Three of Donald Trump’s loudest late-night critics shared a stage Thursday night, as Jimmy Kimmel welcomed John Oliver and Seth Meyers to Night 4 of Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s week in Brooklyn.
Kimmel noted the significance of the moment during his monologue.
“With John Oliver and Seth Meyers here, I just want to make an announcement,” Kimmel said. “If you’re watching at the White House right now, Natalie, you might want to break out an extra box of Huggies for tonight’s program.”
Sure enough, Trump eventually entered their conversation—specifically, why Kimmel seems to draw considerably more of the president’s attention than either of his guests.
The subject came up as Oliver and Meyers discussed their monthly stand-up shows at New York’s Beacon Theatre, where audience Q&As often include questions about their fellow Strike Force Five host.
“They’ll normally say, like, ‘How does it feel being, you know, disliked by the current president?’” Oliver explained.
“And we always say, as long as you’re on the air, we’re fine,” he joked.
“We are fully supportive,” Oliver added. “We are fully behind you the way that we’re fully behind a bulletproof vest.”
Kimmel wanted to know why they thought Trump trains so much of his late-night ire on him.
Meyers said he and Oliver have a theory: “Other than the fact you don’t like him, we think he would want to hang out with you,” Meyers told Kimmel. “He sees us as a couple of dorks. And even if we were fans of his, he would have no respect for us.”
Kimmel, Meyers reasoned, is different.
“I’m sure he talks to people all the time about, like, ‘He, I think he has a pizza oven,’” Meyers said.
“We don’t have one pizza oven between us,” Oliver conceded.
Kimmel offered a somewhat more technological explanation.
“I think it is he’s an old man,” Kimmel said, theorizing that “the only channels that are in his brain, or maybe even, like, in the remote, are the networks.”
That, he suggested, might explain why Oliver largely escapes Trump’s notice.
“I think he doesn’t have HBO,” Kimmel told him. “So you get a break.”
As for Meyers,“You’re on too late for him,” Kimmel added. “I think you are past his bedtime.”
Meyers did note that when Trump does post about Late Night, the timing suggests the president is watching the old-fashioned way.
“Every time he posts about my show, it is always when it’s airing, and it means the world to me,” Meyers said. “That he’s watching linear television with the ads is so important.”
“It’s viewers like him that keep the show going,” Kimmel agreed.
Watch the trio’s full exchange about Trump—and his late-night viewing habits—at the top of this post.
