Jimmy Kimmel used his late-night platform this week to deride the social media backlash surrounding an AI video of former president Donald Trump and the reversal of a Cracker Barrel logo redesign, singling out Trump’s eldest son in his monologue.
Kimmel said Trump had posted a string of taunts and attacks online — targeting figures from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to former television host Rosie O’Donnell — in what the comedian characterized as an effort to distract from other matters. Kimmel mocked one of Trump’s posts, an AI clip that showed him dancing to “YMCA” alongside the man from the Cracker Barrel logo, after the restaurant quietly reversed a controversial decision to remove that figure as part of a redesign.
On air, Kimmel ridiculed the tone and content of the president’s online attacks. He quipped that Trump’s threats to strip O’Donnell of American citizenship were as impractical as “peeing standing up,” adding, “he cannot do” either. He also mocked Trump’s behavior as juvenile, saying, “How can someone so old be so childish? It’s Benjamin Can’t Button His Pants.”
Kimmel dismissed some of the public outrage over the Cracker Barrel episode as overblown, calling the chain “Amish Applebee’s” and saying, “It’s barely a restaurant. It’s a restaurant that sells yo-yos made of wood, OK? Calm down.” He also targeted Donald Trump Jr., quoting what he said the younger Trump had posted: “Even cosplay grits gobbler New York prep school nepo baby Don Jr. whined, ‘WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel,’” Kimmel said, adding, “As if he’s ever been to a Cracker Barrel.”
The remarks come amid a broader pattern of provocative posts by the former president on social media, which have drawn attention and criticism for both their content and timing. The Cracker Barrel episode began when the restaurant announced a redesign that would alter its long-standing logo; the company later reversed that decision, and the unexpected back-and-forth sparked commentary from public figures and online users.
Kimmel’s commentary joined a wave of late-night reactions that have increasingly treated political social media activity as fodder for monologues. The segment exemplified how cultural moments about corporate branding and internet-created media, such as AI videos, intersect with partisan commentary and celebrity responses in a way that amplifies both the original controversy and the reactions it provokes.