Jimmy Fallon Makes Bet With Chicago Mayor on “Tonight Show”

The pair also reminisced Tuesday about the last challenge Emanuel gave Fallon — that of the Polar Plunge — and ribbed each other for how they handled what Emanuel admitted is "not a rational act."

"The Tonight Show" could soon be Chicago-bound for the first time in more than a decade — but first, Chicago kids had better get cracking on cracking their books.

That's because Mayor Rahm Emanuel has extracted another promise from host Jimmy Fallon, this time with the "Tonight Show" host promising to bring the show back to the Second City if Chicago kids manage to read 2.4 million books this summer.

Fallon hesitantly took the mayor up on that challenge Tuesday when Emanuel appeared on his show.

The pair also reminisced Tuesday about the last challenge Emanuel gave Fallon — that of the Polar Plunge — and ribbed each other for how they handled what Emanuel admitted is "not a rational act."

Emanuel and Fallon took that plunge into Lake Michigan in March to raise money for the Special Olympics, after Chicago kids topped the mayor's goal of 2 million books read.

Fallon described his own brush with hypothermia in the lake's icy waters as something akin to a near-death experience. "I heard bagpipes," he said. "When you're Irish, that's what you hear when you die."

"You know what the difference is? I heard 'Hava Nagila,'" Chicago's first Jewish mayor returned.
 

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