Jimmy Fallon On His Friendship With Justin Timberlake, "SNL," And Five Years On "The Tonight Show"

"You can't laugh at your own sketch."

It's the five-year anniversary of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon! In honor of the occasion, we sat down with the late night host to pick his brain about all the wonderful things that have gone down on his show in the past half decade.

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To celebrate the occasion, the Tonight Show invited different ambassadors of important social causes to appear each night this week through February 18th. But before that, he stopped by BuzzFeed to answer questions submitted by the BuzzFeed community.

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Here's how it all went down:

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You send a lot of thank you notes but what is your favorite thank you note that you received?

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JF: I got one from David Letterman recently because I sent out avocado toasts for the holidays. He sent me a thank you note saying, “Thanks for the guacamole, kid.” Which is not what I sent him at all.

Who was the guest on your show that made you laugh the hardest?

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JF: I laugh so many times on my show. Will Ferrell is always fun.

Bradley Cooper and I did an interview where we couldn't even finish the interview because we were laughing so hard. We were wearing these dumb wigs and we were talking about something kinda serious, and it was just like if you're in school or church and you just can't stop giggling. We'd try to restart and edit it, and we couldn't get it together. I think the interview is like 25 minutes long of us just laughing. It's on YouTube and it's pretty ridiculous.

If you never made it in the entertainment business, what career do you think you'd be doing today?

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JF: That's a good question! You know, my parents were very supportive of my comedy career. But, I remember after college they made me take a postal exam to become a mailman just to fall back on just in case the comedy career didn't take off. And I nailed it! I crushed that postal exam. I would love being a mail man. I love mailmen. And women. Mail people. I love that they wear shorts. I love that they drive with the steering wheel on the other side of the vehicle, they've got like their own rules. No real set time, they just show up. Everyone respects the mail man because they bring good news. You wanna take care of your mailman. I think I'd like that.

What show do your kids watch that drives you crazy?

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JF: Gosh, we go through all sorts of phases of annoying shows but I kind of miss them know cause they're growing up. Teletubbies is a trip, I really don't quite understand that show. It's so bizarre. It's like an acid trip.

What is your favorite SNL sketch that you were a part of?

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JF: We had this sketch called "More Cowbell" that we did on Saturday Night Live. It was one of my first sketches I was ever in and Will Ferrell was just so funny in the sketch. He and [Chris] Kattan were playing around in the sketch and Christopher Walken was extra Walken-y. He was doing an impression of himself, really. Kattan and will were fooling around and Kattan knocked Will's sunglasses off and I saw the eyes of a lunatic. I lost it.

I had one line to say and I screwed it up and started laughing. Everyone's like, "you can't laugh!" and I go, "but it was so funny!" and they go, "you're in the sketch, idiot! You can't laugh at your own sketch." I was like, "I know I'm just starting I'm out of my league!" So, that was probably the best sketch.

Do you have code names for celebrity friends?

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JF: I don't think so really, no. I know some people do on their phones. I think if anyone ever hacked into my phone they'd just see everyone's name, so [Justin] Timberlake: watch out.

You're stranded on a deserted island with 4 of your past guests. Who would you want besides you?

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JF: Who would I want? There are so many good guests that have been on the show! Justin Timberlake cause he's funny and he can sing. Ariana Grande. Demi Lovato's fun. Michelle Obama. I mean, everyone's invited! Everyone that wants to be on a deserted island with me... I mean wow. I’m the answer to someone’s “who would you NOT want on a deserted island.” I’m on that list.

Which person from The Roots would you most like to have host your show for one day?

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JF: I think James [Poyser] would be fun. I'd like to see James host, he's a pretty funny dude. They're all funny dudes, but, James: you host and I'll play the thank you notes music.

How did your friendship with Justin Timberlake start?

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JF: I met him on Saturday Night Live, he was in NSYNC, and then I hosted the VMA's and he was going solo for the first time. We were both nervous and we both did well that night.

What is the craziest thing the two of you have done together?

JF: We broke into a house. We thought it was an open house. We wanted to look at it and turns out there's no one there and then one of the doors was open so we just figured, "let's go look in and look at it anyway." So we kinda just broke into a house. If this person ever knew that we crashed their house...

Who is the last famous person you texted?

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JF: Post Malone. I told him that he did great at the Grammy Awards. I love that guy. Posty. He calls me, uh, Dad.

What's your favorite game to do on the show?

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JF: We play lots of games on the show. One of my favorite games is "Wheel of Impressions," where we have different guests come on and if they do an impression of somebody we'll have them do that person and sing a famous nursery rhyme or something. Ariana Grande's been on and done it a couple of times, she's fantastic. Christina Aguilera did a great one. You should check them out, they're really talented. Any time you can you can see a celebrity doing something besides selling their movie or whatever, I've always liked that on the show.

What is your favorite part of your job?

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JF: Favorite part of my job is that I get to make people laugh. With today's world, with the internet and everything, it's bigger than the United States, which is amazing, but it's global. You get to see and hear reactions from fans all over the world. And not just laughing, but like, ugly face laughing where you're like — *makes a laughing face*

And your least favorite part?

JF: The least part I don't really have, I'm just kind of very very lucky to have this job. It's a good job.

If you had your own planet, what would you name it? Which five items would you bring from Earth?

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JF: I would name it Animal Planet just to have a lawsuit with Animal Planet and I'd probably get to meet Judge Judy. I like her, I'm a fan of hers. And then what five items would I bring? I would bring these four puppies and an Instant Pot. Not to cook the puppies, obviously! To feed them, cause you make anything in an Instant Pot.

Want more Jimmy? Make sure to tune into tonight's new episode featuring the Irwin family discussing the Wildlife Warriors initiative, and Monday's episode, featuring the SeriousFun Children’s Network.

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