As he does before every Thanksgiving, Jimmy Kimmel took to the stage on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to share what he’s most thankful for. In a way, the answer may be surprising, but at the same time, I think many of us can relate.
The episode aired on Tuesday, Nov. 25, marking it the last new episode of the series before Thanksgiving. Of course, the opening monologue was packed with digs at Donald Trump, and I swear, at this point, he’s doing it on purpose just to make a point!
The start of the monologue had Kimmel share that he is most thankful for the fact that there are only five weeks of the year left. And honestly, I can relate to that. Parts of 2025 have felt to have dragged, especially around September and October. There’s also a lot to look forward to in 2026.
He then turned to his on-air sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, who shared that he was most thankful for his family — going for the serious route rather than the comedic one. He did confirm that he’ll be eating chicken and not turkey at Thanksgiving, though, and this was a great segway into the talking point of the night: the pardoning of the turkeys.
At this point, I’m certainly that Kimmel is making digs at President Donald Trump just to make sure the First Amendment Right remains in place. After all, when he was suspended in September, there were questions about what this meant about the First Amendment Right, as it was Trump who mostly pushed for the suspension to happen.
Kimmel went on to talk about the pardoning of the turkeys, Gobble and Waddle, including the press conference at the time. This is usually a time for presidents to make a couple of lame jokes and get on with their day, but of course, Trump had to do things differently. Kimmel talked about how “Donald Trump used the opportunity to brag about all the wars he’s ending,” and more.
There was a fun CGI’d moment of one of the birds handing Trump money to buy his way into being pardoned to end that short segment.
Of course, Kimmel had to focus on the news that Paramount is making Rush Hour 4. It turns out that it came at the request of Trump, and that created another segment of the opening monologue.
Jimmy Kimmel Live will be back to normal from Monday, Dec. 1.
