Tina Fey recalled how Amy Poehler stood up to Jimmy Fallon after talk show host criticized her joke – years before ‘toxic’ workplace accusations

Tina Fey once described how Amy Poehler stood up to Jimmy Fallon after he criticized a joke she made early in their comedy career.

The interaction was detailed by Fey in her 2013 memoir Bossypants, but has recently gained traction on social media following accusations that Fallon created a “toxic” work environment on the set of The Late Show.

In her memoir, Fey, 53, described how Fallon, 48, tried to silence Poehler, 51, after she made a “vulgar” joke among the Saturday Night Live staff — but was left “visibly shocked” when she delivered a blistering responded.

So far, a tweet has emerged that brings the passage to light received 4,266 reposts and over 76,000 likes since it was shared on September 7.

“Amy Poehler was new to SNL and we all sat in the writers’ room on the seventeenth floor waiting for the reading to start on Wednesday evening,” Tina described in her memoir.

“Amy was in the middle of such nonsense with Seth Meyers across the table, and she did something vulgar as a joke. I can’t remember what it was exactly, other than it was dirty, loud and “unladylike”.

Jimmy Fallon turned to her and said in a fake prudish voice, ‘Stop that! It’s not cute! I do not like it.’

“Amy dropped what she was doing, her eyes went black for a moment, and turned to him. “I don’t care if you like it.” Jimmy was visibly shocked.

‘Amy immediately started enjoying her ridiculous bit again. With that exchange, a cosmic shift took place.

“Amy made it clear that she wasn’t there to be cute,” Tina said. “She wasn’t there to play wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. She was there to do what she wanted to do and she didn’t care if you liked it.”

The passage has received renewed interest in light of the allegations against Fallon in a new article in Rolling Stone, which accuses the comedian of creating a “toxic” workplace on The Tonight Show.

On Thursday, Jimmy apologized to his staff via a Zoom call after the allegations emerged.

“I feel so bad I can’t even tell you,” he reportedly told his staff during the phone call Rolling stone.

The magazine broke the story about his “erratic” behavior on set and quoted two people from the meeting.

The staffers on the phone said the late host’s words “felt quite serious.”

“It’s embarrassing and I feel so bad,” Fallon reportedly said. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends… I feel so bad I can’t even tell you.”

“I want the show to be fun, inclusive for everyone,” Fallon reportedly added. “It should be the best show.”

The newspaper claimed he would cause ‘hissy fits’ and force staff to sob in ‘crying rooms’, ‘make their hair fall out’ and induce ‘suicidal thoughts’.

He had ‘outbursts’ towards his staff and created a ‘pretty somber atmosphere’.

Although the talk show host is known for his hilarious on-screen anecdotes with a series of games, challenges and trivia that rack up millions of views online every week, Fallon is said to have unexpected mood swings.

“It was like, if Jimmy is in a bad mood, everyone’s day is ruined,” a former employee told Rolling Stone.

‘People weren’t joking in the office, and they weren’t standing around talking to each other. It was a lot like, concentrate on whatever you have to do, because Jimmy is in a bad mood, and if he sees that, he might fly away.”

It is claimed that his inconsistent and feisty attitude is filtering down the hierarchy of the programme, which has seen nine showrunners in nine years.

“I just don’t think they’ve found a leader who can hold it together,” a former employee told Rolling Stone.

None of the nine showrunners chose to speak about the show in a negative – or positive – light.

The publication contacted more than fifty current and former Tonight Show employees for the story. While many praised Fallon for his ability to make a joke, no one raised their hand to say anything official or had anything good to say about the work environment. The sixteen who did make their voices heard, on condition of anonymity, worked in a range of different roles, from production crews to the writers’ room.

But a source close to the Tonight Show told DailyMail.com: ‘The things reported in this article happened years ago and simply don’t reflect the atmosphere of today.

“No one denies that things have happened in the past, but all previous issues have been resolved and everyone has moved on since then.

‘Many of these are old anecdotes that have already been told and it is unclear to anyone why they are brought up again years later.

“So many current employees have positive things to say about the show but aren’t given a chance.

“This is not who Jimmy is and this is in no way what the show looks like today.”

Among the allegations, a former employee said the environment changed during the transition from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to The Tonight Show.

‘The producers felt this pressure and that translated to all their employees. People who worked under them then felt pressure that if you made one mistake you were gone and easily replaced,” said a former employee.

“You’ve got all these NBC pages in the building ready, willing and waiting to take your job.”

Many of the staffers said they left the show due to mental health issues, with seven saying their overall wellbeing was affected by their alleged experiences.