“The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon mocked the latest round of repairs on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, joking that the monument is now being given the same procedures as Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell.
“The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been drained again for another round of repairs,” Fallon relayed during his Tuesday night monologue, informing his audience, “There’s a lot being done. There’s a full drainage. There’s plug swaps, de-venting, re-coating, leak sealing, a flapper valve replacement.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Fallon said, cutting himself off to note, “Those are procedures given to Mitch McConnell.” Earlier in the night, Fallon also celebrated the presence of guest Matt Damon by making a political-themed joke about Damon’s new film, the Christopher Nolan-directed “The Odyssey.”
“In this film, [Damon’s] Odysseus, goes on a grueling 20-year journey,” Fallon said. He went on to joke that Odysseus’ journey is so long he starts looking like the 55-year-old Damon and ends looking like the 84-year-old McConnell.
You can watch Fallon’s full Tuesday night “Tonight Show” monologue yourself in the video below.
McConnell was hospitalized on June 14 for what were initially mysterious reasons. In the wake of mounting rumors and concerns about the state of his health, the longtime Republican senator broke his weeks-long silence this past Sunday when his office shared a photo of him sitting beside his wife, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao. In the photo, McConnell could be seen holding that Sunday’s edition of The Washington Post.
McConnell’s update did not dissuade Fallon from making numerous jokes about his age and the state of his health Tuesday night. On the contrary, it was The Roots frontman Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter who tried at one point to cut Fallon off from making yet another McConnell joke.
“Today in New York, Sotheby’s auctioned off a 67-million-year-old dinosaur fossil for a record-setting $50 million. Anyway, can we see a picture of the 67-million-year-old dinosaur?” Fallon said, teeing up a punchline before Trotter cut in, singing, “Don’t do it, Jimmy. Don’t say you’ll show a fossil, then surprise us with a photo of Mitch McConnell…”
“But I wanna,” Fallon said in response, prompting Trotter to sing again, “Don’t do it, Jimmy. There’s still time to switch. Don’t show a picture of a frozen man whose name is Mitch…”
“Are you done, Tariq?” Fallon eventually asked, before cutting to a photoshopped image of McConnell winking while holding up a newspaper about the 67-million-year-old fossil in question.
