Jimmy Kimmel’s Path From Man Show To Dad

May 12, 2017

Recently, Jimmy Kimmel was in the news after opening up his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with an emotional and touching recounting of how his son was born with a heart condition.

Lost in the discussion of the speech, which has largely focused on “lol, he cried,” was the fact that, somehow, without us realizing it, Jimmy Kimmel has transitioned from a crass frat comedian to a very dad-like dad.

How did this journey happen?

Kimmel has two kids who are old enough to drink (he’s 49, which is very surprising but makes sense considering he’s been on TV forever), but it’s only within the last few years that he’s embraced his dad-like tendencies.

Let’s take a look at how he’s gone from The Man Show to Dad Of The Year candidate.

James Christian Kimmel was born in 1969 in Brooklyn, New York.

He was raised Catholic, which is a guaranteed way to make sure someone goes into comedy, apparently. He got his start in radio at the age of 21, bouncing around the western part of the United States and getting fired a whole bunch. Eventually he landed in Los Angeles with a recurring part as “Jimmy The Sports Guy” for the Kevin and Bean morning show.

He worked in Los Angeles for five years, and during this time he was married, and had two children. But he was not a very dad-like dad.

He was young, quick-witted, and displayed just the right amount of crass. He wasn’t exactly cracking knock-knock jokes. In 1997, he landed on Win Ben Stein’s Money, his first television gig. He hosted the show, where he was the perfect foil for Ben Stein, and the two of them eventually won an Emmy for their work.

Kimmel sharply contrasted with Stein, who basically was born as the world’s most boring dad.

In 1999, Kimmel and his friend Adam Carolla started The Man Show on Comedy Central, the same network that aired Win Ben Stein’s Money. Kimmel had a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old at this time, but was still decidedly not Dad.

The show was crass, sexually charged, and filled with large-breasted women jumping on trampolines, and all the while Kimmel would suppress his dad-urges to nudge his son and say, “Hey, that girl’s got some assets, eh son?” The show was a huge success, billed as the “anti-Oprah” and Kimmel began to increase in fame, appearing on Fox NFL Sunday as a regular contributor.

Then in 2002, Kimmel and Carolla created Crank Yankers, which was a show of puppets making crass prank calls. At this point, Kimmel was pretty much known for being a loud, crass, party guy. While Kimmel would stay with Crank Yankers until it ended in 2007, he left The Man Show in 2003, which coincided with his start on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Kimmel was picked to host his own late night show partly as an “edgy” addition to the market. He would take the same Man Show attitude and bring it to network television. Shortly before making this transition, he divorced his first wife, and that year began dating the comedian Sarah Silverman. Silverman, an equally crass and wild personality, definitely would not fit into any “Kimmel is such a dad” narrative.

While Kimmel Live! tried to gain its footing, including establishing the long running feud between Matt Damon and Kimmel, Kimmel was still thriving off his Man Show persona. At the beginning of 2008, Kimmel went viral thanks to Sarah Silverman’s raunchy music video she debuted on his show, “I’m F*#&ing Matt Damon.” It was one of Kimmel’s first truly massive videos to catch fire online, and one of his least “dad” ones as well.

However, in 2009, after his split with Silverman, Kimmel began to settle down.

He started dating Molly McNearney, the co-head writer of the show, and three years later they were engaged. In 2014 they had their first child, and by this point Kimmel had mellowed into a Cool Dad.

His most popular bits included celebrities reading mean tweets, or concert festival attendees being interviewed about obviously fake bands. While most of his bits are hilarious (roughly everyone between the age of 20 and 30 has at one point gone through a stream of Mean Tweet videos while drinking with their friends) they are not the jokes of a guy who would hire an announcer for his ability to chug beers.

And so, Jimmy Kimmel, the host of The Man Show and the mind behind Crank Yankers, has finally seen himself become a capital-D Dad. The look suits him.