Jimmy Kimmel Discusses Addressing Mass Shootings on Late Night: “I Wish We Didn’t Have To”

If you’re getting worn out by late night comedy being so serious, you’re not alone. At the Television Critics Association’s 2019 summer tour Jimmy Kimmel took the stage to address the mass shootings over this weekend, late night’s role when it comes to political commentary, and how he feels about his upcoming collaboration with the man responsible for The Apprentice, executive producer Mark Burnett.

“He handles everything beautifully as you know,” Kimmel joked when asked about Donald Trump’s response to the recent shootings in Texas and Ohio.

“Now there’s an expectation that late night talk shows will address these horrible things, and I wish we didn’t have to. But nobody’s doing anything about it at all, and we seem to forget about these tragedies nationally four days after they happen,” Kimmel continued. “My hope always in situations like that is … to just remind people that 97 percent of Americans believe that we should have background checks for purchases at gun shows and our politicians don’t seem to care what we think anymore.”

Kimmel credited David Letterman and John Stewart as being the first comedians to make late night more consistently political. “I just don’t know what alternative there is. You watch the news all day, you see what’s going on. How you go on stage and ignore it, it just doesn’t work anymore,” Kimmel said. “I wish I could. It’s hard for me to talk about serious subjects. It takes a lot out of me. I do want to be funny.”

The host also spoke about his upcoming collaboration with executive producer Mark Burnett. Burnett is best known for spearheading The Apprentice, the reality series that turned Donald Trump into a household name. Kimmel will be partnering with Burnett for an upcoming game show called Generation Gap, a quiz show where family members of different ages have to work together to answer questions about various generations.

“If you’re asking will I remind him 15 times a day that Donald Trump is president because of him, yes I will remind him of that 15 times a day,” Kimmel said. “There’s no way Mark Burnett had the vision that this monster would one day become president. If he did know that, I think we should be paying more attention to everything he does.”

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