Fallon and Rae both came under fire after the TikTok star performed a series of viral dances from the platform on “The Tonight Show,” without crediting any of the creators, many of whom are BIPOC.
Jimmy Fallon came back after a week off and almost immediately addressed — without directly addressing — the controversy that erupted after he invited TikTok star Addison Rae on to show off some of the latest viral dance crazes on the platform.
In particular, Fallon, Rae and the whole “Tonight Show” were called out for failing to properly credit the creators of the viral dances, including several who were BIPOC.
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The View’s Sunny Hostin Calls Out Jimmy Fallon for Addison Rae Segment Failing to Credit Black Creators
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It was seen as a slap in the face to those creators that their names weren’t mentioned, while several saw racial overtones in the fact that several creators of color were overlooked while another young white girl came on and performed their dances. Fallon had previous had Charli D’Amelio on in a similar capacity.
“We recognize that the creators of those dances deserve to have their own spotlight,” Fallon said by way of introducing a segment where he invited some of those creators onto the show to talk about their viral sensation, and show some of the moves.
It’s perhaps appropriate that he kicked off this mea culpa with 15-year-old Mya Johnson, who created the dance set to Cardi B’s “Up” alongside her friend Chris Cotter. She was among the first critics of the bit by Fallon and Rae, telling PopSugar, “I was very surprised because it’s like, ‘Wow, I made a dance that’s made it all the way to TV.'”
“My mom always tells me, when it’s my time, it’s my time,” she continued. “I felt like that should’ve been mine and Chris’ time, because we created the dance.”
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She emphasized that even though the show did credit the creators on the YouTube video, it should have been done more prominently on the show proper.
Rae, who created none of the dances she performed, told TMZ that “it’s kind of hard to credit during the show.” She went on to emphasize, “But they all know that I love them so much. I support all of them so much. Hopefully one day we can all meet up and dance together.”
Mya and Chris said that they chose Cardi’s “Up” because it was such a hot song, they felt it had the chance to go viral, whic is exactly what happened. It especially went next level after Cardi shared it herself.
Dorian Scott, who created the “Corvette Corvette” dance to Pop Hunna’s hit, was up next, followed by Fly Boy Fu and Indii’s “Laffy Taffy Remix,” the trio known as @Macdaddyz for their dance to The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and Keara Wilson for her take on Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage.”
You can check out all those dances, as well as the stories behind their creation from the original creators, in the clip above.
