A surprise visitor throws up ‘The U’ on Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’

Jimmy Fallon’s monologue on “The Tonight Show” Monday started out like any other. Jokes about the Oscars, “Black Panther” and President Donald Trump opened the skit.

And then the late-night talk show host received surprise visits from a slew of Atlantic Coast Conference mascots — including Miami’s Sebastian the Ibis — as he tried to rattle off jokes.

The mascots were in New York for the ACC men’s basketball tournament, which began Tuesday at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The mascots danced in front of Fallon — a potential nod to their hope that their team will end up dancing when the NCAA tournament field is released on Sunday.

“I saw that bird watchers have spotted an extremely …” Fallon began before Sebastian popped out, who dancing in front of Fallon before posting up “The U.”

“You guys have to let me finish a joke,” Fallon said to Sebastian. “Just go over there.”

Mascots from North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia and Duke also made joke-interrupting cameos during the skit before dancing together and exiting the stage. A panda, which is not a mascot affiliated with any of the 15 ACC teams, was the first to disrupt Fallon.

The full skit can be viewed below, with the mascot bombardment starting at the 2:45 mark.

The guest appearance on the tonight show wasn’t the mascots’ only fun excursion during the early going of their time in New York. They were also on hand at the New York Stock Exchange.

The No. 3 seed Hurricanes earned a double bye in the conference tournament and will play their first game in Brooklyn at about 9 p.m. Thursday against the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 11 Syracuse and No. 6 seed North Carolina.

This story was originally published March 7, 2018 at 12:00 PM with the headline "A surprise visitor throws up ‘The U’ on Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’."