--- title: Robert De Niro Convinced Jimmy Fallon He Never Saw a Dog description: While visiting Jimmy Fallon's 'Tonight Show,' Robert De Niro pretended he had no idea what a dog was — and his acting was perfect. canonical: https://time.com/5243058/robert-deniro-dogs/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-17T14:44:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:52:14.443Z og:title: Robert De Niro Convinced Jimmy Fallon He'd Never Seen a Dog og:description: During a 'Tonight Show' visit, De Niro pretended he was clueless about canines og:url: https://time.com/5243058/robert-deniro-dogs/ 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: Robert De Niro Convinced Jimmy Fallon He'd Never Seen a Dog twitter:description: During a 'Tonight Show' visit, De Niro pretended he was clueless about canines twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Robert De Niro Pretending Not to Know What Dogs Are Is the Highlight of His Acting Career > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 17, 2018 2:44 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 17, 2018 2:44 PM UTC [Robert De Niro](http://time.com/5240792/ben-stiller-robert-de-niro-meet-the-parents-snl/) is a very good actor. So good, in fact, that he completely flummoxed [Jimmy Fallon](http://time.com/5180872/chadwick-boseman-black-panther-fans-jimmy-fallon/) into believing he had never encountered a dog before. (Or a [labradoodle](http://time.com/designer-dogs/), for that matter.) During a visit to Fallon’s _Tonight Show_ to help promote the upcoming [Tribeca Film Festival,](http://time.com/4757532/virtual-reality-tribeca/) which De Niro founded in 2002 with film producer Jane Rosenthal of and is celebrating its 17th year this spring, the cameras followed Fallon and DeNiro as they chatted and strolled down the back hallways of Rockefeller Center, where the show is filmed. Everything seems to be going fine, up until they walk by a few people hanging out with a puppy. “What’s… what’s that?” De Niro stops to ask, utterly befuddled by the fuzzy creature in front of him. “Uh, I think it’s a labradoodle,” Fallon tries to explain. “Well, usually rabbits aren’t so big,” De Niro continues the conceit. As Fallon tries unsuccessfully to get to the bottom of this most unusual of knowledge gaps, De Niro remains perfectly impassive — and very much in character as De Niro. (He even references his wariness around pets thanks to a certain “cat betrayal” in his past, a reference to the classic comedy [_Meet the Fockers_](http://time.com/4979243/dustin-hoffman-meyerowitz-stories/), of course.) 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