Michelle Obama surprises unsuspecting tourists at 30 Rock

Former First Lady Michelle Obama dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote her new book, Becoming, and so she and Fallon could surprise unsuspecting tourists at 30 Rockefeller Center. Obama has never shied away from silliness when visiting the show. She’s joined Fallon in the past for EW!, in which she hammed it up with Fallon and Will Ferrell as they played teenage girls; she busted a move with Fallon for The Evolution of Dance; and she surprised fans who were recording farewell messages for her.

This time around, as he did in the past with Paul McCartney, Fallon and Obama surprised groups of tourists at 30 Rock outside an elevator. Obviously they couldn’t just be standing there when the doors opened, that would be boring. So they began with pretending to read books just to lower them and reveal their identities, then moved on to jump-roping, singing Jingle Bells at a piano, and hiding Obama in a giant gift box. Of course when the doors opened to reveal Fallon people were delighted, but when they saw Obama they freaked out, just to have the doors close before they could even process what had just happened.