Jimmy Fallon Owes This Buffalo TikTok Star An Apology

If someone copies another person’s idea, it is still plagiarism – even if you are a famous talk show host.

Jimmy Fallon is getting some serious heat after hopping on, what he thought was, just a TikTok trend.

However, there was one TikTok star behind the trend, and he is from Western New York.

Jake Krantz graduated from Clarence High School in 2016, and ironically he was voted Most Likely To Be Famous. Now, he has achieved substantial fame, with his over 2.2 million TikTok followers (and growing).

Krantz gained quite a following over the COVID-19 pandemic by making people laugh on the social media app, and even starting a trend or two of his own.

Perhaps the most well-known trend that Krantz started is called the “You Too.”

It pokes fun at the moment (and we’ve all done it) when you say “You too!” in response to something where the “you too” clearly does not apply. For example: you just picked up a coffee from Tim Hortons and the employee at the register tells you to “enjoy your coffee!” and you respond “you too!”

It’s awkward, especially because you both know that the person at the register…definitely does not have a coffee to enjoy.

Krantz took this everyday struggle and made it famous with the video below.

He became known for these kinds of videos, and soon after it went viral, 15,000 TikTok users hopped on the trend. However, they all credited Jake Krantz for the original sound. 

Jimmy Fallon, on the other hand, did not. 

On Wednesday night, @FallonTonight on Instagram shared this video which shows Jimmy Fallon and Demi Lovato mimicking exactly what Jake Krantz did. 

You can watch it below. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Tonight Show (@fallontonight)

It’s not wrong to jump on a trend, but man, you have to give credit where credit is due. And it seems like most people in Fallon’s Instagram comments agree with that. 

In Fallon’s small defense, there is a team of creative writers who probably come up with these skits. They should have done some research to see where the trend came from. Krantz at least deserved a shoutout. 

Krantz hasn’t commented on it publicly,  but that may be because he is pretty busy with a new promotion. LiveNation just hired him to join their team out in Los Angeles, so he’s been getting accustomed to that new role.

Maybe one day soon, Jimmy Fallon will invite Krantz on his show and acknowledge the mistake then.