Last September, Prince Harry made a surprise appearance on the Tonight Show, where Harry and Jimmy Fallon went through a “haunted maze” at 30 Rock. It was a cute segment and there was no controversy whatsoever. That’s Fallon’s whole deal as the host of the Tonight Show – everything has to be as uncontroversial as possible. He’s not there to attack celebrities or do hard-hitting interviews or be super-political. Well, on Monday night’s Tonight Show, Fallon did a joke about the Duchess of Sussex and With Love, Meghan. Obviously, the British media just learned about this joke and they’re convinced that Fallon is brutally mocking Meghan.
Jimmy Fallon has become the latest American celebrity to mock Meghan Markle as he made a joke about her making her own pretzel bags on her Netflix show.
During NBC’s The Tonight Show on Monday, Fallon’s sidekick Steve Higgins asked the 50-year-old chat show host a series of questions in a ‘Trivia Night’ segment.
One of the queries put to Fallon by Higgins was: ‘Ready, you’re going to get this. What is the number one question that mystifies scientists? Number one question.’
Fallon then suggested: ‘Is there life on another planet?’ But Higgins said: ‘Ooh, no. Why does Meghan Markle make her own pretzel bags? They don’t know why.’
As the audience erupted in laughter, Fallon chuckled and replied: ‘That’s interesting. She takes it from one bag and puts it in another bag, and that confuses people.’
They were referring to a moment in ‘With Love, Meghan’, which began streaming on March 4, where the Duchess of Sussex transfers pre-packaged pretzels into another bag with a personalised label on to show visiting guests that she is thinking of them. In the scene, Meghan tears open a pre-packaged bag of supermarket pretzels, transferring them into her own plastic bag, and securing it with a neat string bow.
‘This, we’re just going to put into a different bag,’ she says, with fans spotting the recognisable Trader Joe packaging of the peanut butter flavoured snacks.
What’s funny is… Fallon wouldn’t have done this joke if no one watched WLM. It wouldn’t land if people didn’t know the reference. My point is that this is far from a brutal takedown, it’s a confirmation that people are watching WLM and that Meghan is famous enough to be gently ribbed on the Tonight Show. This is the kind of joke Fallon would make about Martha Stewart or Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s also the kind of thing which I hope Meghan and her fans can laugh about too, because it honestly would not surprise me if Meghan ended up going on the Tonight Show at some point to promote WLM (and she should bring a bag of pretzels as a gift).
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, Netflix.
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- New York City, NY – Jimmy Fallon is fully suited up in a tux and suede loafers while arriving at Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in NYC Pictured: Jimmy Fallon BACKGRID USA 28 FEBRUARY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BlayzenPhotos / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Jimmy Fallon and Sam Claflin at WWHL Taping in NYC Soho, NY. Featuring: Jimmy Fallon Where: New York, New York, United States When: 28 Feb 2023 Credit: Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
Having Meghan bringing Fallon a little bag of pretzels would be a hoot!! I really hope that she does that! If nothing else it would show that she’s a good sport and doesn’t take herself too seriously.
I second this. 🥨
And hereby term it #PretzelGate
PS Love Jimmy’s coat. Is it vicuña?
I read it as he was making a joke about the stupidity of people that were criticizing the show!
On a local show, “Off the Clock” on KTLA (Ch 5 here in L.A.) they had a plane seating mock up, with 2 famous people (faces) in two of the 3 seats, and the anchors were asked, “Who would you choose to sit with?” Some choices were like Serena Williams and Simone Biles, …or Scarlett Johansen and Colin Jost…., Martha Stewart and Snoop….., Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson, AND HARRY AND MEGHAN…! LOLOL. There were several other coupling, but H&M were right on top of one of the two columns!
I would love for Meghan to go on Fallon, with a little clip at first of her changing bags for the pretzels to give to Fallon.
JMO but I don’t think this was a joke ON Meghan at all. It was a joke on all the people who are making too big a deal about how “awful” it is that, yes, she moved pretzels from one bag to another. The ones who hate watched her show (if they did at all) and now spend 24 hrs a day coming at it and her because….absolutely no good reason. (the key word for me was “scientists.'” the BM is making up experts on how crudité is starting wars)
That was how it came across to me as well.
This whole “controversy” gets me in my funny bone, cause don’t they pour popcorn into a different container before serving? From bag to bowl? don’t they pull pickles out of the jar and serve them on a nice dish? Would you serve the whole bag of popcorn in the bag to just one person? Why would she serve the whole bag of pretzels to one person? No, she put a couple of pretzels, which she KNOWS her guest loves, in its own container (bag) so he could enjoy a few as a treat before bed. What, they expect him to eat the whole bag on his own in his room? Is that because its what they would do? The English must be terribly gauche, especially these royal experts who copy everything their royals do?!! /s
Ridiculous essay writers. They are not journalists and I refuse, refuse I say, to call them by a title/job description they simply do not deserve and have not earned.
I have no issue with the reference and I would do the same thing. For me it personalizes the gift basket and it takes effort to switch from one bag to the other and shows you care. To each their own. It is all about the gift basket at the end of the day and how it makes your guest feel.
Honestly most men won’t get it, and a lot of women also because they just don’t see it and that’s fine these are also the people that probably hand their guests the Sams club bulk packaged pretzels and a beer in the can, entertaining is not an art form for many people.
LOL I’m in the “entertaining is not an art form” category (love to have people over, etc., but they know I will forget to offer drinks and other basic host duties, so they just help themselves. To me, that’s the sign of close friendship – feeling at home in someone else’s house. And still loving me despite my terrible hosting skills.)
I say that because even with my incredibly lazy hosting style, I can totally understand many potential reasons for Meghan re-bagging the pretzels.
1) Portion size! It’s not like she dumped the whole bag into a whole other bag. She clearly used the second bag to portion out a reasonable amount of pretzels for one guest for one night.
2) Related: that means no germ-sharing between her family, who might yet eat the rest of the bag of pretzels, and her guest, who just got off a place and even if he was fastidious about masking, sanitizing, etc., might be carrying airport germs. (Or for the guest’s sake, since their kids are in school and let’s face it, preschools are little germ factories, no matter how posh the zipcode).
3) It makes the pretzel bag re-sealable, since the guest can eat what they want, and tie it back up. Those TJ’s bags are NOT resealable (so while my lazy host-self probably would have attached a binder clip for them to seal up the bag when they were done, if I’d remembered nightstand snacks at all, this is obviously way more thoughtful), so you’d either be stuck eating the whole bag, using my lazy binder clip trick, or eating stale pretzels the next day.
So honestly…wth with all the pearl-clutching around pretzels?! I’m sure Jimmy & Co. were just making fun of everyone who got up in arms about all these little details on the show.
Okay, I’m protective of people ragging on Meghan but even I know this is not a brutal joke. This was actually cute. Bc even I laughed when Meghan just put the pretzels in prettier bags. It was actually a sweet idea for guests but still. Being in the first ep, it had me laughing.
The British media can’t or doesn’t want to see the difference. It used to be a thing that you knew you had ” made it” if they made fun of you on SNL or The Simpsons. Being mocked by comedians or on TV shows that deal with pop culture is something that most people who are famous experience and I evidence that they are hated beyond belief.
This was my take as well. This is a joke on all the people watching the show nitpicking every little detail.
This meant to be a comment to Heather’s comment above.
Not being mean with this joke at all. Just saying she put pretzels from one bag to another. People do that at Halloween with small candies being put into an nice little Halloween bag.
What is this mysterious “Halloween candle” ritual of which you speak? I’ve never heard of it. Why candles? What happens with them? Is this an East Coast thing?
Candies is what I wrote candles is what you read. I used to get little wax paper bags with small candies in them. The candies came in a big bag but the giver put them in small bags to give out on Halloween.
Oh, someone please pity the Deranged ones!
We already have two versions of wafflegate — QEII’s face and the size of the wafflemaker, then there’s the redacted files that they don’t like, plus garden gate where Meghan’s feet and the spring onions are too clean.
Now this, pretzelbag-gate.
Don’t they have a life? Don’t any of them live near a patch of grass they could touch?
This made me laugh because like Kaiser said, the joke wouldn’t have landed if people didn’t get the reference. (as for why she puts the pretzels in another bag, I assumed it was bc she’s not giving each guest the whole bag of pretzels. She might split that bag between 2-3 guests.)
Gentle ribbing like this is part of being a public figure and I’m sure Meghan laughed when she heard about it.
And yes, I think the “scientists” part is poking fun at the derangers and the BM who are so “mystified” over this.
That was my thought, too. Meghan was making a nice little basket for the guest room and what? Is she going to cram a giant plastic bag of pretzels on top?
Equating “royal experts” to “scientists” is the cattle prod they deserve. Especially when Higgins points out said “scientists” aren’t smart enough to figure out why Meghan portions out a 15-serving bag of pretzels, rather than just dump the whole bag in the guest room, or expect guests to wander through the living area in their night clothes searching for a snack.
I want one of her bags!!! The pretzel bag.
Hahahahahaha
I would proudly display that bag of repackaged pretzels 🥨 any day.
Making a gift basket for visiting guests was the weird part to me! I’ve done that when friends are staying in hotels so that they don’t have to crack open the minibar, but if they’re actually in my home, it’s just, “help yourself. If you eat the last of something, add it to the list on the fridge”. Am I a poor hostess?!
But whatever. The joke is clearly on the derangers, not Meghan herself, but of course they’re far too dense and blinded by faux outrage to understand that.
But their guests may stay in a guest house and not the main house. They probably have more profile people than you do also. Some guests may not want to wander around in their robe if they want a late snack either.
Even in the main house it might be a bit of a walk from the guest rooms to the main living space. I had a very wealthy friend in uni whose parents lived in a mansion and I actually did experience this once!
@Tina At least not a walk to a bathroom, I guess, since there are so many in their house. (LOL)
Remember Meghan has a guest house so guests are not actually staying in the main house with immediate access to the kitchen etc..
Ohhh, right. Yeah, I guess there’s a significant difference in the experience of being a guest at a lovely estate in Montecito vs. a 3BR Greenwich Village apartment, lol.
Ugh, I want a guest house.
The guest house thing like people said, but I also don’t think this is in place of guests having access to her fridge and cabinets etc. This is more “if you’re in bed winding down watching tv and want a quick snack, here is something for you so you don’t have to go hunting for something to eat.”
I dont do that but we don’t have guests stay more than a night and they’re always family, so its kind of a non-issue.
My MIL never met a TJ Maxx, Marshalls or Homegoods that she wasn’t willing to empty of every houseguest nice to have. I’ve been married in for almost 20 years and there’s always a bunch of snacks, soaps and lotions in a basket in the room we’re sleeping in. Hosting is truly an art!
When I travel, even when visiting friends, I always pack some snacks. I never want to be creeping around someone’s house at night and going through their cupboards – it feels like an invasion of privacy to me.
I wondered about that, too. Then I saw the portion size of pasta she was serving for dinner and realized why she had to give guests bags of peanut butter pretzels in their room.
Was she serving what was made on the show for dinner or was it to taste and a meal was coming up later in private?
😂😂
Yeah, I really hope that was just a sampling portion (or here’s a handy tip from an actual Italian: starchy things like pastas and risottos are not really a main, but a primo piatto/first course, served in smallish portions. So if if you ever accidentally don’t make enough, or if you scorch half the dish, just plate up what you can and tell your guests that you’re being authentic, lol).
You’re not a bad hostess for how you choose to host your guests but it doesn’t make it weird for how Meghan hosts her guests. We hosts people at our homes based off of our personal circumstances, settings and what works for us and those we care about. Most people, even when told they are welcome to anything in the kitchen, would be hesitant to entirely take someone up on that offer. Besides, Meghan didn’t put a whole roasted chicken in the basket for her guests, she placed small snack items (and bath items) that cater to what they like so they don’t have to leave the guest bedroom or guest house if they don’t want to. It wasn’t an attempt to imprison them and prevent them from other parts of her home. All of her guests said they always appreciate how she makes them feel welcomed, so it wasn’t anything weird about it.
Oh, I didn’t intend it as a criticism of Meghan at all! It’s really an educational moment for me, something I’ll consider in the future when I have guests staying longer than a night or two. The funny thing is, as I’ve said here before, I couldn’t really get into WLM, because a lot of it seemed kind of overly precious or just obvious, “did people really need to be told how to do that?” stuff to me. But now here I am actually picking up a tip!
That’s the strange thing about anything regarding Meghan. It seems as if her being herself has to be analyzed by everyone. I didn’t see her show as her telling anyone they had to do things her way, but her sharing how she personally does things in her situation and if it’s something new and helpful to anyone watching, great, but if it’s not that’s fine too. I didn’t see her show as her assuming that everything she shared was new and original to her, I think she even eluded to some things being new to her but not necessarily to her guests or those watching. I don’t think she was making that assumption or telling anyone to only do something her way. It, to me, was about finding your own joy in the little things and making them your own and if the little things she found helpful help viewers, thats great.
I have a teeny-tiny house but still put water, snacks and magazines in the guest bedroom. I haven’t put peanut butter pretzels in little bags but I will now! P.s. the Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels that Meghan has are fantastic!!
I make little snack baskets for visitors, and our spare bedroom is just steps away from our kitchen. I don’t want them to feel they have to ask for anything — and sometimes, even after you say that, they still feel self-conscious about opening the cupboards.
So I put bottles of water and a few snacks in a basket by the bed.
It’s proof that a lot people watched her show and despite what the British press believes it was a hit.
Repackaging food/snack, fresh or frozen, into small potions (to keep it fresh or as a convenient mid-day nibble in your bag) has been done by many people, so why the outrage about Meghan did it? (We know why.)
I would rather see Meghan on Colbert or John Oliver for late night talk show.
Exactly. These critics don’t really think Meghan should just whomp a family-sized pretzel bag into the basket and be done with it. Personally I’d appreciate the smaller portion.
The fail is all over this story
I love Steve Higgins, and I thought this was a cute way to mock the derangers who are obsessed with criticizing every single thing Meghan says or does. Why does she put pretzels into another bag? Why does she mix waffle batter that way? Why is she killing the world with her avocado toast? Why won’t she just come back so we can bully her in person? (Whoops, that one was subtext) WHY???
They’re hoping people don’t read the story or watch a clip but just go by the headline.
If I’m staying with someone, I appreciate it if they just set stuff aside to use or eat so there is no confusion. I’ve listened to plenty of stories from people complaining about their “guests” eating the food or some crazy thing so I don’t want to be that one, lol. Meghan is one of those people that likes to make stuff cute, some folks are like that. I’m that person that puts out the decor for every holiday, IDC, IDC I like it that way! Everyone is different, live and let live.
For me it’s switching one plastic bag to another PLASTIC bag – like we’re not drowned in this stuff already
Cellophane is not plastic. It’s a biodegradable, transparent film made from cellulose (plants).
I don’t like Fallon. I still remember the circus he made when he received Trump back when he was campaigning for his first presidency. Fallon did his best to make Trump look innocent and funny.
Lau, you and me both. But sometimes I feel like no one else remembers that bit. It changed how i felt about Fallon, to this day.
Also he’s friends with Timberlake, which is a questionable choice.
Meghan is part of the cultural discourse. There have been so many articles in all kinds of publications on this show that go way beyond its scope. There’s even an article on it in Psychology Today. Fallon’s bit is a cute little joke that points out something a bit twee but we get it.The whole pretzel thing is overblown since she was putting together a care basket. Anyway, the tabloids as usual take light humor and construe it as a brutal takedown while at the same time being such overly sensitive attack dogs for the royals that they get offended by a waffle with whipped cream. Once again, these are not credible people.
It was funny–could it be that Jimmy was roasting the tabloids as much as the derangers?
I saw the Fallon clip and would consider it a brutal take down of the critics. Meghan’s pretzel bag was top 10 in google scientific questions and he literally said “she moves pretzels from one bag to another and this confuses people” and laughed. Lol he’s not making fun of Meghan he’s making fun of an audience so confused about making things look pretty they had to google it.
I saw this on the show. To me it was more about mocking the derangers and the BM, esp on how they’re super obsessed with every single thing M does. 😀
On the subject of WLM – there’s a small Williams Sonoma in a modest strip mall close to where I live. I wander through whenever I stop at the B&N that’s also there, just to see what’s new or interesting (really don’t need any more housewares) or pick up a small gift (recently got a cute set of Easter cookie cutters for my niece). Walked in today, and immediately on my left just inside the entrance was a small round table with white Le Creuset pots similar to what Meghan used on the show. They carry quite a bit of LC, but they’re usually around the corner on the cookware shelves, and I don’t see white very much. There was only one reason that display would’ve been there, and I loved it!