Best of Bashir on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Bashir as "Product Placement Preacher"

While Jimmy Fallon may be the star of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, he of course has a huge staff of amazing writers writing all the funny things he says and does on the show.  And not only do Jimmy's writers write, but they also frequently act on the show in various bits and sketches.  Of all the Late Night writer/actors, our favorite would have to be Bashir Salahuddin.  As we've watched him over the years, we soon realized that he was one of the funniest and most talented writer/actors on the Late Night staff.  I was therefore quite saddened to learn that Bashir quietly left Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a few weeks ago to pursue his own projects.  Our only clue that he had left the show was a suspicious tweet that he sent out on May 25:

While no mention of Bashir's departure was made on Late Night, his name no longer appears in the writing credits, which seems to confirm that he has left the show.  The website that he has listed on twitter http://www.bashiranddiallo.com/ seems to indicate that he and fellow former Late Night writer Diallo Riddle (who appeared in sketches much less frequently) will soon be starting some project together.  While we're excited for him and wish him the best, we are of course sad to see him go.  So let's have a look back at some of our favorite Bashir moments from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:


Jimmy Fallon: Back on Broadway

During Late Night's "Broadway Week" (in which a Broadway show would perform a number each night), Bashir took it upon himself to premier his three-act one-man show about the life of Jimmy Fallon.  As a Broadway fan myself, I thought that this was just amazing.  Bashir really has a great comedic stage presence and actually has a great singing voice as well.  So here it is, all 3 acts of "Jimmy Fallon: Back on Broadway":

Milky J

Bashir's most popular recurring character would probably be Milky J, who's known for his love of astronomical photography and his catch phrase "Hubble Gotchu!".  Bashir played the character many times on the show (he even made a full music video at one point), but he was usually featured in the "Shout Outs" segment, as seen in this edited clip: 

Weird Al Roker
As evidenced by the "Jimmy Fallon: Back on Broadway" sketch above, Bashir is a great singer. Here he shows off his singing skills once again as the "Weird Al" Yankovic/Al Roker hybrid: Weird Al Roker:

Herman Cain Gospel Album
During the early days of the Republican primaries for the 2012 Presidential election, Jimmy Fallon would often impersonate the presidential hopefuls, spoofing everyone from Mitt Romney to Rick Perry and even Michelle Bachman.  But it was Bashir who had the honor of playing Herman Cain on the show, and never was he better than in this bit for Herman Cain's Gospel Album:

Real Housewives of Late Night
Late Night often does parodies of popular TV shows, and Bashir always portrays a character on these shows.  His most memorable TV parody character would have to be the always hungry Yvonne, the wife of Late Night "director" Bashir (again, he was actually a writer) on Real Housewives of Late Night:

Final Sketch

And finally, here is the last time that Bashir appeared on Late Night on May 21, 2012.  As you might expect, it was during the "Shout Out" segment, but Bashir surprisingly did not reprise Milky J.  Instead, he plays the friend and supporter of a bully who makes fun of Jimmy.  When the bully gets dragged off to ballet from his mother, Bashir sings a powerful ballad entitled "A Hero Falls".  You can see how hard it is for him to get that last word out, as he knows  that once he says it, it's really the end of his time on the show:

While we always enjoyed seeing Bashir pop up in sketches and play these crazy characters, I always did kind of feel that he deserves more.  Watching him in the "Herman Cain Gospel Album" sketch, he seemed like he could easily be a cast member of Saturday Night Live.  And with his powerful voice and great comedic presence, he probably could actually star on Broadway in some hilarious musical.  Bashir, whatever you decide to do next, we wish you the best.  Hubble Gotchu!