Jimmy Kimmel has been finding fresh jokes all week since Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News on Monday, and Wednesday had him marveling at the fact that, apparently, the network has been collecting dirt on their prized host for years. You know, just in case.
“What could they have on Tucker Carlson that would embarrass him?” Kimmel wondered aloud. So he took it upon himself to speculate at length about what could possibly hurt someone who, as the New York Times elegantly put it, hosted for years the most racist show in the history of cable news.
“Should we be concerned that they might know he dresses up as a drag queen and reads stories to kids?” Kimmel joked.
Rolling Stone reported Tuesday that over Carlson’s 14-year tenure with the conservative network, Fox News compiled an “oppo file” on him filled with damning information it could use to keep him “in check,” should they come into conflict.
“The file, assembled by Fox and its communications department, includes complaints regarding Carlson’s workplace conduct, allegations that he created a toxic workplace environment and disparaging comments Carlson made about his colleagues and managers,” according to Salon.
The contents of these files have not been revealed, and Fox News denies the report — “This is patently absurd and categorically false. We thank Tucker for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the network said — but now that he actually is in conflict with Fox, the purported documents are of great interest to Carlson’s many critics, including Kimmel.
“This is apparently something they do over there — they collect compromising information about their employees in case they need to use it,” Kimmel said in his Wednesday night monologue.
“Did he once try to buy a fuel-efficient car? I mean, does he have a collection of paintings that weren’t by Hitler? I don’t know,” Kimmel joked. “Is it possible that they have pictures of him on a horse, French-kissing Vladmir Putin?”
“Should we be concerned that they might know he dresses up as a drag queen and reads stories to kids? How do we know he doesn’t have a browser history filled with ‘micro balls’ porn?” Kimmel went on.
“To quote Tucker,” Kimmel continued, “I’m not saying he did those things, I’m just asking questions. Why wouldn’t we ask questions about things like that?”
Kimmel was of course mocking the dishonest tactic Carlson frequently used on his now-defunct Fox News show, where he would pretend not to hold the very views he espoused by couching them as questions.
But then Kimmel landed on something that might actually be true: “One secret weapon Fox News has that they could use to embarrass him is every episode of his show. That’s for starters.”
Watch Kimmel’s entire monologue in the video above.