The 1998 SNL Christmas Monologue That Predicted Jimmy Fallon Hosting The Show In 2011

When Jimmy Fallon joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" during the show's 24th season in 1998, you quickly got the sense that Lorne Michaels had big plans for the bright-eyed young performer (though he was no fan of the future star's famous Mick Jagger mirror sketch). His audition is the stuff of legend, if only because he did the unthinkable and made Michaels, who typically betrays little emotion during try-outs, laugh. How? By simply running through his spot-on impressions of comedy stars like Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby, and Chris Rock.

Fallon quickly became one of the series' top stars via recurring characters like Nick Burns and the Boston Teens (a pair of Nomar Garciaparra obsessives played by Fallon and Rachel Dratch). He was often paired with his off-camera partner-in-mayhem Horatia Sanz, often to the detriment of the show. (The two had a tendency to break down into laughter during sketches.)

Fallon is far from one of my "SNL" faves, but you can't deny that he was born to do the series (until he left in 2004). Indeed, he had such a bright future at 30 Rock that, during Alec Baldwin's opening monologue for the 1998 Christmas show, which was a riff on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," he appeared as the Ghost of SNL Hosts Future. The joke was that he would host the show a little over a decade later. And while he didn't hit the date right on the money, this basically came to pass!

The gist of Baldwin's monologue was that he couldn't bring himself to be funny at a time when the country was dealing with President Bill Clinton's Oval Office misdeeds (which, of course, included his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky). John Goodman then appeared as the Ghost of SNL Hosts Past, which led into Fallon's bit as a future host. 

From there, Fallon whisked Baldwin off to December 12, 2011, where he's introduced by the robotic Don Pardo 9000. (The evening's musical guests are a geriatric R.E.M.) Fallon kicked off his monologue by joking that he was so nervous prior to taking the stage that he almost "took a Baldwin" in his pants, a reference to the star's soon-to-be-disastrous 1998 hosting gig. It's at that point that Baldwin realized the show must go on, and he plowed forward (with musical guests Luciano Pavarotti, Vanessa Williams, and the Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale).

Had Michaels and the "SNL" writers been truly committed to the bit, they would've looked ahead on the calendar and noted that the 2011 Christmas show would likely take place on Saturday, December 17. Nevertheless, Fallon, who was the host of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" at the time, lived up to Michaels' lofty expectations and fulfilled the show's prediction. 

Do I think the world would be better off had Fallon bombed out and never succeeded Conan O'Brien as the host of "Late Night" (before ascending to the "Tonight Show" throne)? Absolutely. We would've been spared the depressing spectacle of the deeply-unfunny host yukking it up with Donald Trump and Sam Altman. Surely, Fallon has his own Jacob Marley waiting to show him the error of his unprincipled ways.