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Jimmy Fallon And Lin-Manuel Miranda Talk Social Distancing... With Kids

by Leah Groth
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Jimmy Fallon And Lin-Manuel Miranda Talk Social Distancing... With Kids
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/Youtube

On the latest episode of “The Tonight Show: At Home Edition” Jimmy Fallon and Lin-Manuel Miranda tackle the issue of social distancing with kids

In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, nearly everything in life has been “cancelled,” Amy Schumer bluntly explained to us last week. However, because sometimes we can have nice things, Jimmy Fallon has refused to take a “coronacation” and is still managing to inject a little humor into our lives by bringing us his hit late night talk show from the comfort of his own home. Did we mention he employed a new staff for the production? His crew consists of his wife, Nancy, and two daughters; 6-year-old Winnie and 5-year-old Franny.

On his most recent episode of the genius The Tonight Show: At Home Edition, Fallon invited his very first virtual guest, fellow dad Lin-Manuel Miranda. The topic of the evening? How to navigate social distancing (and working from home) with children.

The episode begins with Franny banging drums — which basically sums up the working conditions that most of us are facing right now. She then continues to bug her dad during his intro (again, totally relatable) finding it hilarious when he reminds her that the intro is over.

Fallon then reveals that the Hamilton star, who has two sons with wife Vanessa, will be his guest — via a scrap of handwritten paper. But he doesn’t get too far into the episode before his children are on his lap, banging drums, and just being the way kids are when you are trying to work. He continues reading his script, with his kids still attempting to distract him. If all of this feels eerily familiar, it is because your work day is likely eerily similar.

After his monologue, he invites Miranda onto the show, who plays his own Roots-inspired intro song. “We are doing the cool thing to do, which is self-quarantining,” Manuel explains when asked what he and his family have been up to. “We are home with our two kids, a kindergartner and a 2-year-old, and so we are learning how to homeschool,” he says with a laugh. “Every teacher should make $1 billion a year,” he added, referencing Shonda Rhimes’ recent tweet. “It’s insane,” Fallon interjected.

The two then joke that they have basically gotten zero work done, because they are busy finding online resources to teach their kids with — including Mo Willems’ popular Lunch Doodles. “My kids’ doodles are legit good after following him,” Lin explained. “They are a master class.”

The two also discuss the charity, Broadway Cares — Fallon’s designated charity of the evening — which is raising money for theater performers who aren’t making a living right now due to the pandemic.

Manuel also treated viewers to a special at-home performance of Dear Theodosia from Hamilton. He killed it, of course.

Earlier this week, Fallon himself picked up a guitar and treated his social media followers to a performance to his new song, Wash Your Hands, which featured an accompanying music video starring his daughters.

Keep it coming, Jimmy Fallon! We need all the laughter we can get these days.

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