About

Jimmy Kimmel is an American comedian and actor who is best known as a co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and the host of ABC's late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The comedian has been credited with producing a number of viral videos and recurring segments that involve audience participation through social media channels.

Online History

On January 16th, 2009, the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel was launched. In the first five years, the channel gathered more than 3.43 million subscribers and 789,000 video views. On March 2nd, 2010, Kimmel arranged a meeting between Cody, then a three-year-old Justin Bieber fan whose crying video had gone viral earlier that week, and the pop star himself (shown below, left). In the next four years, the clip gained upwards of 52.9 million views and 84,000 comments. On June 18th, Kimmel released a music video for the comedy song "Channing All Over Your Tatum" (shown below, right), garnering 12.7 million views and 16,000 comments in the following five months.

Social Media Presence

On December 8th, 2009, the official Jimmy Kimmel Live Facebook^[1] page was launched, garnering upwards of 630,000 likes in the first four years. As of November 2013, the @JimmyKimmel Twitter^[2] feed has accumulated over 3.2 million followers.

Highlights

I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy

On November 2nd, 2011, the channel uploaded a montage of fan-filmed videos of parents fooling their children into thinking they ate all their Halloween candy (shown below). Within two years, the video accumulated over 45 million views and 66,000 comments.

I Gave My Kids a Terrible Present

On December 12th, 2011, the channel featured a montage of fan-filmed footage in which parents give their children undesirable presents (shown below), gathering more than 26 million views and 27,400 comments in the following 23 months.

Celebrities Read Mean Tweets

On March 22nd, 2012, Kimmel introduced a segment with various celebrities reading aloud insulting tweets directed at them (shown below). Within the first 20 months, the video gained upwards of 12 million views and 7,400 comments.

Lie Witness News

On April 23rd, 2013, Kimmel aired an episode of the segment “Lie Witness News,” in which attendees at the music festival Coachella were asked what they thought about bands that do not exist (shown below). In the next seven months, the video received over 12.5 million views and 9,100 comments.

Twerk Fail Hoax

On September 3rd, 2013, YouTuber Caitlin Heller uploaded a video titled "Worst Twerk Fail Ever – Girl Catches Fire!", in which a young woman's pants appear to catch fire after being knocked over while performing a twerk dance move (shown below, left). Within 13 weeks, the video received over 14 million views and 22,300 comments. On September 9th, Kimmel revealed that the video was a hoax orchestrated by the talk show (shown below, right).

Sochi Wolf Hoax

On February 20th, 2014, United States Olympic luger Kate Hansen tweeted a link to a YouTube video of a wolf wandering the hall of her hotel in Sochi, Russia during the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the first two weeks, the video gained over 5.7 million views and 4,000 comments.

On the following day, Kimmel showed the video on his late-night program, in which he revealed he had orchestrated the viral video with Hansen and highlighted several news segments reporting on the hoax (shown below).

Viral Video Remake Trailers

Coinciding with the 86th "Academy Award": ceremony on March 2nd, 2014, Jimmy Kimmel Live broadcast four different movie trailers inspired by different viral videos. The "Bitman Begins" trailer featured a Batman trailer based on the Charlie Bit Me video, starring actors Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Chris Hemsworth and Liam Hemsworth (shown below, left). The "Sweet Brown: Ain't Nobody Got Time For That" trailer stars actress Queen Latifah as Sweet Brown from the 2012 news report clip (shown below, right).

Actors Christoph Waltz and Kevin Spacey appeared in the "Ameowadeus" trailer, featuring a rivalry between Keyboard Cat and Hamster on a Piano (shown below, left). The "David After Dentist Double Rainbow Oh My God! in 3D" trailer stars actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt as David DeVore Jr. from the David After Dentist video and Seth Rogen as Paul Vasquez from the Double Rainbow video (shown below, right).

Controversies

Feud With Kanye West

In September of 2013, Kimmel participated in a feud with rapper Kanye West after mocking a BBCRadio 1 interview with the performer (shown below, left) along with a clip of two children parodying the video (shown below, right).

China Genocide Skit

On October 16th, 2013, a segment titled "Kids' Table" aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live, in which a child suggested that the United States "kill everyone in China" in order to solve its debt problem (shown below).

On October 19th, a petition was created on the White House's We the People^[6] website calling for the Obama administration to shutdown the show (shown below, left). On the following day, another petition was created on the website Change.org^[5] calling for ABC to terminate Kimmel's employment (shown below, right).

On October 28th, ABC an official apology for the statement:

“We offer our sincere apology. We would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large. Our objective is to entertain. We took swift action to minimize the distribution of the skit by removing it from all public platforms available to us and editing it out of any future airings of the show. We hope our actions and our apology effectively address your concerns. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”

On November 1st, Kimmel released an apology letter^[4] claiming he did not intend to upset anyone for the "Kids' Table" segment, noting that the comment was unscripted and made by a six-year-old child. On November 8th, ABC^[3] issued another apology for the segment, claiming that the television station's systems "did not function properly" and that they had taken steps to avoid similar mistakes. On the following day, hundreds of protesters reportedly gathered at ABC Studios in several locations in the United States, calling for ABC to fire Kimmel and holding signs containing a photoshopped picture of the talk show host as deceased German dictator Adolf Hitler (shown below).

Son's Heart Surgery Monologue

On May 1st, 2017, Jimmy Kimmel delivered a tearful monologue regarding his newborn son's open-heart surgery days after the infant's birth. The 13-minute clip (shown below) went viral the following day, garnering more then 7.3 million views within three days.

On May 2nd, Redditor yulandgakki^[12] posted the clip to the the subreddit /r/television, where it received more than 30,500 points (72% upvoted) and 2,600 comments in less than 24 hours. That day, another Redditor, rutl,^[13] posted the clip to the /r/videos subreddit, garnering more than 25,200 points (67% upvoted) and 2,500 comments in the first 24 hours.

Kimmel's story brought an outpouring of support from people on social media with many sending the Kimmel family messages via Twitter. On May 2nd, Twitter published a Moment cataloguing many of a of the tweets.^[7] One tweet^[10] by former President Barack Obama read, "Well said, Jimmy. That's exactly why we fought so hard for the ACA, and why we need to protect it for kids like Billy. And congratulations!" The tweet (shown below) received more than 110,000 retweets and 404,000 likes within 24 hours.

Towards the end of Kimmel's speech, his thoughts turned political. Kimmel made the case for continued support of the Affordable Care Act. He said, "If your baby is going to die, and it doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter how much money you make. I think that's something, whether you're Republican or a Democrat … we all agree on that, right?" Former Republican Illinois representative Joe Walsh, however, took issue with Kimmel's message, sending out several tweets in opposition (shown below).^[8][9]

Walsh's comments sparked an outrage on Twitter as many users responded to the former representative with ire. One tweet, shown below, from comedian Patton Oswalt^[11] received more than 8,300 retweets and 27,600 likes in 24 hours. The tweet said, "Joe, you won't even pay child support for your OWN kids. We already knew you felt this way, you worm. No need to tell us -- we're good."

Graham-Cassidy Bill Monologues

On September 19th, 2017, amid reports of another bill to repeal and replace Obamacare (this time the Graham-Cassidy Bill), Jimmy Kimmel tweeted^[14] a picture of him and his infant son working on a monologue for his late-nite show. He captioned the post "Billy's helping me write tonight's monologue. I'll give our thoughts on the #GrahamCassidy health "care" bill. @BillCassidy @LindseyGrahamSC." The post (shown below) received more than 9,800 retweets and 52,000 likes in three days.

That night, Kimmel gave a monologue on his show regarding the bill. In his statement, he talked about Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, who had come on The Jimmy Kimmel in the past to say he would not sign any bill that doesn't pass "The Jimmy Kimmel Test," which is to say that he wouldn't sign a bill that does not cover pre-existing conditions. However, Kimmel says that his bill does not cover them. When posted to YouTube, the video (shown below) received more than 1.3 million views.

The next day, Redditor^[20] borfmantality posted the monologue to the /r/politics subreddit, where it received more than 15,000 points (88% upvoted) and 1,600 comments in two days.

The next day, after Senator Cassidy and other politicians and pundits in favor of the bill refuted Kimmel's monologue. Cassidy told CNN's Chris Cuomo (video below, left) that he's "sorry [Kimmel] doesn't understand [the bill]."

Kimmel responded again to Cassidy's defense of the bill. That night, he delivered another monologue, which received more than 1.7 million views in two days on YouTube (video below, right).

On September 21st, Kimmel delivered a third monologue about health care. In this monologue, he responds to more criticism about his having an opinion on American health care.

The next day, Redditor^[21] conancat posted the video in the /r/television subreddit, where it received more than 8,300 points (76% upvoted) and 2,200 comments.

Several news and media outlets covered the popularity of Kimmel's monologues, including the Chicago Tribune,^[15] Vox,^[16] Rolling Stone,^[17] Business Insider,^[18] The Los Angeles Times^[19] and more.

Between September 20th and 22nd, Twitter published several Moments pages about the monologues.^[22][23]

Search Interest

External References