How Jimmy Fallon was able to quickly sketch of himself as Nicolas Cage as Joe Exotic

Variety

The Tonight Show showed the sketch of Fallon as Cage as the Tiger King less than 36 hours after Variety first broke the news on Monday that Cage would be starring in a Joe Exotic series. Tonight Show writer Jeremy Bronson came up with the idea for the sketch the night before it aired. The writers already had a fake mullet, mustache and tiger-striped shirt for another Joe Exotic sketch that was returned when the sketch was scrapped. That's when The Tonight Show crew stepped in. “Miraculously, it all ended up at Jimmy’s 12 hours later,” says Bronson. “Our crew is really amazing at turning that stuff around.” The writing, filming and editing of the sketch took place within a 24-hour period, with the video finished just before airtime for Tuesday's Tonight Show. “Things were happening at the same time, which as a one-foot-in-the-door kind of outsider is pretty damn impressive,” says Rebecca Drysdale, who was named Tonight Show head writer just last week. “It was just last minute, get it done. And then someone had the brilliant idea of also putting a music video in it.”