After facing a wave of backlash, Jimmy Fallon is righting a perceived wrong by inviting the creators of viral TikTok dances onto his late night talk show, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Fallon was in hot water across social media when fans called him out a week ago for inviting TikTok sensation Addison Rae onto his show to teach him eight of the hottest dances circulating the web. But on April 3, Fallon gave the nine dance creators their moment to shine.
“On our last show before break we did a bit with Addison Rae where she taught me eight viral TikTok dances. Now we recognize that the creators of those dances deserve to have their own spotlight,” said Fallon before introducing dancers behind five of the dances (some of whom partnered on a dance): Mya Nicole Johnson, Chris Cotter, Dorien Scott, Fur-Quan Powell, Camyra Franklin, Adam Snyder, Nate Nale, Greg Dahl and Keara Wilson.
The dancers were then given the opportunity to explain how they choreographed the dance, as well as discuss their reaction to seeing millions of people, including celebrities, highlight the moves.
The problem in the eyes of most people who criticized Fallon is that Rae was initially given a large platform to show off the moves instead of the mostly Black creators.
“GIVE CREDIT TO MY PPL!!! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾”
“Imagine being famous and rich for stealing other people’s dances💀”
“Why couldn’t the people who made the dances go up there instead 😐”
While not all of Fallon’s fans are thrilled that he didn’t issue an apology, they were pleased that the dance originators were acknowledged.
“while they are clearly only doing this to not get cancelled, it’s still a nice thing to do.”
“Credit where it’s due. At least they didn’t just ignore the outrage, and actually addressed it the right way.”
“Awesome that they recognized their mistake and gave these awesome creators a chance to talk about themselves and perform their dances!”
“Finally black talented people are gettin recognized and they deserve it 🔥”
Others were just happy to see some soul in the choreography after watching Addison’s performance.
“Finally black talented people are gettin recognized and they deserve it 🔥”
“I saw the side by side this morning. Someone commented that Addison Rae looked like she was dancing in lower case.”
