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The 5 Best Moments From Jimmy Kimmel Live’s Return to Late Night

Photo: Getty Images

Photo: Getty Images

The stakes couldn’t have been higher for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s first show back after his recent suspension by ABC, following comments he made last week about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Rather than obfuscate, however, he chose to address the issue head-on. “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said in the opening monologue of his show on Tuesday night, becoming visibly emotional. “I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”

It was, really, the only not-funny moment of the night, as Kimmel went on to host an hour of television that felt like nothing so much as a direct confrontation of President Donald Trump (who had celebrated Kimmel’s suspension on his social media platform Truth Social, promising that “we’re going to test ABC on this”). Below, watch the first part of the broadcast for yourself, then find five can’t-miss moments from Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live:

 

 

The opening bit

In classic comic fashion, Kimmel chose to hang a lampshade on the sky-high expectations for his first opening monologue after the ABC imbroglio, showing the audience a series of clips discussing his suspension—deemed “one of the most pivotal moments in broadcast history”—before cutting to himself in a monkey suit and his sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez dressed as a banana. Kimmel and Rodriguez’s droll exchange really might go down in history: “Maybe we should…” ”Change?" “Yeah.”

The lengthy opening standing ovation

After the political turmoil of the past few weeks, it was genuinely gratifying to see Kimmel greeted by a full one-minute standing ovation and cheers of “Jimmy! Jimmy!” He then took the stage to joke: “As I was saying, before I was interrupted…”

The bipartisan spirit on display

“I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right,” Kimmel said of the Texas senator after playing a clip of Cruz giving an (extremely qualified) defense of Kimmel. “Think about it, if Ted Cruz can’t speak freely, then he can’t cast spells on the Smurfs.”

Kimmel also thanked Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and other conservatives who had defended him, noting that while he doesn’t agree “with many of those people on most subjects…it takes courage for them to speak up against this administration, and they did, and they deserve credit for it.”

Kimmel’s sweet name-check of basically every late-night host

“My friend Stephen Colbert has found himself in this predicament,” Kimmel reminded the audience before listing the other comics who had checked in on him during his scrap with ABC: “My friends Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Conan O’Brien, James Corden, Arsenio, Kathy, Wanda, even Jay [Leno] reached out…I heard from late-night hosts in other countries, from Ireland and from Germany. The guy in Germany offered me a job. Can you imagine, this country has become so authoritarian that Germany is like, ‘Come here!’ My boyhood idols Howard Stern and David Letterman were very considerate, and I feel honored to be part of a group of people that knows what goes into doing a show like this.” Late-night supergroup when?

Kimmel and Robert de Niro’s FCC bit

Kimmel adores a cameo (remember his instantly iconic appearance as himself on the most recent season of Hacks?), so maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see Robert de Niro show up to lend his star power to Jimmy Kimmel Live’s big night back. The legendary actor sent up FCC chairman Brendan Carr’s recent threats against Kimmel in a sketch highlighting the fact that, as Kimmel noted, “We are still not being broadcast in 20% of the country: I am the [bleep] FCC, I can say whatever the [bleep] I want.” If only!

Author: Emma Specter

Source: Vogue

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