Jimmy Kimmel came to the defense of his right-hand man, Guillermo Rodriguez, after the latter received hate comments for surviving another week on “Dancing With the Stars” despite having the lowest scores.
During Wednesday’s monologue for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the late night host touched on Rodriguez’s “Cinderella story” on “DWTS,” joking it was like if the fairytale all of sudden became about “the pumpkin.”
“Our own little bell of the ballroom is one step closer to becoming the champion on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’” Kimmel said before playing footage of Rodriguez’s latest routine.
“I think you’re the only dancer who ever spent more time rolling on the floor than dancing on it,” Kimmel quipped. “I think the audience thought you fainted.”
As he went on, the comedian highlighted that the “DWTS” audience had become taken with Rodriguez. In fact, Rodriguez was trending alongside Lionel Messi’s retirement from Argentina’s national football team Tuesday night.
“The greatest soccer player in the history of the world. You’re right under him,” Kimmel said. “We really cannot overstate how incredible this is. This is like if the Cinderella story was about the pumpkin.”
He added: “You’re like a rainbow. Like nobody looks up and goes, ‘Well, that one isn’t great.’ They go, ‘Every one of them is a miracle,’ right?”
And while plenty of fans have been rooting Rodriguez on, including players on the New England Patriots, Kimmel pointed out that “not everyone is happy” with his co-star’s success.
“There have even been some accusations suggesting the competition is rigged,” Kimmel said. “People don’t understand the competition isn’t rigged. Life is rigged in Guillermo’s favor. He is winning even though probably half the people voting cannot spell the word Guillermo. You are winning even though there are haters online trying their hardest to bring you down.”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” then cut to footage of some of those trolling messages, including one that said Rodriguez “hit the ceiling” of what he’s capable of.
“You know what? That’s exactly what a loser would say,” Kimmel countered. “Save that whining for when your mom comes down to the basement. Temu Kevin Smith, we don’t want to hear it.”
Kimmel blasted another critic as a “jerk” for suggesting that Rodriguez was worse than last season’s fan favorite, Andy Richter.
“I think some people might be losing sight of what this show is, and maybe of their lives overall,” Kimmel said. “Let me explain something. This is not the Olympics, okay? This is not Seal Team Six. There are no responsibilities that go along with winning this. Once the winner is crowned, we glue a bunch of little mirrors to a $40 piece of styrofoam we bought at Michaels and we send them home with it. That’s it.”
Kimmel also reminded Rodriguez’s haters that “this is also not a professional dance competition.”
“That’s why it’s called ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and not ‘Dancing with the Dancers,’” Kimmel said. “This is an entertainment show. The winner should be whichever team is the most entertaining. Let me ask you a question. In the 21 years of this show, have you ever seen anything more entertaining than this?”
Kimmel then praised Rodriguez for giving it his all on the show.
He then turned back to the haters with one last message: “If that bothers you, if that upsets you so much that you feel the need to attack him online, to begrudge him, even a drop, for the gallons of joy he’s bringing America right now, well then … maybe you need to get out of your little hate caves and find some friends. ‘Cause if you want to get to this guy, you’re going to have to go through all of us first.”
Watch Kimmel’s full monologue above.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.
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