That soul patch, though! Jimmy Fallon spoofed the Fox hit Empire during The Tonight Show on Tuesday, Sept. 22 — and crushed it. The late-night host played a version of Terrence Howard’s Lucious Lyon in the hilarious 10-minute video, complete with a slick suit, purple scarf, and some scruff.
Unlike the original Lucious, Fallon’s character in the parody doesn’t suffer from a chronic illness — but he does have other health problems that could eventually affect his “Jimpire.” Namely, his real-life finger injury.
“I’ve been telling jokes since I was 9 years old in Brooklyn,” he tells his staff. “It was these jokes, these funnies, these ‘ha has’ that kept me warm at night growing up in the streets.”
He adds: “Now, I might not be around forever. What with my finger being in the condition it is, who knows what could happen tomorrow? I could stub my toe, I could bite my tongue, I could burn the roof of my mouth eating a hot microwave pizza.”
Fallon enlisted his show’s band, The Roots, to fill out the rest of the Lyon family. Even better, he made his sidekick Steve Higgins throw on a fur coat to play Taraji P. Henson’s glamorous and fierce Cookie Lyon.
The gang didn’t perform the classics like “You’re So Beautiful” and “Drip Drop,” but they did pull out some amazing surprise cast appearances. Oh, and Donald Trump dropped by!
Watch the video above!