Stephen Colbert Borrowed Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Mean Tweets’ Bit To Roast Him For Also Getting COVID Twice

Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have had some bad luck when it comes to COVID. The late night hosts both tested positive earlier in the month, throwing a wrench into their shows. However, Colbert’s situation got even hairier when The Late Show had to go dark after he had a recurrence of the pandemic disease. It was a rare moment — until the same thing happened to Kimmel. The ABC host is out this week after testing positive again, and well, Colbert couldn’t help but feel like Kimmel was copying him.

“Getting COVID twice is kind of my thing,” Colbert said during his Wednesday night monologue. “If you’re gonna steal my bit, Jimmy, I have no choice but to steal one of yours, too.”

That bit “Mean Tweets.” Except instead of having celebrities read awful tweets about themselves, Colbert read tweets that dunked entirely on Kimmel.

— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) May 19, 2022

Clearly, these tweets were written by the Late Show staff to roast Kimmel, but that doesn’t make them any less stinging:

@dogluver-123456 writes, “Get better, Kimmel. ‘Cause you can’t get worse.”

@skateboardmaya-1 writes, “It’s hard to tell if Kimmel got Covid from a staff member or a family member, because most of his staff are family members.”

@GolgferCraig19672 writes, “Sad to hear that Covid sidelined my third favorite Jimmy, after Fallon and ‘Dean Sausage.'”

@californiadreaming27 writes, “Jimmy Kimmel has Covid Who cares I only watch his show for The Roots anyway.”

While Kimmel is out, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers stars Andy Samberg and John Mulaney filled in for the late night host. They, too, roasted the late night host for catching COVID twice because, let’s face it, that’s the ultimate form of love from a comedian.