Jimmy Kimmel is ready to take on the biggest conspiracies of our time.
The late night host just surprised fans with a new web series parodying video podcasters that peddle political conspiracies, The Rabbit Hole with Jimmy Kimmel.
The new series, which ABC describes as “the #1 basement conspiracy video podcast the ‘government’ does not want you to see,” will live on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! YouTube channel.
In the premiere episode, “The Truth About 5G,” Kimmel dives into the origins of the cellular network technology. In just over five minutes, Kimmel (facetiously) manages to connect the dots between 5G and “Barack Hussein Obama,” unraveling a conspiracy that threads Five Guys to the band Toto to Tanya Harding to cell tower provider Crown Castle.
But as thoroughly as Kimmel strings together these disparate pieces of information, he couches his findings as any unhinged podcaster would. “I’m just asking questions,” the host notes after tying together The Wizard of Oz‘s Auntie Em and Moderna vaccines.
Future episodes of The Rabbit Hole will see Kimmel exposing the “secret truths” about time travel, boat wakes, windmills, Elon Musk, leprechauns, and Waffle Houses.
While late-night shows are already producing content that plays well online, web-exclusive content has been a boon to the shows in recent years, with YouTube series like Seth Meyers’ Corrections and Desi Lydic Foxsplains helping to extend their shows’ digital footprints.
JKL‘s social content is a recent Webby winner, taking home the award in the ‘Television & Film, General Social’ category.
The Rabbit Hole with Jimmy Kimmel is the latest example of late-night shows reacting to the proliferation of questionable voices peddling in conspiracies and misinformation on alleged news podcasts and programs. Early, now defunct examples included the Comedy Central series The Opposition with Jordan Klepper and the recurring Late Show with Stephen Colbert segment “Stephen Colbert’s Tinfoil Hat.”
Thankfully, Kimmel ends his debut episode of The Rabbit Hole with a concise piece of advice for internet conspiracy consumers: “Don’t believe anything you hear—unless you hear it from me.”
