How Jimmy Kimmel Will Approach Making Donald Trump Jokes At The Oscars

Jimmy Kimmel will make his debut hosting the Oscars on Sunday, and there will invariably be pressure to mention the divisive political climate that has engulfed America since Donald Trump was sworn in as President in January.

It will be quite a comedic tightrope to walk for the talk show host. However, don’t expect a huge amount of political jokes throughout Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue for the 89th Academy Awards. During his recent interview with Variety to discuss his plans for the ceremony Kimmel admitted that he doesn’t think the show will actually be that political.

Well, that’s the plan at the moment. But Jimmy Kimmel did confess that things could quickly change if Donald Trump does something to elicit a response, or if there’s an abundance of speeches that comment on the current President Of The United States.

“I don’t think it will be very political. There will be some element of that to the show. A lot of it depends on what happens.”

Molly McNearney, who is the co-head writer on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and also just so happens to be his wife, too, admitted during the interview earlier this week that it’s still too early to try and write jokes about Donald Trump. If Trump doesn’t want to be mentioned during the event, then she had some words of advice for him, too.

“It’s too early to write political jokes, because the things that are happening today will feel dated. If Trump doesn’t want to be on the broadcast, he has to be on his best behavior in the days leading up to it.”

There’s bound to be an awful lot of heat aimed towards Donald Trump during this year’s Oscars ceremony. Throughout the awards season the likes of Meryl Streep and Mahershala Ali, who are nominated in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor categories for their performances in Florence Foster Jenkins and Moonlight, respectively, have aimed their disdain towards Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, UTA decided to cancel their annual pre-Oscars party, and instead donated a quarter of a million dollars to the ACLU, while Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose film The Salesman is nominated in the best foreign-language category, has revealed that he won’t be attending the ceremony following Donald Trump’s attempted executive order to ban nationals from seven prominently Muslim countries from entering the United States.

But while there’s invariably going to be an interest in how many times Donald Trump is mentioned, and how much heat is aimed towards him, the main focus of the Academy Awards is to celebrate the best cinema has had to offer over the last year.

Jimmy Kimmel’s job is to try and make this nearly four-hour-long celebration of movies bearable for those in attendance, and those watching at home. Kimmel is very much aware that he will invariably receive criticism for his hosting skills from some quarters, but he’s just trying to remain optimistic about the job at hand.

“I made a decision to try to enjoy the process and be optimistic. That said, my subconscious still tells me it’s going to be a disaster. This is a no-win situation. Even if it goes great, you get a lot of s*** from a lot of people.”

But while he’s already preparing to be criticized, Jimmy Kimmel admitted that there was never any chance that he’d turn down the chance to host because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“It’s like a Super Bowl for a comedian. I think there are certain things that are major touchstones or milestones… This is the biggest of them all. I won’t even say I like a challenge. Challenges are overrated. But I feel like I have to do it. There’s a lot of negativity that goes along with it, but it’s a pretty great feather to have in your cap. And it’s something that you can tell your grandchildren about.”

We’ll get to see how he fares on Sunday night when the 89th Academy Awards takes place.

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]