Ariana Grande and Jimmy Fallon recreated the ‘Wicked Witch of the East Bro’ meme and it was wonderful

On November 16, 2024By Littum

On her promotional run for the film’s musical Evil, Ariana Grande has talked a lot about how her starring role as Glinda is the gig of a lifetime. And while the singer has said she’s basically been preparing for this moment since she was in single digits, that doesn’t mean she’s taking it all that seriously.

Which might explain why Thursday night (Nov. 14) when she stopped by The Tonight Show to talk about the film, which hits theaters on November 22, she was happy to have fun with one of the most beloved The Wizard of Oz memes from all time. In a clip posted a few hours before airtime with the caption “Ariana Grande’s sister is a witch,” Grande and Fallon recreated the 2018 “THE WICKED WITCH OF THE EAST, BRO!” clip where two men have a seriously heated argument about whether or not Glinda the Good Witch is a princess.

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In Ari’s hands, she’s the overheated brother yelling, “Hold on, hold on, hold on. Her sister was a witch, right? And what was her sister? A princess, the Wicked Witch of the East, bro. You want to look at me , and you want to tell me I’m wrong? She wore a crown, and she came down in a bubble, grow up bro.”

Grande sold it like a champ, coming hard on Fallon while wearing a flowy pink dress as he stared at her in disbelief.

The singer later sat down with Fallon — with the long train of her ruffled dress taking up the rest of the couch — to talk about the film, as well as her super viral bit from her SNL hosting effort last month, how deliberate and amusing, sang off-key in a sketch channeling Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.”

Asked if it was difficult to sing off-key, Grande said it was “really fun. I really enjoyed it… it was kind of what we found in the moment.” Grande said she pitched it to the writers, asking if it would be funnier if her vocals got “progressively worse” as time went on. Speaking of SNLGrande also talked about helping land current superstar Bowen Yang a spot in the Evilcalling his performance as Pfannee “absolutely brilliant … he killed it.”

She then recreated the call she brought SNL major domo Lorne Michaels – including a spot-on impersonation of the show boss’ dry persona – where she nervously asked him if he could spare Yang. “In that moment I realized I don’t have what it takes to make this happen,” Grande said. “But I begged,” she added, describing how Yang would fly back and forth between SNL and that Evil set to be part of the two-part film.

Grande has already talked a lot about how she was willing to put everything else on hold when she heard director Jon M. Chu was turning the Broadway sensation into a movie musical, saying she knew she had to “serve” the role and was willing to put her music career on hold to prepare for the role she had coveted since she was a girl.

Ready to take “all” of the acting and singing lessons to train her voice to become a coloratura soprano, Grande recalled that she received tremendous support from Fallon as she prepared for the audition, which was also when she shot the video for her collaboration with Jimmy on his holiday song “It Was a… (Masked Christmas)”, also featuring Megan Thee Stallion.

Even with all the mental preparation she did beforehand, Grande said being cast alongside Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba sent her into overdrive. “When they called me to tell me I had the part, I had a heart attack,” Grande said. “That was the first one. And then they told me I was going to play opposite Cynthia Erivo, that was the second heart attack. And then I died, and I’m dead. And I’m dead here. And I’m still dead.”

She also brought a never-before-seen video of her first rehearsal for the show-stopping swinging chandelier bit, where she nearly punched a stunt coordinator in the face while flying around in circles.

Look at Grande Show tonight under.

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