Podcaster Jon Lovett used his last-minute appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to roast mentalist Oz Pearlman for withdrawing from the show.
Lovett, host of Pod Save America, stepped in to replace Pearlman after the magician canceled his appearance in the wake of Donald and Melania Trump calling for Kimmel to be fired over a “hateful monologue” about the first lady looking like “an expxectant widow,” which was broadcast before the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner (WHCD) shooting.
Pearlman, 43, was hand-picked by the president to perform the WHCD, which was mired in chaos after a gunman stormed the event in an alleged attempt to assassinate President Trump.
After the shooting, the president and the first lady targeted Kimmel, accusing the 58-year-old late-night host of inciting violence. Just days prior, Kimmel had made remarks about Melania Trump on his show, in a parody of the WHCD event. “Look at Melania, so beautiful,” he said in his address, displaying footage of the first lady. “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
On Monday, Trump, 79, and his wife, 56, berated Kimmel on social media. Melania called him a “coward” and lambasted the ABC for protecting him. The president, in a Truth Social rant, said, “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Lovett, 43, mocked Pearlman and the president, telling Kimmel, “You were using your First Amendment right to poke fun at people in power. And that’s what that whole weekend used to be about before they changed comedian to mentalist.”
“Do you have any mentalist powers that you can share with us?” Kimmel asked.
“No, but I’m sending a message to the mentalist right now,” Lovett said. “You canceled, you f---ing p---y.”
“I’ve been sending him that message all day!” Kimmel responded, as the audience erupted in laughter.
Lovett took digs at Pearlman and Trump throughout his appearance, also quipping, “Trump was supposed to perform after a mentalist. That’s interesting because he’s a bit of a magician. He made America’s reputation disappear.”
Kimmel and Lovett then launched into a broader discussion about Saturday’s dinner, the history of the WHCD, and the president’s growing allergy to being made fun of.
“Maybe it’s OK that people come together in one room once in a while and talk to each other and have a couple drinks and then go back to fighting again the next day,” said Lovett, an ex-White House speechwriter during the Obama administration, of the dinner.
Lovett recalled writing jokes for former President Barack Obama to perform at the event. “We were really proud because President Obama was great,” he said. “He could make fun of himself. He could make fun of the press. He could make fun of Republicans. And we didn’t yet understand just how much Donald Trump couldn’t... take a joke. But I think we know that now.”
Kimmel, who has a bitter history with Trump, asked Lovett why MAGA and the president himself “make a big deal out of something like... a dumb joke?”
“It’s hard to get into their minds. I’m no mentalist,” joked Lovett.
“Political violence is incredibly dangerous. It can tear a society apart. There’s nothing to be gained from it. I find it gross when people try to defend it, whatever the side. And I think it’s gross when people try to exploit it. Because what political violence does is it doesn’t just try to silence one leader, one powerful person. It tries to silence all of us. It tries to decide something for all of us,” Lovett explained.
“And that can’t work. We can’t allow that to work,” he continued. “So we should be able to denounce it collectively. And so, they want to go after you. They want to go after everybody because on some level, they know that one person who has encouraged so much political violence and has caused so much division and has raised the temperature so high is the president of the United States.”
“There’s something comforting to go after you,” Lovett suggested to Kimmel. “There’s something comforting about going after the left, their typical opponents, right?”
On Monday night’s episode, Kimmel acknowledged the threats from the president and the first lady, saying that his remarks were “not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.”
The late-night host then addressed Melania directly, saying, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
