--- title: Watch Kevin Spacey and Jimmy Fallon in Mad Libs Video description: The 'House of Cards' actor stopped by Fallon's show to join him in a Mad Lib Theater sketch with a tennis theme—and a surprise pro guest. canonical: https://time.com/4746240/kevin-spacey-on-jimmy-fallon/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-19T18:25:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:57.518Z og:title: Watch Kevin Spacey and Jimmy Fallon as Rival Tennis Players og:description: Spacey and Fallon trade insults — and there's a surprise pro guest. og:url: https://time.com/4746240/kevin-spacey-on-jimmy-fallon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Kevin Spacey and Jimmy Fallon as Rival Tennis Players twitter:description: Spacey and Fallon trade insults — and there's a surprise pro guest. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Kevin Spacey and Jimmy Fallon Pretend to Be Tennis Players Who Hate Each Other > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=156a1e9b-8481-4ace-857d-f652796f6464&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 19, 2017 6:25 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 19, 2017 6:25 PM UTC With [_House of Cards_](http://time.com/4640910/house-of-cards-season-five-inauguration-day/) actor Kevin Spacey now set to [host June’s Tony Awards,](http://time.com/4745210/kevin-spacey-2017-tony-awards/) it looks like the seasoned screen star is fitting in some live-television practice. The actor stopped by Jimmy Fallon’s _Tonight Show_ Tuesday to chat with the host—and perform a downright hilarious version of [Mad Lib Theater](http://time.com/4593631/chris-pratt-santa-jimmy-fallon/). As usual in Mad Lib Theater, Fallon requested Spacey provide a number of adjectives, verbs, and even body parts to fill out the sketch. Spacey delivered, coming up with unexpected vocabulary that would later play crucial roles in their scene. Dressed as retro tennis champion competitors, complete with full tracksuits, voluminous wigs, and necessary sweat bands, Spacey and Fallon then got down to business bringing their funky skit to life. “Well, this time you better be ready, because I’m gonna serve the ball faster than a dying owl,” Fallon warned as they prepared to face off. “Oh, you are going down, because I’m gonna be all over the court like a rambunctious sex therapist,” Spacey responded to huge laughs, before their ball machine began shooting tennis balls at both of them at once. But the heated game was not to last for long: surprise guest [John McEnroe](http://time.com/4520003/shia-labeouf-borg-mcenroe-photo/)—the real tennis star—popped up out of the background in a real twist. 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