Watch Jimmy Fallon Sing Trump-Inspired Song as Bruce Springsteen
Late-night host Jimmy Fallon isn't known for his political humor, but these days, it's a subject that's hard to avoid — and Fallon delved in during last night's episode of The Tonight Show, pulling out his Bruce Springsteen impression to deliver a musical number inspired by the Donald Trump administration's looming legal woes.
As you can see in the clip above, Fallon donned a sleeveless shirt, bandanna, curly wig and sunglasses to adopt Springsteen's mid-'80s look, covering the Boss' version of the perennial Christmas classic "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" while updating it to make light of the investigation being led by special counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director looking into allegations of impropriety on the part of the Trump campaign. "Winds whippin’ ’round the White House — you guys been good this year?" he asked the crowd. "Everybody in the Trump administration been good, or what? It’s not many, it’s not many."
Fallon, a charismatic performer and gifted mimic whose musical impressions have long been one of the most popular parts of his work — on Saturday Night Live as well as his years as a talk show host — has come under fire in the months since the 2016 election for being inappropriately cozy with Trump during the campaign, and his ratings have suffered this year as competitors like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have more eagerly tackled political themes. It's easy to see "Robert Mueller's Comin' to Town" as an attempt to woo back viewers, but it also represented a way for Fallon to work in an area outside his comfort zone while remaining solidly in his wheelhouse.
More importantly, the new lyrics fit that instantly recognizable old melody pretty tightly. "You better watch out, you better not cry / You better not lie to the FBI," sings Fallon in the clip, using his best Springsteen voice. "Robert Mueller’s comin’ to town, Robert Mueller’s comin’ to town."