martes, 14 de abril de 2026

Trump vs. Pope Leo, in the Jimmy Kimmel Show

Jimmy Kimmel is a comedian and a late night host, who often satirizes powerful people like President Donald J. Trump on ABC TV channel. Clowns have traditionally been the only people in court who dared to tell the truth to the emperor, without fear of having their head chopped off. Of course, the Jimmy Kimmel Show was suspended after the Trump administration bitterly criticized a monologue and put political pressure on ABC to end the show, but "the backlash from both Democrat & Republican leading politicians, entertainers, scholars and the public at large to defend freedom of speech with boycotts against Disney, ABC and some broadcast station owners", made Disney (ABC's parent corporation) think twice and resume production of the Jimmy Kimmel Show after five days.

In this context, you can watch yesterday's monologue by Jimmy Kimmel below, where the actor pokes fun at President Trump's attempt to portray himself as Jesus in the AI-generated picture above -that Mr Trump himself posted on Truth Social and later removed, plus the criticism that the President lashed out against Pope Leo XIV. This video (15:36) is very difficult for ESL learners for various reasons: the tempo is fast; it is very dense -it is a collage of opinions about different political stories featuring President Trump; there are many references to American current events that students may miss; the exaggeration, the puns, the profanity.., in short, humoristic documents are always among the most difficult genres to understand, so, this video is recommended for Experts without subtitles, but, with subtitles, the level of difficulty can drop to C2, or even C1+ (mind you: you will never find a document like this in a C2 official exam!).

Here you can find a list of key words that may also help you to follow the monologue, if you choose not to use the subtitles: untethered, to top [it], to bash, to poke around, barely, commander-in-chief, to doctor [a photograph], [real &] fake, oblivious, stumpy, blotchyglob, yam, bobbling, ointment, pee, to be out of it, nuts, the poping [process], MAGA, a compliment, ass, South Park, Batman, a bananas [thing], a fighter [jet], demogorgon, Stranger Thingsto heal, messiah, [to be] on board, to delete, notable, the gospel, to abuse, to speak out [loud], efilled, to sign up [for], a commercial, to settle [this], tax on tips, desperate [for approval], to cheat, [I] bet [you do], reckless, a coward, Red Cross, fake news, a robe, dumb, a health insurance, crisp, to tip, to clean up, to fall apart, a blockade, a straight, effing [straight], regardless, to make no difference, UFC [fight], binged [rivalry], to carve out, [to hit the] links, to check out, horny, a squeeze, a turd, to slip into [it], to disavow [her ties to Jeffrey Epstein], a deep dive, subreddit, severance, to dismiss [a lawsuit], to sue, to throw out, malice, to refile [the lawsuit], to smack [down], a bruise, ongoing [abuse of the legal system], to shift [to], a bickering [couple], the lip readers, road game [of the year,] Pacers, to stick around.

Here is Jimmy Kimmel's latest monologue "Dope vs Pope" on YouTube: