The comedian delivered an uncharacteristically serious account of how the lion was killed, which involved Palmer travelling to Zimbabwe and paying two local guides $50,000 to track and kill the lion.
However, the lion was part of a study being conducted by Oxford University. It was wearing a GPS tracking collar, which helped authorities determine who the guides were, and eventually led them to Palmer.
Kimmel also read Palmer’s statement to the media in which the dentist said, “I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite until the end of the hunt.” Kimmel replied, “First of all, stop saying you took the animal. You take aspirin. You killed the lion.”
Kimmel then laced into Palmer for his motivations for killing a lion. “Is it that difficult for you to get an erection that you need to kill things?” Kimmel asked.
“If that’s the case, they have a pill for that. It works great. Just stay home and swallow it and you save yourself a lifetime of being the most hated man in America who never advertised Jell-O pudding on television,” Kimmel said in a clear reference to accused rapist Bill Cosby.
Kimmel concluded by encouraging his audience to donate to the research group that was tracking Cecil with the GPS collar.
“If you want to make this into a positive, you can–” he said, before choking up. “Make a donation. Support them. At the very least maybe we can show the world that not all Americans are like this jackhole.”