Jimmy Fallon just wants to have fun

His motto: Fill each day with lots of laughter.

Thank-you notes. Slow-jamming the news. Song parodies. The Wheel of Carpet Samples.

We all know how much fun Jimmy Fallon, the high-energy Emmy- and Grammy-winning TV host, has on NBC’s The Tonight Show.

Now Fallon, 42, is about to rev up the fun even more with the new high-tech amusement park ride Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, which he’s rolling out April 6 at Universal Studios in Orlando. “It’s like going to

The Tonight Show, the best tour of New York City and the scariest roller coaster simulator you’ve ever been on,” he says.

The ride’s creators have pulled out all the stops: There’s a replica of the 30 Rock building and the Tonight Show set, a Manhattan subway, a dive into the East River (with splashing water!), cameos by Fallon, his sidekick Higgins and the show’s house band, the Roots. Plus, piped-in pizza smells, fireworks and loads of other surprises.

Next week, just before the ride officially opens, Fallon will bring Tonight to Orlando for a week of tapings. “I love taking the show on the road, especially when we get to go to a theme park,” he says. “Everyone is there to have a good time.”

If you think Fallon lives to find the fun in every moment, you wouldn’t be wrong.

To him, the American way of having fun is a big vacation—something he remembers vividly from his childhood in Saugerties, N.Y.

“My parents saved up money to go on vacation,” he says. “We ended up going to Lake George [New York] every single year,” he says. “That’s where I remember riding the Steamin’ Demon [at the Great Escape amusement park in Queensbury]. Vacation is that time when you say, ‘I worked so hard, I earned this week, I’m going to go and have fun.’ ”

Now that he’s a dad—Fallon and his wife, Nancy, have two daughters, 3-year-old Winnie and Frances, 2—he says his fun game has “amped up five notches.”

“Kids take fun to a whole new level,” he says. “Going to the potty is fun, reading is fun, walking them to school is fun. They make every single thing fun.

“I like having a good time,” Fallon says with a smile. “Life is better that way.”

“I like having a good time. Life is better that way.”