Kimmel: Politics staying on late night

Jimmy Kimmel presents the lifetime achievement award at the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards
Associated Press/Chris Pizzello/Invision
Jimmy Kimmel presents the lifetime achievement award at the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards on March 13, 2022, at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Jimmy Kimmel says late-night TV is staying political, even when former President Trump is out of the picture.

 The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host has said that his ABC show had to adjust to becoming more politically charged following Trump’s 2016 election win because disregarding what was going on in Washington and with the country’s new commander in chief would be ignoring the “elephant in the room.” 

“Well, maybe elephant wasn’t a great [analogy],” Kimmel said of Trump in a recent interview with ITK. 

“More like a wildebeest,” Kimmel cracked. “I think elephants are mostly docile.”

The 54-year-old comedian — who last week said he had tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time in a month — is one of several late-night TV hosts who frequently skewer Trump and Republicans in their monologues and in sketches.

Last month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she reported Kimmel to Capitol Police after he made a joke about her in a monologue that referenced Will Smith’s infamous Oscars slap.

“I think, unfortunately, there’s a whole crew of lunatics ready to fill his orange shoes,” Kimmel told ITK of the 45th president. 

“He seems to have given rise to an army of cretins.”

Kimmel — who touched down in the nation’s capital recently for the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center honoring Jon Stewart — also told another outlet that he saw no comedic value in the GOP potentially winning back the House in the midterm elections.

“I will see no positive in that whatsoever. None. Zero. I don’t look at it like that,” he said.

“To me that question is like, ‘Would it be funny if people threw a bunch of garbage on your lawn?’ ” Kimmel exclaimed.

“I mean, maybe to others, but not really to me.”

Tags Jimmy Kimmel Marjorie Taylor Greene

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