Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue was briefly derailed after an audience member shouted, “Jimmy for president,” leaving the late night host visibly stunned.
During Thursday’s monologue for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the comedian kicked things off by greeting his studio audience and thanking them for attending the taping of the show. However, as the crowd welcomed Kimmel with vigorous applause and cheers, the late night host kindly encouraged the group to “relax.”
As a hush began to fall over the crowd, a lone voice shouted out from the audience: “Jimmy for president!”
Kimmel clearly did not anticipate this remark, as he stifled a chuckle before responding with, “Uh, thank you.”
While doing the sign of the cross, he added: “Let’s pray we can do better than that.”
Kimmel then pivoted back to his planned monologue, where he touched on the 2026 Oscar nominations.
“I was up at 5:30 just to make sure Matt Damon wasn’t nominated,” Kimmel joked. “He was not. And I want to thank the Academy for that.”
As Kimmel went on, he shouted out “Sinners” for breaking an Oscars record with 16 nominations. “That beats the previous record of 14, which was a tie between ‘Titanic,’ ‘All About Eve’ and ‘La La Land,’” he noted. “All three of which went on to win Best Picture. Although, in the case of ‘La La Land,’ only for about four minutes before they gave it to ‘Moonlight.’”
Later on his monologue, Kimmel touched on Trump’s trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, where he launched his new Board of Peace and teased a “framework” for a “future deal” over Greenland.
“I’m telling you, after next week, we will never hear about Greenland again,” Kimmel said. “What a buffoon.”
Watch Kimmel’s full monologue above.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.
