Jimmy Fallon impersonates Ryan Lochte at the VMAs
Beyoncé’s performance may have hijacked this year’s MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, but there were still awards to give out — namely, the climactic Video of the Year award. Before that, viewers were treated to the spectacle of The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon bounding on stage dressed as Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, complete with the signature dyed hair and track jacket. Fallon’s impression was predictably centered around Lochte’s recent Olympic scandal, where the swimmer claimed to have been robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro until security camera footage and testimony proved him wrong.
“Is it too late now to say sorry?” Fallon said, using the recent Justin Bieber hit to mock Lochte’s sharp decline in public approval over the controversy. He then claimed to have filmed all the Video of the Year nominees: “I had a 30-way with Kanye West. I made Lemonade with Queen Bey. I’m Reezy with the good hair!”
Perhaps no one was more surprised by Fallon’s parody than Lochte’s Olympic teammate Michael Phelps, who said, “Oh my god!” as he took out his phone to film the bit from the stands. Phelps had previously introduced Future’s performance earlier in the night.
Fallon concluded his introduction by mocking the specifics of Lochte’s fabricated story: “Who had the Best Video of the year? I can’t tell you that. I couldn’t tell you even if there was a gun to my head, which there isn’t, but I still couldn’t choose.”
Luckily, neither Fallon nor Lochte had to choose. The award for Video of the Year went to Beyoncé for “Formation.”
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