Donald Trump’s campaign stop at a Texas truck plant gives Jimmy Kimmel the main political target for his final night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, but the farewell is structured more like a victory lap than a sustained political monologue. Kimmel opens by celebrating the week in Brooklyn, thanking the venue, restaurants, crew and enormous ticket demand while joking about everything from the staff’s partying to Guillermo’s continued run on Dancing with the Stars. The result is a loose, celebratory atmosphere that suits the occasion, even when it means the show takes a while to settle into its strongest material.
The political section begins with tariffs and the MTA before moving into Trump’s intensive campaigning ahead of the midterms. Kimmel frames the travel schedule, Trump’s approval numbers and Republican candidates distancing themselves from him as evidence of political desperation. The basic picture of Trump launching an extensive campaign push and appearing in Denton to support Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton is consistent with current reporting, as is the competitiveness of Paxton’s race against Democrat James Talarico. AP News +1 Still, Kimmel is performing partisan comedy rather than attempting a comprehensive assessment of Republican midterm strategy, and opposing interpretations of Trump’s campaigning receive essentially no attention.
Trump’s remarks provide the segment with better comedy than the broader electoral argument. Clips of him attacking Talarico, claiming that his opponent does not eat meat, revisiting Joe Biden’s difficulty finding stairs and explaining the spelling of “dumb” give Kimmel plenty to react to without requiring elaborate setups. Reporting confirms that Trump attacked Talarico during the Denton appearance while promoting Paxton, although the show’s claim that Talarico is “leading” is presented without identifying a poll or explaining the margins and variation among surveys. Current reporting describes the contest as close, with some recent polls showing Talarico narrowly ahead. People.com +1
The earlier tariff joke has a similar mixture of factual grounding and comic simplification. Kimmel says tariffs will add $1 billion to the cost of new MTA subway trains and that the expense will ultimately fall on New Yorkers. The underlying estimate is attributed to an MTA analysis covering new transit vehicles, but it is an estimate of potential tariff exposure rather than a finalized $1 billion bill solely for subway trains. New York Tribune That distinction matters because the monologue converts a more complicated budget projection into a cleaner political punch line.
Brooklyn-specific material provides a welcome change of subject. Noise complaints surrounding rooftop events at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum are tailor-made for Kimmel’s style, particularly the incongruity of residents being kept awake by parties at a children’s institution. The subsequent reports of people entering New York sewers are even better setup material because the story is strange enough to sustain a full comedy bit rather than merely another sequence of topical one-liners.
Jon Stewart’s surprise appearance as an “urban scavenger” turns that setup into the night’s most elaborate sketch. Stewart emerges in underground gear, claims to bring gifts to rats, describes himself as a “little rat Santa,” teaches the animals Spanish and defends sewer life while Kimmel plays the comparatively bewildered straight man. The escalating absurdity works because Stewart commits completely to the character, while jokes about sewer rent, Rudy Giuliani and the Mets keep the routine tied to New York rather than letting it become completely random. Some of the exchange runs longer than necessary, but its ridiculousness gives the Brooklyn finale a memorable piece of comedy distinct from the Trump material.
As a complete closing-night monologue, the installment is intentionally scattered: Brooklyn nostalgia, Guillermo, tariffs, electoral politics, a noisy museum, sewer trespassers and Stewart’s rat philanthropy do not form a particularly coherent argument. That looseness is partly justified by the farewell setting, and Kimmel’s affection for the city and gratitude toward the audience give the opening genuine warmth. The political commentary is sharpest when it lets Trump’s own remarks supply the setup, while the Stewart cameo demonstrates that the show is more entertaining when it builds an extended comic premise instead of stacking political insults.
Pros
- Trump’s Denton remarks provide strong source material for Kimmel’s reactive political comedy.
- The Brooklyn farewell gives the opening a celebratory sense of occasion without becoming overly sentimental.
- Jon Stewart commits fully to the urban-scavenger character, creating the most distinctive comedy sequence of the night.
- The sewer sketch escalates through increasingly absurd details while retaining a specifically New York flavor.
- Moving from national politics into peculiar Brooklyn stories gives the monologue useful tonal variety.
Cons
- Political conclusions about Trump’s approval, Republican distancing and the Texas Senate race are delivered without enough sourcing or context to distinguish the jokes from a fuller electoral analysis.
- The MTA tariff discussion compresses a broader estimated transit-vehicle cost into a simpler claim about subway trains.
- The extended farewell, political material and local-news sketches make the segment feel more like a collection of bits than a tightly constructed monologue.
- Several Trump insults lean on familiar ridicule rather than adding much to the substantive criticism.
- The Jon Stewart exchange lasts slightly beyond the point where its central sewer-dweller joke has been established.
Kimmel’s Brooklyn finale succeeds primarily as an energetic comedy sendoff, with the strange sewer story and Jon Stewart cameo ultimately proving more memorable than its political argument. The campaign commentary has recognizable factual foundations but frequently simplifies them for punch lines, leaving the episode stronger as topical entertainment than political analysis.
