Jimmy Kimmel appeared to be having the time of his life on Monday during his first new episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in five months, and while he did speak a little bit about the reason he was off for so long — the WGA strike — he spent a lot more time in his monologue doing all the Donald Trump jokes he didn’t get to do during the hiatus.
The jokes included commentary on a moment that Kimmel joked almost made him violate the strike: when Trump lied about his weight during his arraignment in Georgia.
Kimmel took the show off the air after the Writers Guild of America went on strike May 2. WGA was joined by SAG-AFTRA on July 13, and the actors guild is still on strike. But WGA reached a tentative deal with studios on Sept. 24 and ended its strike while members vote to ratify it, which is why late night shows like Kimmel’s have been able to return.
And in case all of that strike news clouded your memory, in August, Trump, alongside more than a dozen accomplices, was indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, on charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and illegally remain in power. When he turned himself in, Trump claimed he weighs only 215 pounds, a laughable falsehood.
“Every time something [related to Trump] happened in the news, I would get texts asking me if I was bummed we didn’t have a show that night. And mostly I was fine,” Kimmel said. “But the one that really got me was when they booked Trump in Georgia and he self-reported his weight at 215 pounds. I almost crossed the picket line for that.”
“If I was the judge in the case that he has going on in New York right now, I’d start the trial and say, ‘Now listen. Look, we’re gonna get to the fraud thing, but first pop up on this scale, big fella,’” Kimmel continued.
“If he’s 215 pounds, that means he’s 30 pounds lighter than his last physical when he was president. He was 245 pounds, which means he’s either lying or the kernel is now frying his chicken in Ozempic.”
Kimmel also touched on recent Trump speeches, Trump’s recent freak-outs about his New York fraud case and plenty more. He also did a fun gag where he inserted himself into several of the weirdest political stories from the last few months. You can watch all of Kimmel’s first monologue after the WGA strike at the top of the page now.
For all of TheWrap’s Hollywood strike coverage, click here.
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