Bieber Fever & How I Was a Dick to Jimmy Kimmel

I never would have guessed that my one-sentence post on Justin Bieber would provoke so many comments about the little fellow! Since it’s obvious that Popular 1 readers are such big fans of his, I thought you would enjoy more Bieber-related entertainment!

And then the follow-up on the Jimmy Kimmel show:

Ben Stein with the young Jimmy Kimmel

I’ve always regretted being a dick to Jimmy Kimmel. It was around 2000 or 20001, and we had both performed at the most important comedy festival in North America, the “Just for Laughs” festival in Montreal.

Jimmy was already well-known in the entertainment industry, having worked in the ’90s as Ben Stein’s sidekick on the Comedy Central show “Win Ben Stein’s Money”, and later creating and co-hosting the sexist-on-purpose  “The Man Show” with Adam Carolla. At the time, I hated “The Man Show”. I thought the humor was asinine.

So how was I dick to Jimmy Kimmel?

We were in Montreal. The comedy festival had ended. My then-husband Bob and I, Jimmy, and Jimmy’s brother waited outside the hotel for the van to pick us up and drive us to the airport. I remember talking to Jimmy’s brother, but not Jimmy himself. Because I disliked his show, I was making the assumption that Jimmy Kimmel = His Show.

The van arrived and we got in. Jimmy Kimmel tried to make small talk to the rest of us during the long ride to the airport, but I was tired and cranky and not in the mood. I remember he said, “You know how women always take showers at night?” Bob and I just looked at him disgustedly and said, “NO.” I remember thinking, “Of course: the sexist asshole from ‘The Man Show’ starts talking about ‘what women do’. Typical!”

Unlike me, Jimmy was in a good mood and didn’t seem at all affected by our negativity.

Later, I found out he was dating Sarah Silverman. That shocked me, because Sarah Silverman is not only brilliant, but she has a very feminist point of view. Why would she go out with the guy who created one of the most sexist shows on television?

A little while after that, Jimmy got his own late-night talk show. Some of my friends got jobs on the show as writers or producers, and the show became a hit.

Now, when I see Jimmy Kimmel hosting his own, high-profile network show — which I like a lot, by the way — I feel badly about how I treated him in the van. But I am happy to see that he’s become so successful. Jimmy’s talent was always obvious, but more than that, on his talk show, he seems like a nice, decent guy . Like a young Letterman without the bitterness.

What I learned is that sometimes it’s a mistake to judge a person by their work. And I’m glad Jimmy Kimmel’s kicking ass nowadays.