Cardi B’s Tonight Show Co-Hosting Gig Was a Stroke of Brilliance

These days, it’s hard to find even one uneventful evening in late-night—but even by today’s standards, Monday night was one for the books. As always, there was the news item everyone was talking about—in this case, the F.B.I. raid on Michael Cohen. There was also Seth Meyers telling the story of how his wife gave birth to their son, Axel, in the lobby of their building—something viewers certainly don’t hear about every day. And that Late Show broadcast actually followed something even more delightfully unpredictable: Cardi B’s turn as co-host of NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Cardi B’s charisma has been well documented, but her appearance alongside Jimmy Fallon Monday night was a true tour de force of charm. She and Fallon tag-teamed the show’s monologue, at one point taking turns riffing on a viral photo of Donald Trump, before the rapper made herself comfortable in Fallon’s chair. Cardi B is The Tonight Show’s first co-host, so even though this was her third appearance on the program, viewers got to see a lot more of her than they normally would. She recorded an outgoing voice-mail message for a fan, read a passage from the popular children’s book Go the Fuck to Sleep in honor of her impending motherhood, and played a particularly hilarious round of the show’s recurring game “Box of Lies.”

Naturally, as the whole co-hosting gig was set up for the purpose of promoting Cardi B’s debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, the rapper performed before she left the Tonight Show. But her augmented role on the show was a stroke of genius. One of the most common critiques of contemporary late-night shows can be that they lack true spontaneity. With Cardi around, however, Tonight was infused, from start to finish, with an ecstatic, unpredictable energy. The most entertaining moment, by far, came when Cardi and Jimmy sat down to interview their guest, comedian John Mulaney.

As he took his seat, Mulaney offered Cardi B a gift from him and his wife—a tiny cardigan, otherwise known as a “Cardi G.” “This feels weird,” the rapper said with glee as she admired the sweater. “Babies are so little!”

Eventually, the conversation pivoted toward high-school proms—and while Mulaney and Fallon agreed that high-school proms are pretty lame, Cardi coyly rebutted, “I had a good prom.” She later elaborated . . . sort of.

“My boyfriend at the time, he dumped me two weeks before my prom . . . but I honestly think it’s because he didn’t want to pay for the limo,” Cardi B said. “But then that night . . . Forget it.”

Mulaney and Fallon took turns guessing what happened. Did she see him again? Did someone pay for the limo? Was someone else in the limo? At one point, Mulaney volunteered, “You know, my nana drove me to prom.” Then the mystery got weirder. “You want to know something?” Cardi B said. “The limo that I ended up with? I didn’t rent it.” The guessing began anew: did she buy a limo? Take a limo? “Forget it,” she said. “Kids watch me now.”

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