Jimmy Fallon has roasted billionaire Jeff Bezos over his recent trip to space in a rocket made by the Amazon founder’s space company Blue Origin.
Many have noted that the rocket, which is called New Shepard, is an unusual shape. It takes the form of a long cylinder topped with a dome. In short, it is very phallic.
On the latest episode of The Tonight Show, Fallon put 30 seconds on the clock, to see how many jokes he could get in about its shape during that window of time.
“It’s the only rocket that shrinks in the cold,” he said, adding that it “looks like R2D2 took some Viagra”.
Tariq Trotter of house band The Roots also chimed in, saying that “they designed it at the Johnson Space Centre”.
Comedian Steve Higgins was more direct, quipping: “I’ve got one. It looks like male genitalia.”
Fallon also mocked Bezos for the outfit he wore, which included a cowboy hat. “You know you’re rich when you put that on and everyone who works for you goes, ‘Oh, it looks great. Yeah. You’re a man of the people, just going to space,’” he said. “He looks like a mash-up between Buzz Lightyear and Woody: Two for one.”
Fallon added that Bezos must have “got the spacesuit and cowboy hat together by searching for the mid-life crisis bundle”.
The Amazon founder travelled to space along with his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, whose father bought his ticket.
At 82, Funk is now the oldest person to have travelled to space, and Daeman is the youngest ever person.
The group spent 11 minutes travelling up to space, where they experienced a brief moment of weightlessness.
Bezos has suggested that the journey could be a major step for space tourism, space research and plans to explore the rest of the solar system.
But critics have argued that billionaires such as Bezos and Richard Branson, who also recently travelled to space, would be better off spending their money to solve problems on Earth.
