Millennials. And ever since those webisode days, Fallon has used his site – latenightwithjimmyfallon.com – as a clear extension of the show. The site isn’t simply for “special purposes” like contests or promos, nor is it hawked relentlessly to drive user-ship. Jimmy’s viewers understand participating in the television show via the web, because they participate in everything else via the web.
But the World Wide Web isn’t the only arrow in Fallon’s technology-quiver. His first week saw the introduction of his humongo on-set HDTV. He plays Wii with guests. He Twitters and promotes the Twitter feeds of guests. He keeps official bloggers on staff. He brings guests on to discuss and demonstrate the latest technology – much like the cooking demos that have long been staples of late night TV.
Perhaps most surprising of all, Fallon even Skypes with guests.
That’s right – he video-chats with guests who aren’t even in the studio. It’s a little grainy and a little jittery and clearly not “in the flesh”… and very normal for the many Millennials who communicate through screens as much as otherwise.
And that’s a point that we shouldn’t miss. Jimmy Fallon isn’t just using technology, he’s treating it as mainstream, as normal, as expected. While Jimmy may personally “geek out” about a new, innovative type of technology (and he does, regularly), that’s not the same as the way others respond: as though technology itself is surprising or innovative. To Millennials, it isn’t.
A video game creator is just “the next guest,” not “somebody you wouldn’t normally see here.” Playing Wii with Tiger Woods isn’t surprising, it’s “just something fun to do with a guest.” Likewise, social networking is an obvious move for Fallon and his staff. (It’s notable that while Fallon clearly cherishes the use of Twitter, Conan has a new gag that relentlessly mocks tweeting.)
Our application as ministers is easy enough to see: If we want to connect with and/or reflect our own Millennial audience best, we must assume their widespread use of technology and implement it in every helpful way we can. But let’s remember that it’s not just technology but seamless integration of technology that’s truly going to hit the Gen Y sweet spot. For those we serve, this technology is simply life – not any less standard than eating dinner or watching TV or playing pickup basketball. More and more, it’s not a matter of using technology to be “cutting edge” – but simply to be relevant to Millennials’ daily life.
And if you need a tutor in technology-integration, just tune in to NBC at 12:30 (11:30 Central). It’s like Mavis Beacon for ministers.
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This aspect of Fallon’s show has been discussed a’plenty – on the internet. (Imagine that.) So if you want more info, here are a couple of helpful quotes and then some more links. (Obviously, I can’t vouch for the cleanness of all linked sites and articles.)
We’re younger. We’re into tech stuff, gadgets, phones, video games. We’ll treat a video game premiere like a movie premiere. I’m just going to be honest with what I like and what I do. What I enjoy. We’re not going to hide the fact that people are on the Internet all day. I think a lot of shows don’t really mention that. They barely touch on it. Most kids come home from school. They don’t go to their TVs first. They go to the Internet. They check their emails, or some blogs, or some sites. Then they go watch TV. Other people are at work all day 9-5 in front of a computer. They see certain clips. We’re not going to hide the fact that people use the Internet. We’re going to try to be as interactive as possible with our fans.
The Webby Awards is excited to honor Jimmy Fallon with the Webby Person of the Year Award in recognition of his entusiastic embrace of the Internet to connect with his fans. With his “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” blog and Twitter feed, Jimmy Fallon is one of celebrities and TV personalities most actively engaging with his audience online, even hosting a contest allowing fans to chose the winning logo for Late Night, as part of his video blog series leading up to the show’s debut. He regularly features exclusive content online and is one of a handful of celebrities to use the Web and television as a fully integrated experience.
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is Out of Beta – Wired
How Social Media is Changing the Late Night TV Landscape – Mashable
Why We Digg Jimmy Fallon – TV.com
Six Ways “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” Plans to Change TV Forever – Business Insider
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Post #2 in a series on Jimmy Fallon’s connection to / reflection of Millennials!
The night of his version of Late Night debuted, I noticed that Jimmy Fallon looked really earnest as he ran his way through the streets of New York City to host his very own, brand new talk show in the big city. After that fitting intro airs nightly, a quite dapper-though-goofy Fallon strides out to a stage he seems just a little uncomfortable with.
And he might just seem a little uncomfortable with his entire production, as numerous blogs and articles have noticed. The very first episode seemed almost rigged to produce both nervousness and awkwardness; no young buck picks DeNiro as a first guest in order to sail smoothly. Fallon regularly laughs at his own jokes, shrugs off the (many) jokes that flop (or gives the cue card to someone in the audience), and he certainly doesn’t hide the fact that he wants people to like him.
But the funny thing is that people actually may. And I think this “goofiness” is part of Fallon’s attractiveness to Millennials, which I began posting about earlier this week.
Here’s my theory: I think (subconsciously?) Millennials can see goofiness a signpost for authenticity. And authenticity is really key for connecting with those gals and guys. Where Gen Xers may cynically doubt that anyone can truly be authentic, Millennials are more optimistic – but they demand it!
And in some real ways, discomfort, awkward moments, goofy earnestness, and the like could help viewers believe they’re getting “the real Jimmy Fallon.” Can those things be manufactured? Of course they can. But in Fallon’s case, any postured goofiness would have to pre-date his Saturday Night Live days, where his earnestness and uncontrollable laughter abounded. And he’s clearly attempting to be funny – and, in the opinion of many, often failing. So I don’t think his awkwardness is a put-on.
What’s interesting, though, and important for us ministers to note, is that likability might just trump laughter (or any other “skillfulness” or “slickness” we’re aiming for in our own contexts).
Meanwhile, every joke that bombs, every guest interview with awkward moments, even the self-deprecating turn as his own staff’s whipping boy in fake-reality-show “Seventh Floor West” may have down sides, but they also earn Fallon authenticity points. So do the occasional personal revelations, like Jimmy’s excitement over receiving his long-awaited college degree from the school he dropped out of, or the highly normal personal photos on the show’s website.
Millennials want to believe that there are REAL people and REAL organizations out there. And they themselves have been pretty willing to expose their lives – to a fault – on blogs and social networks and more. Ministry to them will work best when they can see that we’re being authentic.
Not all of us are naturally goofy – so don’t go creating that persona – but authenticity can have plenty of other signposts. For many of us, simply relaxing our guard will lead to “revelations of realness” soon enough; others may need to try hard to (wisely) sprinkle some “me-ness” amidst the “Him-ness” and “you-ness” of our ministries. However we reveal our authentic selves, our college students (and other Gen Y-ers) will be glad to see it.
From the beginning, I heard rumblings that Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night tenure would aim squarely for Generation Y, those born mid-1980s and later who make up the largest American generation.
A refresher, just so we’re on the same page:
- “Generation Y” = “Millennial Generation”
- The oldest Millennials are now 25-ish
- So that means there were 6 years of ‘em who could vote in the last national election – a pretty big group, and clearly growing every year.
- And that also means that Youth Ministries and College Ministries are entirely made up of Millennials (and most Elementary-aged Ministry is, too, depending on where the new generation starts)…
- …while Young Adult Ministries will be influenced by Millennials more and more.
I don’t want to take too much time advocating for attention to generational attributes, but I’d encourage you to think about adding this area to your learning repertoire if you haven’t already. Sociologists, who study people-in-groups, look at group attributes to distinguish generational qualities. So not every individual will identify with the “template,” nor are any of the lines rigid or the patterns exact. But there do seem to be generational attributes that stick with generations (as a whole) as they grow older. And even those individuals who are naturally dissimilar from the rest of their generation are still molded an awful lot by the same forces – and by their peers.
So I believe it makes a lot of sense to study these attributes, even as we (of course) treat people as individuals. In a way, it gives us a “middle” to aim for in large group ministry, just as I’ve heard moviemakers design their films for the central theater seat. Everybody in the audience gets the best possible show when the movie is “made” for that middle. And while we may not think of ministry in quite such pragmatic ways, it does seem like our connection to our audience might be improved by recognizing a “Millennial Middle” to aim for.
So back to Jimmy Fallon.
From what I’ve seen, the prognosticators were absolutely right – Fallon is both playing to and reflecting a Gen Y mindset. And that makes sense for NBC, right? As Jay slides down to 10pm (9pm Central, which is my world), he satisfies his aging, largely Boomer audience. Conan heads to the Tonight Show with his (also aging) broad group, an audience I’m guessing is comprised of a healthy supply of young Boomers, lots of Gen-Xers, and older Millennials – everybody he’s collected over the past 16 years.
And now there’s Jimmy, aiming to pick up the newest crowd, hoping to connect with the loud, proud, happy Millennials. And I’d say he does so in such a textbook way that the show’s elements serve as a phenomenal primer for thinking through Millennial Ministry Methods.
So for the next few weeks, I’ll be blogging off and on about the various “Millenniality” reflected in the new Late Night. I would love for you to chime in on things you’ve noticed AND ways to apply these methods in our (clearly different) world of ministry.
Before I close, a brief disclaimer: Clearly, Fallon is not presenting his show on TBN; in no way am I claiming there’s nothing offensive. There are offensive jokes and offensive elements at times (though it’s plenty cleaner than it could be). But for us who minister to Millennials, it still seems like a good opportunity to observe an apparent mastery of Millennial Methods – and to observe a show that some of our students are surely watching during the lazy, hazy days of summer.
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