REBUTTAL
Jimmy Kimmel Fires Back at Trump: ‘You Stop Being Terrible, We’ll Stop Pointing It Out’
The late-night host responded to the president’s complaint (echoing Jay Leno) that late-night comedians are “totally one-sided” and “unwatchable.”
Facebook and Instagram may have been down for most of Wednesday but Twitter was not, which meant the usual flurry of temperamental tweets from our commander in chief.
“Jay Leno points out that comedy (on the very boring late night shows) is totally one-sided. It’s tough when there’s only one topic,” tweeted President Trump, quoting his morning-show megaphone Fox & Friends.
He added, “Actually, the one-sided hatred on these shows is incredible and for me, unwatchable. But remember, WE are number one - President!”
Leno, one of the least funny late-night comedians ever, thinking he’s some sort of arbiter of late-night comedy is ridiculous in and of itself; on top of that, this broadside was regurgitated by Fox & Friends, where hilarity goes to die.
On Wednesday night, Jimmy Kimmel addressed Leno’s (and the president’s) criticism of the state of late-night TV.
“What a snowflake,” Kimmel said while reading Trump’s tweet aloud
He then threw to a clip of Leno on the Today show discussing late-night comedy, where he said, “I did it when Clinton was horny and Bush was dumb, and it was just a little easier.”
“He’s right,” said Kimmel, “it’s harder now because Trump is dumb and horny at the same time, and so now we have to cover both things.”
“I don’t want to talk about Donald Trump every night,” Kimmel continued. “None of us do. None of us who host these shows do, but he gives us no choice. If he sat in the White House all day quietly working on things I would almost never mention him because it’s not interesting, but before 10 a.m. today, before 10 o’clock this morning: his former campaign chairman was sentenced to prison for the second time in a week, he called himself the most successful president in history, and he tweeted to let people know his wife hasn’t been replaced by a body double. I’m not supposed to mention that? Obama wore mom jeans one time we made jokes about it for six straight years.”
“How about this: you stop being terrible, we’ll stop pointing it out.”