The Strange Side Gig Jimmy Fallon Had During SNL
In 1998, Jimmy Fallon landed the role of a lifetime after getting the call to join the "Saturday Night Live" cast. Auditioning as an impressionist, Fallon initially didn't get the slot (via Howard Stern) following a performance as a dozen of different celebrities talking about a troll doll, a bit he'd been doing on the New York comedy circuit (via Cheat Sheet).
Tracy Morgan was chosen over Fallon at that point, but Jimmy was soon called back for a second audition, so long as the troll doll bit was dropped. Fallon obliged, and instead focused solely on his talent as an impressionist, especially his uncanny ability to mimic "SNL" star Adam Sandler (via YouTube). It was this specific impression that got showrunner Lorne Michaels to crack a smile, cementing Fallon's entry to the sketch show.
Fallon would go on to impersonate a dozen other celebrities throughout his tenure as a main "SNL" cast member, but that didn't stop the comedian from entertaining other side hustles while taking to the stage every Saturday night.
Jimmy Fallon couldn't say no to a 2001 Calvin Klein ad campaign
As it turns out, Jimmy Fallon had a brief career as a fashion model during his tenure on "Saturday Night Live." As Good Houskeeping notes, once Fallon became comfortable on the show he started to garner quite the fanbase. So much so that Calvin Klein came knocking and asked the comedian to take part in one of their 2001 campaigns.
According to Good Housekeeping, Fallon told Paper magazine in November that year that he "really snuck that one in there" without anyone really knowing about it. "When it was all done, no one made fun of me or anything," he said. "As a comedian, you don't really think you're that good-looking," Fallon added, explaining that he wanted a billboard to sit right over The Improv, a famous comedy club in New York. According to the Daily Mail, the campaign was featured in print adverts as well as being distributed as postcards.
Fallon gave a little sneak peak at his Calvin Klein campaign during a "Tonight Show" interview with Jamie Dornan in 2015, in which he compared a very nearly naked Dornan's Klein ads to his own, which saw Fallon perched at a window in front of some sort of explosion (via Buzzfeed).