Far-left comic and late-night ABC host Jimmy Kimmel has often used his monologue and other segments during Jimmy Kimmel Live! as a platform to mock and attack President Trump and that campaign hit a new low when the comedian told The Daily Beast's Matt Wilstein that “ABC would love it if my show appealed to everyone, but I don’t think that world exists anymore.”
But even if it did exist, Kimmel said he “would not be comfortable in it” since “I don’t really see any other path" to follow for weeknight programming. Wilstein began by noting:
As it has for most late-night hosts, the Trump administration has kept Kimmel on his toes, providing a never-ending stream of hilarious and/or terrifying news stories for him to joke and/or cry about in his nightly monologue.
“The show’s never really finished until I’m standing on that stage,” Kimmel stated. “And it’s a pain in the ass, quite frankly, to be writing a monologue an hour before the show starts. But we do it a lot now.”
However, “I also think one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a performer is trying to guess what your audience wants. I think you need to do what you think is right and hope that it works out.”
Wilstein then stated: “The narrative is that you’ve gotten more political, more serious over the past couple of years. Do you feel like Trump has been the catalyst for that?”
Kimmel responded:
One hundred percent because one of the things you look for as a talk show host is a point of reference. You don’t want to have to spend three minutes explaining a story to your audience.
And if there is anything good about Donald Trump, it’s that people are paying attention to what’s going on in the White House. And you can make jokes about subjects that people might not have been paying attention to when Obama was president or Bush was president.
Because Trump is “such a colorful character, and there is so much attention put on everything he says and does, … that makes it ideal for comedy,” the liberal host noted before adding: “You don’t have to set up the setup.”
Wilstein also asked: “In terms of the effect of politics on your own ratings, I know you’ve said if people who disagree with you don’t want to watch, you don’t particularly care. But has that ever been an issue at ABC?”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said 'I don’t care,'” Kimmel replied. “I don’t care enough to change what I’m doing is probably a more explicit explanation.”
Kimmel also took aim at Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity:
He’s a lunatic. He’ll say anything. That he would compare me to Harvey Weinstein, it’s just ridiculous. And he knows it’s ridiculous.
I realized somewhere along the line I wasn’t going to win anybody over in that argument. His supporters are on his side, mine are on my side, and that’s kind of that.
Of course, Kimmel couldn’t let the interview end without taking a parting shot at President Trump.
“And it was very scary and very stressful,” he stated. “Actually, things are still scary, but the fear comes from the outside rather than the inside. I mean, Donald Trump is our president.”
Years ago, Steve Martin said: “Comedy is not pretty.” With Kimmel, it’s apparently not very funny either.
