Jimmy Kimmel is currently taking a summer vacation, but his show will go on with a series of guest hosts until he’s back — starting this week with “black-ish” star Anthony Anderson who, among other things, gently explained why Kanye West’s hopes of becoming president probably won’t pan out.
In case you missed it, on Saturday night Yeezy celebrated the fourth of July by announcing “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States ! #2020VISION” on Twitter. While some credulous billionaires immediately chimed in to support him, most people rolled their eyes and (deservedly, let’s be honest) mocked Kanye pretty hard.
Of course, twice in less than 20 years, third party spoiler candidates ended up helping to put a popular vote-losing Republican candidate in the White House. And subsequently betting odds makers cautioned that Kanye’s run might end up helping Trump, who is otherwise cratering in the polls. But as Anderson pointed out, Kanye’s chances of being a spoiler are extremely slim, largely because it’s too late for him to enter the race in a lot of places.
“That’s right: Yeezy wants to be preezy,” Anderson joked during his monologue. “And you know, laugh all you want but this would be historic. Because while this country has had a black president, we’ve never had a crazy black president.”
Then he broke down why we might have to wait a bit longer to pass that particular milestone. “It should be pointed out that Kanye still has to register with the Federal Election Commission, collect enough signatures to get on the ballot, create a campaign platform, and he’s already missed the deadline to file as an independent candidate in a bunch of states,” Anderson explained. “But other than that, he good.”
Also in the clip, Anderson touched on the horrifying spread of coronavirus enabled in large part by an indifferent federal government. And he mocked the absolutely bone-chillingly cringey cover of Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” performed by a white service member to a low-turnout audience at Trump’s July 3 rally at Mt. Rushmore. Watch the whole clip above.