I had high hopes for Jimmy Fallon. After breaking through on Saturday Night Live he had a brief but pretty memorable part in Almost Famous. It was a real acting part unlike most SNL cast movie appearances. The next time I saw him was in Band of Brothers, also brief, but pretty good. Then he went to shit. Taxi, Fever Pitch and Doogal all sucked, although Doogal probably wasn’t his fault. That’s all over now, though, as he breaks back into serious and important acting work with his appearance as “Hot Tub Johnny” in the roller derby movie, Whip It!.

Seriously, it’s not that Jimmy Fallon should play Hamlet or something, but he can be good! I don’t know much about the role, but /Film says he will be “a cheesy hungover announcer who makes nasty comments to all the skaters.” That doesn’t exactly sound like something that will make us forget Taxi. Whip It! is Drew Barrymore’s directing debut and is currently filming.

Unrelated to Fallon’s appearance in Whip It! is the funny state of his Wikipedia page. The page lists him as “James Thomas "Loser" Fallon, Jr.” and states that “he inexplicably will replace Conan O'Brien as host of NBC's Late Night in 2009, in what is widely considered a crime against humanity and a shame of shames.” That’s not very nice, when you think about it.