A video of Brian Williams “rapping” Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” is slightly deceiving… but it is also Brian Williams rapping the hip-hop classic, which is pretty neat.
The inadvertent Sir Mix-A-Lot cover comes courtesy of the mischievous Jimmy Fallon, with whom Williams has collaborated on silliness in the past.
While the longtime anchor has done some hard-hitting work in recent weeks, engaging in some diplomatic subterfuge to meet up with exiled leaker Edward Snowden in Moscow, he also isn’t always super serious in person.
Past appearances on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night chat show involving Williams have featured inevitably viral “slow jams” of the news, in which the anchor, Fallon, and the back up band explain the issues of the day via a “slow jam.”
In the clip above, Fallon and Williams “slow jam” an explanation of the debt ceiling debate a few years back. (“Take it from my man Brilly Willy — ain’t nothing worse than a ‘soft Boehner’… ‘specially when it starts leanin’ to the left.”)
(President Obama has also slow jammed the news on the show.)
Back in April, Williams also sat down with Fallon to discuss his “rap” videos — noting that he’s “never said hippity.”
Brian complained that footage of him in war zones had been appropriated for the clips (for which people believed he’d “colluded” on the raps), and Fallon joked that was where he said “hippity.”
After relaying an anecdote in which he was praised by Cuba Gooding, Jr., Williams requested Fallon do some “pre-hearing lost Foxy Brown” or “Luda,” adding:
“Who’s your weed man, why you smoke so good?… What you got in that bag?”
Williams also quoted Gooding, Jr. as saying:
“You’re a huge figure in the rap and hip-hop community.”
Viewers do not seem to have tired of the schtick yet, as the new Brian Williams rendition of “Baby’s Got Back” earned thousands of retweets from the Fallon account alone, and Twitter users said:
@FallonTonight Fell outta my chair from laughing so hard! #nailedit
— Paige Simonson (@Matisse68) June 17, 2014
“ @FallonTonight : Brian Williams Raps “Baby Got Back” https://t.co/Q2d8eTCTyT ” These things crack me up every time
— Harlem W. (@Haaalum) June 17, 2014
I CAN’T EVEN WITH THIS, @FallonTonight … Brian Williams rapping about his anaconda… #imdone
— NYC Recessionista (@NYRecessionista) June 17, 2014
@FallonTonight he’s not going to be happy when he sees it #FallonTonight
— Krystal Russillo (@klrussillo) June 17, 2014
Watch above as Brian Williams accidentally covers “Baby Got Back.”