by This coming Thursday night, the 38-year-old mayor of South Bend., Ind., will guest-host Jimmy Kimmel Live.
But why?
Sure, “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg ran for the Democratic presidential nomination this year, only to bow out two days before Super Tuesday to help the establishment of the Democratic Party rally behind former Vice President Joe Biden. And yes, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren showed up this past Saturday night for a cameo on SNL, and backstage co-starred in a viral meme with her SNL doppelganger Kate McKinnon. Saturday Night Live has a rich history of welcoming candidate cameos, tho.
What does running for president have to do at all with guest-hosting a late-night talk show?
That answer was nowhere to be found Monday.
Instead, we had Kimmel trumpeting the news on Twitter.
And Buttigieg went on NBC’s Today show to talk about his late-night stunt, saying only: “We’re lining up a great slate of guests. Sir Patrick Stewart is coming on, so we are very excited about that.” And adding: “Hopefully some funnier minds than mine will be doing some writing for that. I think it is going to be fun,” the former South Bend, Indiana mayor said. “The thing about running a presidential campaign is you will have been focused on one thing and one thing only. It is nice to be able to zoom out and come back at life.”
Life for a small-town mayor, like hosting a late-night TV show. Sure. OK. Whatever. Still makes absolutely no sense comedically or otherwise, but maybe he’ll end up fielding a prank call from Crank Yankers and we’ll all nod our heads.
Related: From April 2019…
