Editing The Tonight Show (section)

==Gags, sketches, and segments==
'''Allen'''
* Answer Man: Allen would come up with the answer to an unknown question, then read the question, which would invariably be the punchline to a joke.
* [[Man on the street]] interviews: often featured actors  [[Don Knotts]], [[Louis Nye]] and [[Tom Poston]], though Allen also performed impromptu bits with non-professional civilians.
* ... and Costello: [[Lou Costello]] would re-enact his classic [[Abbott and Costello]] comedy bits with Poston or Nye in the place of the then-briefly-retired [[Bud Abbott]].
* Crazy Shots: Later known as "Wild Pictures". Allen's supporting cast and guest stars would participate in quick visual gags while Allen played piano accompaniment.
* [[Steve and Eydie]]: A vocal duo consisting of up-and-coming singers [[Steve Lawrence]] and [[Eydie Gormé]], who performed interludes (in a relic of the [[old-time radio]] era when entertainment programs included vocal groups in addition to house bands). The two would marry near the end of Allen's run and remained together until Gormé died in 2013.<ref name="Ruhlmann">{{cite web |last1=Ruhlmann |first1=William |title=Eydie Gorme |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/eydie-gorme-mn0000128249/biography |website=AllMusic |access-date=August 8, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/11/showbiz/eydie-gorme-death/index.html?hpt=hp_t2|title=Singer Eydie Gorme dies at 84|publisher=CNN.com|access-date=August 13, 2013}}</ref>

'''Kovacs'''
* Eugene: A befuddled and bumbling character largely performed in [[pantomime]]. The week of Kovacs's last episodes of ''Tonight'', Eugene received a prime-time special, ''[[Silent Show]]''.

'''Paar'''
* [[Candid Camera]]: The off-again, on-again show, hosted by [[Allen Funt]] since [[Old-time radio|radio's heyday]], was a segment on ''The Tonight Show'' [[1958 in television|in 1958]].<ref name="candid">{{cite news|url=http://www.candidcamera.com/cc2/cc2k.html|title=Candid Camera Timeline|access-date=October 15, 2009}}</ref>
* Stump the Band: Audience members are asked to name an obscure song and the band tries to play it. If the band does not know the song, it usually breaks into a comical piece of music. This segment went on to become part of Carson's ''Tonight Show''.
* Telephone Game:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-11-28-8603300180-story.html|title='Jack Paar Comes Home' with Welcome Tales and Style|website=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref> Another improvisational music bit, this one had Melis building songs around four-digit numbers (ostensibly the last four digits of an audience member's phone number).

'''Carson'''
{{main|The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson#Recurring segments and skits}}
[[File:Johnny Carson Tonight Show 1965.JPG|thumb|right|{{center|Johnny Carson in 1965}}]]
* [[Carnac the Magnificent]]: Carson plays a psychic who is given sealed envelopes (that McMahon invariably states, with a flourish, have been kept "[[hermetically sealed]] inside a [[mayonnaise]] jar underneath [[Funk & Wagnalls]]' porch since noon today"). Carnac holds an envelope to his head and recites the punchline to a joke contained within the envelope, he then rips open the envelope and reads the matching question inside. Sample: "Saucepan... Who was Peter Pan's wino brother?" If a joke falls flat with the audience, Carnac invariably passes a comedic curse upon them (e.g., "May a bloated yak change the temperature of your jacuzzi!"). Carnac appears to be modeled after one of Allen's earlier gags, "The Question Man," in which Allen is given an answer to which he then provides the punchline in the form of a question.
* The Tea Time Movie:, with "Art Fern" and the Matinée Lady (originally [[Paula Prentiss]], then a parade of one shots including [[Edy Williams]], [[Juliet Prowse]] and [[Lee Meredith]], then for many years [[Carol Wayne]], then Danuta Wesley, and finally [[Teresa Ganzel]]). Carson once said that Art Fern was his favorite character: "He's so sleazy!" Huckster Art usually wore a loud suit, lavish toupee, and pencil mustache, and spoke in the high, nasal approximation of [[Jackie Gleason]]'s "Reginald van Gleason III" character. A parody of 1950s-style, fast-talking advertising pitchmen, the Tea Time Movie consists of a rapid-fire series of fake advertisements for products and companies supposedly sponsoring a mid-afternoon movie. Invariably the jokes refer to his buxom Matinée Lady assistant, and at least once in every skit a variation of the "[[Slauson Avenue|Slauson Cutoff]]" joke is made (e.g., "You can find our store by heading down Hwy. 101 until you get to the Slauson Cutoff. Get out of the car, cut off your slauson, get back in the car."), as is a reference to "Drive until you get to... (a map is unfolded to reveal a table fork) the ''fork'' in the ''road''!" Art would then return us to today's movie (like "Tarzan and Cheetah Have to Get Married" or "Rin Tin Tin Gets Fixed Fixed Fixed," etc.), followed by an antique, four-second film clip. Back to Art, caught necking with the Matinée Lady before announcing another movie and another commercial.

'''Leno'''
{{main|List of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno sketches}}
[[File:Jay Leno 1995.jpg|thumb|right|{{center|Jay Leno in 1995}}]]
* [[Headlines (Jay Leno)|Headlines]] (Monday): Humorous print items sent in by viewers. These real-life headlines and advertisements usually contain typographical errors, [[double entendre]]s, mismatched juxtapositions and/or unintentionally inappropriate items (wedding announcements with peculiar name combinations were a recurring theme). The segment usually starts out with a fake, humorous Headline during the introduction for the segment, such as Arabs Wish Bush "A Happy Shoe Year!", usually reflecting some current event.
* Jaywalking: A prerecorded segment, "Jaywalking" is a play on the host's name and the illegal practice of jaywalking. Leno asks people questions about current news and other topics in public areas around Los Angeles (usually Hollywood Boulevard, Melrose Avenue or Universal Studios). Most responses are outrageously incorrect; for example, one person believed that Abraham Lincoln was the first president, and another could not identify a picture of Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the questions are of the "What color is the White House?" level, such as asking in what country the Panama Canal is located. Up to 15 people are interviewed in an hour or less for each segment, with about nine interviews used on the air.
* Stuff We Found on [[eBay]]: Outrageous, real-life items available on the auction Web site eBay are shown, with the audience asked to guess whether or not the item was sold.
* Unusual Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas gifts: Gift items appropriate for holidays are shown; some real, some phony, all unusual

'''O'Brien'''
{{main|List of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien sketches}}
* [[Twitter]] Tracker: In this sketch, Conan is interrupted by an overzealous announcer (voiced by show writer [[Brian McCann (actor)|Brian McCann]]) while lamenting the increasing number of celebrities who are using Twitter. The announcer attempts to prove to Conan that celebrity tweets are exciting by reading some of his favorites, which all describe mundane activities. The sketch is accompanied by increasingly elaborate animations in which the bird from the Twitter logo is repeatedly killed. The announcer tries to persuade Conan to play a game by using a rhyming sentence in which he refers to him as CoCo.
* Wax Fonzie/Wax Tom Cruise: While visiting a warehouse full of poor quality celebrity wax figures, Conan identified two as his favorite and purchased them. One was of [[Henry Winkler]] as his ''[[Happy Days]]'' character [[Arthur Fonzarelli]] (whose hand positioning caused Conan to comment that he had just finished up at the urinal), and the other was a creepy-looking figure of [[Tom Cruise]]. Both wax figures made appearances on the show, including skits being shot out of a cannon. Wax Tom Cruise for the most part survived, while Wax Fonzie's face became irreplaceable. Wax Fonzie ultimately met its fate when it was obliterated in an explosion, part of a contest involving blowing up the contest winner's old car.
* Ridiculously Expensive Sketches: As an act of mock revenge for NBC forcing him out of ''The Tonight Show's'' traditional time slot, O'Brien spent the last few episodes debuting sketches that ostensibly would cost NBC an extremely large amount of money. The sketches used rare and expensive props (usually on loan) and contained media with unusually high licensing fees.

'''Fallon'''
{{main|Lists of Jimmy Fallon games and sketches}}
[[File:Jimmy Fallon by David Shankbone.jpg|thumb|right|{{center|Jimmy Fallon in 2007}}]]
Many of Fallon's sketches moved over from ''Late Night''.
* Pros & Cons: Fallon weighs the positives and the negatives on a particular topic of current events, with the "Pro" setting up the [[punch line]], in the form of the "Con".
* Tonight Show Suggestion Box: Fallon responds to written suggestions, purportedly submitted by audience members, about ways to improve the show. As a result, the segment usually features three or four unrelated short comedy bits.
* Tonight Show Hashtags: Fallon puts out a call on [[Twitter]] each Wednesday for viewers to submit funny or absurd tweets based around a particular [[hashtag]] topic. Fallon then reads a few of the most comedic responses on Thursday's show.
* Thank You Notes: Noting that Friday is when he usually takes care of "personal stuff" and that he ran out of time during the day, Fallon writes his weekly "thank you notes" on the air. Fallon thanks people in the news, current events, inanimate objects, and other random subjects to comedic effect. Each note is accompanied by reflective piano music from The Roots' [[James Poyser]], and usually results in a comedic exchange between Fallon and Higgins.
*Tonight Show Superlatives: Usually done as a tie-in to that week's ''[[NBC Sunday Night Football|Sunday Night Football]]'' game, Fallon shows photos of athletes and gives them captions styled like those that might be used in a high school yearbook.
*Screen Grabs: Similar to Leno's Headlines bit, viewers submit actual screen shots from various media (phones, internet, television, radio, etc.) that contain typos or similar errors with humorous results.
*Do Not Read List: Jimmy shares real published books found in actual libraries that have awkward titles &/or subject matter, an ironic author's name, or contain some other humorous element.
*Ew!: Jimmy portrays a teenage girl named Sara and invites many celebrities to be in Jimmy's basement. Through the sketch, all "girls" say "ew" a lot. The most popular segment of this sketch is with Seth Rogen and Zac Efron.