Jimmy Fallon's 'Empire' Parody Somehow Involves Both Terrence Howard and Donald Trump

'Jimpire,' with some necessary joke-tightening, could actually be a viable hit series for the network.

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Complex Original

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The glorious new season of Empire kicks off tonight on FOX, promising an eventual appearance by a subtly cannibalistic version of Chris Rock, so Jimmy Fallon and his Tonight Show team decided to celebrate on NBC's dime in the most Jimmy Fallon way possible: a cameo-laden parody. The astutely named Jimpire follows Fallon on his quest to secure the best successor to his Tonight Show throne, eventually abandoning a few well-earned laughs for a gratuitous (NOT A SPOILER ALERT BECAUSE IT'S KIND OF LAME) Donald Trump cameo.

As previously reported, Trump also graced CBS with his political disease on Tuesday during an appearance on Stephen Colbert's still-fresh reinvention of Late Show. Aside from Colbert's hilarious suggestion that Trump add both fire and "fireproof crocodiles" to his wildly offensive border wall plans, the encounter was perplexingly subdued.

Empire's return comes on the heels of a stacked list of controversy surrounding the series, a stack of highly tweetable happenings perhaps only dwarfed by the very real hype surrounding the smash series' guest-heavy second season. Earlier this week, Sean Penn filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against Empire creator Lee Daniels after he compared star Terrence Howard's controversial abuse allegations to supposedly similar incidents involving Penn.

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