Comedian and former altar boy Jimmy Fallon talks with Terry Gross (story) (transcript) about why he doesn’t go to Church anymore:
GROSS: Do you still go to church?
Mr. FALLON: I don’t go to – I tried to go back. When I was out in L.A. and I was like kind of struggling for a bit I went to church for a while, but it’s kind of, it’s gotten gigantic now for me. It’s like too, there’s a band. There’s a band there now and you got to, you have to hold hands with people through the whole mass now, and I don’t like doing that. You know, I mean it used to be the shaking hands piece was the only time you touched each other.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
Mr. FALLON: Now I’m holding now I’m lifting people. Like Simba.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. FALLON: I’m holding them (Singing) ha nah hey nah ho.
(Speaking) I’m I’m doing too much. I don’t want – there’s Frisbees being thrown, there’s beach balls going around, people waving lighters, and I go this is too much for me. I want the old way. I want to hang out with the, you know, with the nuns, you know, that was my favorite type of mass, and the Grotto and just like straight up, just mass-mass.
Sure, some of this is comic bluster, but it’s not all shtick.