Jimmy Fallon and Amy Poehler’s Tense ‘SNL’ Exchange Resurfaces Amid Toxic Workplace Allegations

Jimmy Fallon‘s employees aren’t the only ones who have allegedly had a toxic experience with the Tonight Show host. According to a resurfaced passage from Tina Fey‘s 2013 autobiography, Bossypants, the comedian and Amy Poehler once shared an uncomfortable exchange in the Saturday Night Live writers’ room.

In a post of the passage shared to X (formerly known as Twitter), Fey recalled a table read in which Fallon allegedly called out Poehler — who was new to the SNL cast at the time.

“Amy Poehler was new to SNL and we were all crowded into the seventeenth-floor writers’ room, waiting for the Wednesday night read-through to start,” Fey wrote. “Amy was in the middle of some such nonsense with Seth Meyers across the table, and she did something vulgar as a joke. I can’t remember what it was exactly, except it was dirty and loud and ‘unladylike.'”

She continued, “Jimmy Fallon turned to her and in a faux-squeamish voice said, ‘Stop that! It’s not cute! I don’t like it.’ Amy dropped what she was doing, went black in the eyes for a second, and wheeled around on him. ‘I don’t fucking care if you like it.'”

While Fey described Fallon as “visibly startled” following the tense moment, she said Poehler went “right back to enjoying her ridiculous bit.”

She added, “With that exchange, a cosmic shift took place. Amy made it clear that she wasn’t there to be cute. She wasn’t there to play wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. She was there to do what she wanted to do and she did not fucking care if you like it.”

The social media user revisited Fey’s passage following claims that Fallon fosters a toxic workplace at The Tonight Show. According to a scathing Rolling Stone report, multiple staffers alleged that Fallon has been drunk at work, berated employees and easily flew off the handle depending on his ever-changing mood. One former employee even admitted that they considered taking their own life “all the time” when they worked on the late-night television show.

While Fallon has yet to make a public statement, he reportedly held a Zoom meeting with his current employees to apologize for the “embarrassing” allegations. Two staffers who were in attendance told Rolling Stone that Fallon said he never intended to “create that type of atmosphere for the show.”

“Sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends… I feel so bad I can’t even tell you,” he reportedly said. “I want the show to be fun, [it] should be inclusive to everybody. It should be the best show.”

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