Did you see Artie Lange’s “performance” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon? Let’s recap.

In case you missed Artie Lange's tour-de-farce last night on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, well, you're in luck, because the show has much of it available online. And it was something, all right. Lange was the first guest and stuck around for the entirety, involving Olivia Munn in a running dialogue that kept Fallon in top giggle form, through a doubles ping-pong match with Fallon, Munn and Susan Sarandon (in a surprise cameo!), and eventually pretty much bumping David Chang, who only happens to be NYC's current chef sensation. At least Lange clarified at the last minute that he was goofing when he said Chang had given him ecstasy pills backstage, although when Sarandon asked aloud to Lange, "Are you high?" Fallon could only reply: "He's a bad guy to ask."

Let's rewind, and take a quick step backward to put this into context.

The last time I saw Lange in person, he seemed in fine spirits, mingling with comedians at Carolines for a book release party for Lisa Lampanelli. The next day, Lange reported to court in New Jersey to deliver a plea for a driving arrest this past summer. And then he virtually disappeared. When he re-emerged at his day job as Howard Stern's comedy sidekick on Sirius XM satellite radio on Oct. 20, Lange acknowledged in detail that he had suffered from a "mini nervous breakdown" and was likely scaling back on his stand-up touring schedule. But the comedian, now 42, has a new CD coming out and a headlining gig Nov. 6 at the Beacon Theatre as part of the New York Comedy Festival.

So Lange bounded onto Fallon's stage at 30 Rock to dish out some of his punchlines, and then some. Starting with jokes about A-Rod and Kate Hudson, then the gag about being on ecstasy.

Cut to Fallon asking Lange to talk about going to Afghanistan to perform for the troops. But as he tried to introduce the new topic, suggesting Lange does a lot of "good" prompting a mini spit-take out of the comedian. "Good at what, ruining my career?"

Fallon wanted to acknowledge the time he and Lange sat at the same table at a wedding reception, during which Lange made Fallon crack up nonstop. This allowed Lange to joke about his cocaine use, offer up his own PSA, mock Santa Claus, praise Norm MacDonald and rag on David Letterman's affairs (although not mentioning Letterman by name).

When Olivia Munn came out after the break, she seemed more interested in becoming a comedy team with Lange and one-upping him in innuendo. Who's Ludacris? What's iTunes? Lange also claims he has never sent an email! Also, Lange keeps the running gag going about getting ecstasy from Chang. And Munn uses the words "friction" and "tuba" into a joke that floors everyone.

But WAIT. There's still more! Munn explains her desire to become a one-hit-wonder with her own Euro-dance track about her "sweet ass," and Lange is only too happy to join along — after a tangent about the differences between Kid and Play and Kid Cudi — and dance and come up with his own song. And this, my friends, is that:

It was quite a performance, wasn't it? What do you make of it?

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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6 thoughts on “Did you see Artie Lange’s “performance” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon? Let’s recap.

  1. This episode was sooo funny I laughed through the whole thing and was still talking about it all day today!!

  2. Awesome! Artie was at his very best. Anyone know if he has any other tv appearances coming up soon?

  3. Artie is funny as hell, this is btw one of my fav episode of all the time, I love this show, I watch it every week since it started, while during the week I watch Lopez tonight (another very good one)!

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