Jimmy Kimmel Was The Only Late Night Host Who Could Celebrate Trump's Guilty Verdict

Donald Trump is a convicted felon. Officially. It’s on Wikipedia and everything. Dustin wrote a great breakdown of what it does and doesn’t mean here. To me it means my dad will spend the next month watching CNN speculate wildly. To the late-night crowd, it should have meant slam-dunk opening monologues. All followed by piece after piece titled “Which late-night host roasted Trump’s conviction the best?” That won’t happen, because late-night shows had already been filmed when Trump was convicted.

Late-night shows do not air live. Instead, they film toward the end of the day. Any wild or crazy moment you’ve seen on a late-night show that seems too out of control to air was approved by someone in a suit. Now and then, a late-night comedy show will go live for a special occasion, but the best make themselves feel live. They contain a sense of spontaneity that makes you think anything could happen. So, most of the late-night shows did not tackle Trump’s conviction. But one did.

Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and the rotating hosts of The Daily Show all film in New York City. Even though they were on the same island as the trial, they could not wait for a verdict. Jimmy Kimmel: Live films in LA. I won’t explain time zones to you; I’ll just say that Kimmel was free and clear to rag on Trump’s conviction as much as he wanted to, and boy did he.

Kimmel, who has often incurred Trump’s social media wrath, stepped before his audience with a Cheshire Cat-like grin. He threw on some judge robes to re-enact the reading of the verdict. Jimmy happily cut to clips of Trump’s most loyal parasites losing their mind at the thought of their meal ticket being found guilty. As Dustin points out, Kimmel also suggested that Trump’s punishment should be community service. Trump doing manual labor for the first time in his life does feel like a fitting punishment.

Next week, late-night will have a field day with all of this. I am particularly excited to see how much John Oliver covers it on Sunday, which a lot of people will find out about on Thursday because the people who run MAX are dumb. Until then, the person who had the honor of getting in the first shots was Jimmy Kimmel. It feels fitting. Kimmel has sparred with Trump quite frequently. He deserves a chance to kick him while he’s down.