Former “Late Show” host David Letterman appeared on Tuesday night’s edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for a lengthy, twenty-four-minute interview in which he called the late night ABC show’s host the “leader of the resistance.”
“There is no one I am more terrified to welcome to this show than our first guest. He, in my opinion, is the best ever to do this job,” Kimmel said at the top of the segment, before introducing Letterman. The latter quickly thanked Kimmel for “giving me yet another opportunity to entertain America,” and subsequently told the night’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” audience, “I love this man. I love him more than Chinese food. I love him more than valet parking.”
“People are aware of the fact that you are the leader of the resistance?” Letterman then asked, much to Kimmel’s delight. “I guess,” Kimmel replied. “I am the totally ineffective leader of the resistance, yes.” Letterman went on to reference Kimmel’s brief suspension earlier this year, sarcastically asking, “By the way, will this be televised tonight? I can never keep track with you.”
“I’m going to suck up to you because I feel like if I kind of tag along with you, I’ll be glorified in retrospect,” Letterman then announced, further praising Kimmel’s public feud with President Trump. “This is irrespective of party or political ideology, [but] if the leader of the free world is a fool, the leader of the free world then should expect and examine every bit of ridicule he receives.”
You can watch Letterman’s full appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” below.
Letterman did not stop hyping up Kimmel there. Instead, he made note of Kimmel’s contract extension with ABC, which has ensured that he will continue hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” through at least May 2027. “Good for you. Another year of twisting those folks at Disney,” Letterman joked. “Good for you.”
For his part, Kimmel did have some questions for Letterman, including whether or not the late night TV legend has wished at all recently that he still had his own nightly show so he could make public jokes about what is going on in the world right now. “Boy, you would think, but no,” Letterman responded. “I’m so glad to be out from under this mess.”
“People like you and people like Stephen [Colbert] and people like Seth [Meyers] do such a masterful job of this, defending democracy,” Letterman continued. “About all I’m capable of is showing up every now and then and saying, ‘F—k you, Waymo.’ That’s about all I got. But thank God for you, thank God for others, ‘SNL’ and everybody else. I think it’s the way things need to be in a democracy that’s seemingly this crippled.”
