Thanksgiving has just passed, which means that Macy's balloon-filled Thanksgiving Day Parade once more marched through the streets of New York City. All the usual suspects were there, from Pikachu to Charlie Brown to the still-somehow-relevant squirrel from the Ice Age movies. The parade is usually a good-natured and argument-free way to spend the holiday, but if you're a major Prince fan then you might not have been too happy. A purple-clad Jimmy Fallon and the Roots dressed up to perform a cover of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy," and people on Twitter were not happy about it.
Jimmy Fallon is all about pleasing people in genial ways, but The Tonight Show host definitely isn't immune to the wrath of Prince fans. Fallon's rendition of "Let's Go Crazy" was about as unapologetically cheesy as you'd expect, and it was full of dancing, lip-syncing, and big air guitar riffs. (This is the Macy's Parade after all). It was pretty on-brand for Fallon -- who is notably a big Prince fan himself -- but now he's having his own unique kind of Lip Sync Battle with Prince fans, many of whom felt he wasn't very reverential with his performance. Even just the sentence "Jimmy Fallon sings Prince" would seemingly send them into a tizzy, and people took to Twitter to share their complete lack of thanks for the cover.
This Twitter user just couldn't comprehend any situation where Jimmy Fallon would be covering Prince. Likewise, another viewer just wanted Fallon to stick to what he was good at.
Being a huge music fan doesn't make you a good singer, I suppose. Jimmy Fallon might want to just stick to the jokes for a little while. Especially if he's ever in Minnesota.
Since Prince is from Minnesota, quite a few locals took it pretty personally when Fallon took to the stage for this song. The tweeter below just hopes that we can one day forgive Fallon for this incongruously surreal performance.
Prince is pretty untouchable (at least by Jimmy Fallon) as far as fans of the pop icon are concerned, but not everyone had means things to say. Some people actually liked Fallon's parade rendition, also taking to Twitter to thank the late night host for brightening up their Thanksgiving morning.
Jimmy Fallon is a pretty harmless guy when you get down to it, and he likely didn't mean to piss off a legion of Prince fans for singing one of the famed artist's songs. If you'd like to know what all the hubbub is about, head on over to the next page to watch Fallon's performance, complete with a palate cleanser.
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade isn't supposed to be held as a benchmark of the performing arts, to be sure, but see for yourself if Jimmy Fallon lip-syncing "Let's Go Crazy" is really all that bad. Let us know what you think in the comments!
Whether you loved or hated the performance above, there is no denying the magnificence and jubilance that oozes from the video below, in which Prince rocked out a Saturday Night Live afterparty. (And yeah, Jimmy Fallon was there.)
If you need something else to watch now, head to our fall TV premiere schedule and our 2018 midseason premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way.
