Jimmy Fallon Hilariously Recounts His Midnight Ping-Pong Battle With Prince

What do ping-pong, Susan Sarandon, Questlove, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Fallon’s baby and a blue crushed velvet suit have in common? The artist known as Prince.

Over the past several days, an outpouring of love and remembrance has been paid to the late and great music icon, a creative innovator who sold more than 100 million records, earned seven Grammys, an Oscar, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than a decade ago.

But despite his many achievements and the musical memory he left us, perhaps his very last honor and gift to us all is the wealth of both touching and humorous stories now being shared by those who knew, met and loved him.

That’s especially true for Late Night host Jimmy Fallon. Known for his oddly hilarious celebrity stories, Fallon had previously delivered a riotous tale of drunken SNL 40 afterparty Prince shenanigans. Now he’s graced us with an even weirder, wilder and more epic encounter between him and the prolific music talent.

During last night’s show, Fallon—along with The Roots founder and drummer Questlove—recounted the time that Prince challenged the late night host to a game of ping-pong. Well, times. As the comedian and TV personality explains, prior to his most recent Late Night appearance, Prince had his people reach out about playing a round of the table-top sport. Of course, there was a slight comedic back and forth about whether it was actually going to happen, but Fallon thought they settled on it coming to fruition.

Apparently, that game never actually ended up happening. Once Prince arrived on the set, he performed, we celebrated, but he never once acknowledged the ping-pong table Fallon had readied. And that’s where most wonky stories between two celebrities end. But we’re not talking about any story or any celebrities. We’re talking about Jimmy Fallon and Prince.

Thanks in large part to Questlove, the fabled game did eventually happen, and it saw Fallon meeting Prince at the drop of the hat at Susan Sarandon’s ping-pong bar at 12:30 a.m. You take a guess about which of the two was wearing the blue velvet suit.