When we need a pick-me-up in our lives and when everything’s becoming a bit too much for us to handle, Jimmy Fallon helps set everything right. It’s Hashtags time! And this time the topic is even more relatable than usual.
The host of the awesome The Tonight Show recently started up two challenges, #ThatsMyFamily and #MyFamilyIsWeird, inviting people to share their silliest family quirks, and their funniest stories from home. We’ve collected the best of the best to share with you. Scroll down to check ‘em out! They'll have you giggling in no time.
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Some of the very best stories that people shared with Fallon and his team even ended up being honored by getting featured on The Tonight Show (here and here).
The two challenges were incredibly relatable because it feels like pretty much everyone has a story that could work brilliantly here. Whether it’s all the quirky little traditions that your parents and grandparents have that you no longer bat an eye at (but others might find bizarre) or the hilarious things your siblings and other relatives have done over the holidays. Family life can be incredibly fun(ny).
Fallon’s career on The Tonight Show started in early 2014 on NBC. However, this isn’t the first iteration of the show. The Tonight Show also aired between 1957 and 1972, starring Jack Paar and Johnny Carson.
The show has a very long tradition of amusing the United States, as well as the rest of the globe with relatable and amusing topics.
Not too long ago, Bored Panda found out why Fallon is so popular, what it’s really like to work as a show host, and how to stand out on Twitter if you want his team to notice you and your story.
Entertainment, pop culture, and lifestyle expert Mike Sington explained to us during a previous interview that Fallon has a magnetic presence.
"Jimmy Fallon’s warmth and engagement with people is what’s behind his ongoing success with hosting The Tonight Show. He just seems like a guy you’d want to spend time with," the entertainment expert told Bored Panda recently why Fallon is such a big hit with many people.
"To stand out on Twitter, and catch the attention of Fallon and his team, you need to be funny and unique. Simply having an interesting story to tell usually won’t be enough," Mike, from LA, pointed out that just having a great story to tell isn’t enough. You need to think about how best to present it to Fallon and his team on social media.
The thing about quirks is that every single family has them, whether they’re incredibly apparent or a bit more subtle. Quirks are bite-sized versions of traditions. Small things that we all do that help bind us together, strengthen our relationships, and help make us make sense of who we are in the context of the world.
Someone yelling ‘hike!’ after saying grace might confuse and amuse many of us, and that’s kind of the point. It’s something to make the person’s nearest and dearest giggle. It’s an inside joke meant only for the people at the table—if someone shows how quirky they are in front of you, that must mean they trust you.
The thing is, it really doesn’t matter what your family traditions look like. It’s far more essential that you have them, and that you pass them on, from one generation to the next. They might change. They might evolve. But the goal here is that you always have some way to bring everyone together.
One of the most popular traditions that families have is by cooking and eating together. Now, the details and specifics of what you prepare and how you do it might vary, but the actual act of doing this together in a shared space is what matters.
“As long as there have been humans, there have been shared meal times. Everyone has to eat. Whether your job was hunting the animals, foraging or tending crops, or preparing the food for consumption, everyone contributed to the family/social group’s sustenance. And logistically, given early limitations of food storage, it made sense for everyone in the group to eat together at the same time,” pie artist Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin recently told Bored Panda about the link between food and traditions.
“This made mealtimes the natural candidate for sharing stories, information, teaching, planning, etc. As a result, the food we share during these times of cultural exchange becomes inextricably entwined with that culture,” she said.
When I hold my wife in my arms, our children come straight towards us, making the sound of small birds "piou piou piou" and join the hug... they do this to support "mother hen" :-)...our daughter is 20 and our son 22....
My family has this thing where we meow at each other. Like, when you arrive at home you do not yell "Im home" but "Meow!". When going out you yell "Meow-meow!". When just cheking where everybody is - "Meeeoww?". We are all adults. It started when my mom and dad were choosing their wedding venue. Mom stepped in a puddle in her white shoes and let out an unhappy Meow! And I guess they both found it cute.
For years my mom and I jokingly and randomly pinched each others butt. She said it was a thing between her own mom and her when she was little. We don't do it anymore, but I might start it with my son sometime 😝 For now, everyone in my family (husband son and stuffies) has a honk in their nose : if you press the nose, the owner of said nose has to say "mööp", and when my son was a baby I trained him by tipping his nose and saying "meep", because he's still little. He'll graduate to a "mööp" when his childhood is over... 😂
I still have trouble walking upstairs with someone behind me as my dad and bro would always pinch my butt
Load More Replies...Everyone in my mom's family has a maximum age. Great-grandma always said she was 30 so grandpa said he was 29 because you can't be older than your mother. Grandma was 27 because she was 2 years younger than grandpa. My mom is 26 and I'm 25 because you can't be older than your mom. When grandma broke her hip and doctor asked how old she was and was given morphine by the EMT, they temporarily put 27 in their app because it required a number and no one at the scene knew her real age.
My family says "be careful, be safe" any time someone gets into their car to drive away, and everyone stands outside and waves them off until we can't see them anymore. I started it 17 years ago and even my youngest does it. My parents, siblings, now even my in-laws. Even if I text I'm on my way I get BCBS text back. We also tell each other to text when home safe, and to not almost forget. And on the phone we always say "avigudah" before saying I love you and goodbye.
My family mostly my dad has a weird way of saying just anything at random times. He would exchange the subject and object in the sentence. Like instead of saying "put the fruits in the fridge" he would say, "put the fridge in the fruits."
My grandpa has weird way to shuffle letters in a word. One time he shuffled letters of the word keksi (cookie) into seksi (sex), which made the question ”do you want a cookie” interesting. The only time I’ve seen him embarrased.
Load More Replies...My mother's favorite phrases: Leaving the house "Off like a dirty shirt" or "Off like a herd of turtles." And instead of "If the shoe fits" it was "If the foo Sh**s."
When I was a kid in the 90s, I got one of those sticker "scenes" where it's a background and you add the stuff to it. It was a space scene. Dad just took the UFO with the aliens in it and stuck it to the rear view mirror and would randomly go "I think someone is following us!" Or "I think they're gaining on us!"
My brother and I randomly sing/scream notes and try to harmonize with each other and make up songs until someone gets tired or my mom walks in and gets confused. It’s super fun on car rides, when he drives and I’m in the passenger seat belting out random harmonies. Especially because our truck cab is pretty small, so it’s especially echoey.
Even well into her 80s, my late mother (bless her) would refer to any female younger than herself as "a girl" and any older than herself as "a woman".
My family had a lot of code(?) Words and phrases. Any time somebody said "Well,Well, Well". Another would say "that's a deep subject". Because we had an outhouse many many years ago when someone announced they had to "go", we said "take plenty of toilet paper" even in public. Any time we said "I thought of" or "I think", we said "i knew I smelled smoke". And "excuse me" was an automatic "did you fert?"
My son and his uncle have a gift war going where they each buy the other the funniest poop gift they can find. It is the only thing they get each other. It started when my son was 3. He is 13 now and it is the most anticipated gift each year lol.
When we were kids, on a road trip their was a "watch for deer" sign right along a huge dairy farm (about 5 miles in size). Ever since, whenever we see a cow we yell "Deer". A couple of years later we went on a long road/bus trip with our church youth. We had the entire group yelling Deer at each cow, too.
When I hold my wife in my arms, our children come straight towards us, making the sound of small birds "piou piou piou" and join the hug... they do this to support "mother hen" :-)...our daughter is 20 and our son 22....
My family has this thing where we meow at each other. Like, when you arrive at home you do not yell "Im home" but "Meow!". When going out you yell "Meow-meow!". When just cheking where everybody is - "Meeeoww?". We are all adults. It started when my mom and dad were choosing their wedding venue. Mom stepped in a puddle in her white shoes and let out an unhappy Meow! And I guess they both found it cute.
For years my mom and I jokingly and randomly pinched each others butt. She said it was a thing between her own mom and her when she was little. We don't do it anymore, but I might start it with my son sometime 😝 For now, everyone in my family (husband son and stuffies) has a honk in their nose : if you press the nose, the owner of said nose has to say "mööp", and when my son was a baby I trained him by tipping his nose and saying "meep", because he's still little. He'll graduate to a "mööp" when his childhood is over... 😂
I still have trouble walking upstairs with someone behind me as my dad and bro would always pinch my butt
Load More Replies...Everyone in my mom's family has a maximum age. Great-grandma always said she was 30 so grandpa said he was 29 because you can't be older than your mother. Grandma was 27 because she was 2 years younger than grandpa. My mom is 26 and I'm 25 because you can't be older than your mom. When grandma broke her hip and doctor asked how old she was and was given morphine by the EMT, they temporarily put 27 in their app because it required a number and no one at the scene knew her real age.
My family says "be careful, be safe" any time someone gets into their car to drive away, and everyone stands outside and waves them off until we can't see them anymore. I started it 17 years ago and even my youngest does it. My parents, siblings, now even my in-laws. Even if I text I'm on my way I get BCBS text back. We also tell each other to text when home safe, and to not almost forget. And on the phone we always say "avigudah" before saying I love you and goodbye.
My family mostly my dad has a weird way of saying just anything at random times. He would exchange the subject and object in the sentence. Like instead of saying "put the fruits in the fridge" he would say, "put the fridge in the fruits."
My grandpa has weird way to shuffle letters in a word. One time he shuffled letters of the word keksi (cookie) into seksi (sex), which made the question ”do you want a cookie” interesting. The only time I’ve seen him embarrased.
Load More Replies...My mother's favorite phrases: Leaving the house "Off like a dirty shirt" or "Off like a herd of turtles." And instead of "If the shoe fits" it was "If the foo Sh**s."
When I was a kid in the 90s, I got one of those sticker "scenes" where it's a background and you add the stuff to it. It was a space scene. Dad just took the UFO with the aliens in it and stuck it to the rear view mirror and would randomly go "I think someone is following us!" Or "I think they're gaining on us!"
My brother and I randomly sing/scream notes and try to harmonize with each other and make up songs until someone gets tired or my mom walks in and gets confused. It’s super fun on car rides, when he drives and I’m in the passenger seat belting out random harmonies. Especially because our truck cab is pretty small, so it’s especially echoey.
Even well into her 80s, my late mother (bless her) would refer to any female younger than herself as "a girl" and any older than herself as "a woman".
My family had a lot of code(?) Words and phrases. Any time somebody said "Well,Well, Well". Another would say "that's a deep subject". Because we had an outhouse many many years ago when someone announced they had to "go", we said "take plenty of toilet paper" even in public. Any time we said "I thought of" or "I think", we said "i knew I smelled smoke". And "excuse me" was an automatic "did you fert?"
My son and his uncle have a gift war going where they each buy the other the funniest poop gift they can find. It is the only thing they get each other. It started when my son was 3. He is 13 now and it is the most anticipated gift each year lol.
When we were kids, on a road trip their was a "watch for deer" sign right along a huge dairy farm (about 5 miles in size). Ever since, whenever we see a cow we yell "Deer". A couple of years later we went on a long road/bus trip with our church youth. We had the entire group yelling Deer at each cow, too.