‘It’s Nadir, Dummy’: Kimmel, RFK Jr. Trade Barbs on Social Media

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came for Jimmy Kimmel’s comedy. Kimmel came back for his spelling.

The exchange began when Kennedy shared a post criticizing what it described as the “shocking collapse of liberal comedy.” In his own endorsement of the post, Kennedy wrote that it explained how late night had reached the “nader” when Kimmel, in an appearance on Michelle Obama’s IMO podcast, said “It’s not my job to be funny.”

Kimmel’s reply zeroed in on the typo.

“It’s ‘Nadir’ Dummy,” he wrote. “Now get back to spreading polio.”

The line packed in both a spelling correction and a reminder of Kimmel’s most frequent line of attack against Kennedy in his Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologues.

Kimmel has also turned Kennedy into an occasional character on the show. Shortly after Trump’s second inauguration, Jimmy Kimmel Live! introduced “RFK Jr Junior,” a tiny-bodied, shirtless puppet version of Kennedy whose appearances have riffed on Kennedy’s health views, family history, and personal controversies.

Kennedy’s post had itself been a reaction to a satirical thread by X user Peter Girnus, who describes himself as a “narrative hacker.” The thread imagined how CBS might be feeling about late night in the wake of Stephen Colbert’s exit, using Kimmel as shorthand for a broader critique of politically charged comedy.