Expectations were low for Jimmy Fallon's first "Webisode," and the former Saturday Night Live giggler sure met them! Fallon was sporting a stained t-shirt; he couldn't stop throwing up his hands or touching his head like a spastic spider monkey; the 1:36 runtime was far short of the 5 minute target; over that brief period there were no fewer than eight edited cuts of Fallon on the same sound stage — and a preview of the end of the clip, since it was such a long time away.

And the only news in the short — the Roots are the house band, the broadcast show starts March 2 — was widely expected.

But calling out Fallon for sucking isn't much fun. No one expects much of Web shorts on network websites in the first place, since unlike say Funny Or Die they are mere appendages of TV shows. No one expects much from Jimmy Fallon, either.

And, more to the point, this is rehearsal. It's far better for Fallon to flail his arms and trip over the sentence "we're using this historic space to build a -pause- show for 2009" on the Web than on a show supported by actual big-money advertisers.

Which isn't to say Fallon doesn't need hecklers. Rehearsal doesn't work as well if there's no social pressure to take it seriously. In theater the pressure comes from the rest of the cast. Fallon's pretty much alone with a camerman. So snipe away, it's for the little runt's own good!

Video below in case you missed it. You can direct abuse (or praise!) at Fallon here, if for some reason you don't feel like leaving it in the comments below.

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