Oh, they’re a doughty pair: David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon did not let Hurricane Sandy keep them from their appointed rounds — entertaining America. They both taped Monday night shows without audiences (no civilian laffers were allowed, lest they risk injury from the serious storm). Each conducted himself in a manner typical of his performance style.

Letterman jogged into an empty Ed Sullivan Theater and soon sat his faux-weary bones behind his desk to recite the jokes he would have delivered from a standing position to a giggling crowd. The effect was irony enhanced:

Fallon, by contrast, commenced his show outside, in the rain, taking us into Rockefeller Center as he ran down the guest list.

This opening harked back to fine NBC talk-show history — it was the sort of thing Steve Allen might have done when he commandeered The Tonight Show. Of course, Steve Allen didn’t have the benefit of The Roots: