Amid accusations swirling of a toxic workplace for the employees behind the scenes of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jerry Seinfeld has now responded to a particular aspect of a recent exposé that mentioned him.
You see, two current and fourteen former employees with the talk show revealed to Rolling Stone that the environment of the show was chaotic and mentally straining, specifically citing Fallon as a source of erratic behavior and allegedly inappropriate intoxication on set, among other allegations, as we previously reported. One of the stories mentioned in the story involved Seinfeld, who allegedly jokingly told Fallon to apologize to a staff member he berated. However, according to the employee’s recounting of events, there was still an underlying vibe of discomfort. Fallon had allegedly scolded a staff member who was tasked with handling cue cards, an event Seinfeld witnessed, as the original quote from an ex-employee explained in the article:
“It was very awkward, and Jerry [Seinfeld] was like, ‘You should apologize to him,’ almost trying to make it a joke […] It was one of the strangest moments ever and so many people were there, so it’s kind of hard to forget.”
Since the article’s original publication, Seinfeld has released a statement to Rolling Stone explaining that his point of view of the event was much different and far from being the “awkward” encounter described by the ex-employee. Seinfeld’s clarifying statement paints the remark as almost an inside joke between him and Fallon:
“This is so stupid. I remember this moment quite well… I teased Jimmy about a flub, and we all had a fun laugh about how rarely Jimmy is thrown off. It was not uncomfortable at all. Jimmy and I still occasionally recall it and laugh. Idiotic twisting of events.”
Seinfeld’s rebuttal doesn’t necessarily negate everything said in the article. After all, there are other allegations of bullying, public berating of employees, and even a moment in which some employees suspected Fallon of being intoxicated from alcohol due to observing him looking inexplicably confused on set at one point. Concerns were raised about The Tonight Show being a generally chaotic workplace due to nine different showrunners coming and going over the past nine years.
Though The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon has been temporarily put on hiatus due to the Writers Guild Strike, Fallon has been temporarily co-hosting a podcast with other late-night talk show heavy hitters called Strike Force Five, which is aiming to raise funds for the staff members out of work while they’re on strike.