Jimmy Fallon pushes back against criticism that he's too easy on guests

Comedian Jimmy Fallon is well-loved for a few reasons: his utter inability to keep a straight face, his epic lip sync battles, and his knack for churning out viral videos. But grilling politicians is decidedly not among his strengths, something made abundantly clear when he lobbed softball questions at Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump on The Tonight Show in September.

In an interview with Sirius XM's Bill Carter, Fallon challenged the notion that he should be hard on his guests:

It's not my job. It's not Meet the Press, I'm not Face the Nation. You can watch those shows and see that. My job, again, is to make everyone look good, no matter who it is — if you're a politician, whatever it is. We have people on there people don't like. I know that, but that's not my job. You make your own opinion. I can just show you the best person they are, try to bring out their more personal side, and play with them. [Sirius XM]

Now if only Fallon would start playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, Pie with politicians, perhaps he could captivate voters as 2016 nears.

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Listen to Fallon's full response below. Julie Kliegman

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.