After the last few months, Jimmy Fallon deserves a bit of good news. The late-night host suffered a gruesome ring avulsion over the Summer, and needed a 10-hour procedure to save his finger from being amputated. Then, this week, he took a spill at a party in his honor … and hurt the other hand.
But what better way to forget about your troubles than with … your own theme park ride!
On Tuesday evening’s Tonight Show, Fallon announced that Universal Studios Orlando will soon unveil Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon. Beyond that, we don’t know much as the host was not at liberty to divulge any major details.
“I wish I could give all the details. I don’t know what I’m allowed to say. I can’t say anything,” said Fallon. “They’re working on it now. 2017 is when it comes out. Maybe just bleep it out, I can’t say anything, just bleep it out.” He then unveiled a small placard featuring the ride’s logo and sheepishly smiled at the audience.
In describing the ride to Questlove, Fallon simply said “Do you know the Harry Potter rides and all that stuff? It’s like that. Instead of Harry Potter, it’s me and instead of Hogwarts, it’s New York City.” Universal Studios has to work that into the marketing campaign somehow.
Although late-night TV doesn’t seem to translate into the theme park arena as well as, say, just about anything else, Universal Studios exists in large part to further the NBC Universal brand. And what better way to promote the Tonight Show than by building an attraction at a park that gets millions of visitors every year?
Now if only this ride could somehow incorporate a game of Password with Ellen DeGeneres, Steve Carell and Reese Witherspoon or Slapjack with Mark Wahlberg. That’s something we’d wait on line for.
