Watch: When Michael Phelps played ‘Egg Russian Roulette’ with Jimmy Fallon
Phelps is known for swimming in pools filled with water. However, it is not common to see prolific swimmers like Phelps drenched in egg white! This is exactly what happened when the legendary swimmer joined celebrity show host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show about six years ago.
In an episode of the show in 2016, Phelps faced off against Fallon in a classic game of 'Egg Roulette'. For anyone who does not know about the sport that almost made the Olympics (not), it's a game where two people take turns smashing eggs on their heads; some of the eggs in the dozen are cooked, while the others are left raw.
Before the game began, Fallon grabbed a pair of swimming goggles and ironically put them on right in front of the 23-time Olympic gold medalist. Hosting Phelps right after his retirement, he said:
"We are here with Michael Phelps ... He just completed his most dominant career of any Olympic athlete in history. Now, he and I are going to go head-to-head in a game of Egg Russian Roulette."
Phelps vs Fallon
Fallon then called on his friend to describe how the game works. The rules were simple: Among the dozen eggs, eight were hard boiled and four were raw. The first person to smash two raw eggs on their head loses. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the game was that the eggs were painted to look like little swimmers.
Before kicking off the game, Phelps, bursting out in laughter, said:
"Oh man ... I'm nervous."
Laughter and cheers from the audience broke out when Fallon replied, saying:
"I love seeing Michael Phelps nervous ... This is great!"
After taking a deep breath in, Phelps lightly tapped the egg on his forehead. It cracked, but not completely. Fallon said:
"You gotta do the whole thing, come on Michael, shouldn't be hard, you have already done half of it."
He then did it again and voila! The egg was raw and the swimmer was drenched in egg white. Right before taking his turn, Fallon fancied a little Phelps-style warm-up, flapping his arms back and forth in preparation! Phelps responded:
"Yeah, you gotta get a flap in there!"
After picking his egg, a red one, Fallon, staring Phelps down, said:
"Oh yeah ... I feel good about this ... I feel great about this ... What's up, dude?!"
Alas, the egg was hard-boiled and Fallon survived the round! In classic Fallon-style, he started trash-talking his opponent:
"23 golds, but you are not gonna get the gold here. buddy ... You're gonna get golden yolks!"
Phelps, staring at the painted eggs that had no tell whatsoever, said:
"I keep looking for little hints on the eggs."
The swimmer finally picked an egg and Fallon asked him how the egg felt. Phelps responded:
"Sh**"
As the crowd burst into laughter alongside Fallon, there was only one thing left to do. Phelps smashed the egg on his forehead and found out that it was raw, and Fallon claimed his place as one of the few who can say that they had beaten Michael Phelps!