Jimmy Fallon is a laugh-and-a-half, but he"s also knows how to get deep when the occasion calls for it.
Last night, The Tonight Show host addressed the June 12th Orlando shooting in his opening monologue, something other show hosts, including Conan O"Brien and John Oliver, also felt compelled to do.
"I know everyone is angry right now and doesn"t know how to react and this is a time when people are looking to us as a country and how we will react," Fallon told the audience inside Rockefeller Center.
"This country was built on an idea that we don"t agree on everything; that we are a tolerant, free nation that encourages debate, free-thinking, believing, or not, in what you choose."
As a parent, Fallon"s next point made the horrific attack that left 49 innocent victims dead all the more emotional.
"I, as a new father, am thinking, "What do I tell my kids?"" he asked, referring to his two daughters.
"What do I tell them about this? What can we learn from this? What if my kids are gay?
"What do I tell them Maybe there"s a lesson from all this. A lesson in tolerance," he said.
"We need to support each other"s differences and worry less about our own opinions. Get back to debate and away from believing or supporting the idea that if someone doesn"t live the way you want them to live, you just buy a gun and kill them. Bomb them up.
"That is not OK."
"We need to get back to being brave enough to accept that we have different opinions and that"s OK, because that is what America is built on," he continued.
"The idea that we can stand up and speak our minds and live our lives and not be punished for that, or mocked on the Internet, or killed by someone you don"t know."
"This was just one bad guy here. 49 good people and one bad guy, and there will always be more good than evil."
Fallon wrapped up with a beautiful message about moving forward as a global community, and continuing to prove that love is the strongest weapon against hate.
"When I think of Orlando, I think of nothing but fun and joy and families.
"If anyone can do it, you can. Keep loving each other. Keep respecting each other. And keep on dancing."
Couldn"t have said it better myself.
