Jimmy Kimmel used his Wednesday night monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live to tell Donald Trump to resign after the Democrats won the House and Senate in the November 3 midterms. Speaking on ABC at 11:35 pm ET on November 4, Kimmel opened with the line: “Whether it was a blue wave or a blue nami or a blue cocky, Donald Trump blew it last night.” He gave Trump a new nickname, “Nappy Gilmore”, and said: “The verdict is in and there is only one thing left for Nappy Gilmore to do: resign. Quit already. Just quit. Nobody wants you.” This article covers the Wednesday night shows, not the Tuesday election night monologue, which our earlier report on Jimmy Kimmel and his Red Wedding midterm monologue covered.
Quick Facts
| Detail | What we know |
|---|---|
| Show | Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC |
| Monologue date | Wednesday, November 4, 11:35 pm ET |
| Election | November 3 midterms, Democrats took the House and Senate |
| Opening line | “Whether it was a blue wave or a blue nami or a blue cocky, Donald Trump blew it last night.” |
| New nickname | “Nappy Gilmore” |
| Call to resign | “The verdict is in and there is only one thing left for Nappy Gilmore to do: resign. Quit already. Just quit. Nobody wants you.” |
| On Trump and the ballot | “You were on the ballot. You’re like dog hair: You’re on everything.” |
| White House response | Spokesperson Davis Ingle called Kimmel a “no-talent loser” |
| Jimmy Fallon | “It was a total blue wave caused by an orange president” |
| Seth Meyers | Called the results “the big, clear-cut, unequivocal Trump repudiation Democrats have been desperately chasing for 10 years” |
| Michael Kosta | “It was so blue, the Blue Man Group and Bluey snorted the blue meth from Breaking Bad while singing ‘I’m Blue.'” |
| Seats flipped | As of November 5, Democrats had flipped seven Senate seats and 32 House seats, per USA Today |
What Kimmel Said on Wednesday Night
Kimmel returned to his desk on Wednesday night with the midterm results now clear. The Democrats had taken the House and Senate in the November 3 vote, and Kimmel treated the result as a verdict on Trump rather than as a normal midterm swing. His opening line set the tone: “Whether it was a blue wave or a blue nami or a blue cocky, Donald Trump blew it last night.” The joke played on the size of the Democratic win, and it blamed Trump directly for the losses suffered by his party.
From there Kimmel moved to the claim Trump had made that he was not on the ballot in the midterms. Kimmel rejected that argument in plain terms, saying: “You were on the ballot. You’re like dog hair: You’re on everything.” Kimmel was saying that Trump had been at the center of the campaign even though his own name was not on the voting paper, and that voters had treated the election as a judgment on him in any case.
Kimmel also mocked Trump for blaming other people for the losses. Trump had pointed at the Texas governor and at Fox News, and Kimmel treated that blame shifting as part of the joke. The monologue was not a policy speech, but the call to resign gave it a sharper edge than a normal night of jokes.
The Nappy Gilmore Joke and the Call to Resign
The most quoted moment of the night was the new nickname. Kimmel called Trump “Nappy Gilmore”, a play on the golf film Happy Gilmore, and then tied the name to a direct demand. He said: “The verdict is in and there is only one thing left for Nappy Gilmore to do: resign. Quit already. Just quit. Nobody wants you.” The nickname mixed golf, a sport Trump is known for loving, with a word that suggests sleepiness, and Kimmel used it as the frame for the whole demand.
The call to resign was blunt, and Kimmel repeated the point so there was no doubt about what he meant. That is strong language for a late night monologue, even for a host who has been a steady critic of Trump for years. Kimmel was not asking Trump to change course. He was telling him to leave office, and he presented the election result as the proof that the public agreed with him.
The White House answered back. Spokesperson Davis Ingle called Kimmel a “no-talent loser”, a short insult that matched the tone of the fight. The exchange shows how the late night shows and the White House now trade blows in public, with a monologue joke drawing a same day response from the administration. The back and forth has become a regular part of the political week, and Wednesday night was the latest round.
How Fallon and Meyers Reacted
Jimmy Fallon opened The Tonight Show with his own take on the results, saying: “It was a total blue wave caused by an orange president.” The line used colour as the joke, blue for the Democrats and orange for Trump, and it put the blame for the wave squarely on the president. Fallon then added: “There’s going to be so many Republicans leaving the Capitol, it’ll look like a reverse Jan. 6.” It drew on the same blue wave theme as the rest of the night.
Fallon had one more line in the same monologue. He said: “President Trump couldn’t do it with the reflecting pool, but last night he turned the whole country blue.” The reflecting pool is the long pool on the National Mall in Washington, and the joke played on the idea that Trump had managed to colour the whole map blue in a single night.
Seth Meyers took a different tone, calling the results “the big, clear-cut, unequivocal Trump repudiation Democrats have been desperately chasing for 10 years”. That was less of a joke and more of a straight reading of the night. Meyers was saying that Democrats had waited a decade for a result this clear. The word repudiation means a firm rejection, and Meyers used it to frame the election as a judgment on Trump.
The Daily Show and the Musk Joke
Michael Kosta on The Daily Show added one of the strangest jokes of the night. He said: “It was so blue, the Blue Man Group and Bluey snorted the blue meth from Breaking Bad while singing ‘I’m Blue.'” The joke stacked blue references on top of each other, from the Blue Man Group to the children’s show Bluey to the blue meth of Breaking Bad, and it ended with the song “I’m Blue”.
Kimmel also found room for a joke about Elon Musk, who had spent heavily in the election cycle. He said: “Usually when Elon spends this much money on something this embarrassing, he calls it the Cybertruck.” The line linked Musk and his spending on the election to the Cybertruck, the electric vehicle that has been mocked for its looks and its troubled launch. It was a quick hit, but it showed that Kimmel was spreading the jokes beyond Trump alone, and that Musk and his money were part of the story of the night.
Taken together, the Wednesday night shows gave a full picture of how late night television read the midterms. Kimmel was the most direct, Fallon the most playful, Meyers the most serious, and Kosta the most absurd. For other news from the world of television, our report on the Emmys moving to Prime Video in 2027 covers another big change coming to the small screen.
The Election Results Behind the Jokes
The jokes were built on real numbers. As of November 5, Democrats had flipped seven Senate seats and 32 House seats, per USA Today. Those are large gains for a midterm election, and they explain why the late night hosts treated the night as a blue wave rather than as a close result. Flipping seven seats in the Senate and 32 in the House is enough to change control of both chambers, which is what happened on November 3.
The scale of the win also explains why the hosts framed it as a verdict on Trump. A president whose party loses both chambers in a midterm is usually seen as having been rejected by the voters, and the hosts took that reading and turned it into comedy.
To be clear, this is a report on the Wednesday night shows, November 4, and the jokes told after the results were known. It is not a rewrite of the Tuesday election night monologue, which we covered in our earlier report on Jimmy Kimmel and his Red Wedding midterm monologue. That Tuesday show had its own jokes, delivered while the results were still coming in. Wednesday was the follow up, with the hosts reacting to a finished result. Morning television has its own busy week too, and our report on Carson Daly joining Saturday Today on a six day workweek shows how packed the television schedule has become.
What did Jimmy Kimmel say to Donald Trump on November 4?
Kimmel gave Trump the nickname “Nappy Gilmore” and said: “The verdict is in and there is only one thing left for Nappy Gilmore to do: resign. Quit already. Just quit. Nobody wants you.” He opened the monologue by saying Trump blew it on election night.
How did the White House respond to Kimmel?
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle called Kimmel a “no-talent loser”. The short insult was a same day answer to the monologue.
What did Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers say about the midterms?
Fallon said: “It was a total blue wave caused by an orange president”, and added that so many Republicans leaving the Capitol would look like a reverse Jan. 6. Meyers called the results “the big, clear-cut, unequivocal Trump repudiation Democrats have been desperately chasing for 10 years”.
How many seats did the Democrats flip in the midterms?
As of November 5, Democrats had flipped seven Senate seats and 32 House seats, per USA Today. Those gains gave them control of both the House and the Senate after the November 3 vote.
Sources
- TV Insider: Jimmy Kimmel tells Donald Trump to resign after 2026 midterm elections
- USA Today: Jimmy Kimmel, Trump and midterm late night reactions
- LateNighter: Late night monologue jokes on the 2026 midterms
Final Thoughts
Jimmy Kimmel and his Wednesday night monologue was the sharpest late night reaction to the 2026 midterms. The nickname “Nappy Gilmore” and the call to resign gave the night its most quoted moment, and the line about dog hair gave it its best joke. The White House answer from Davis Ingle showed that the monologue had landed. Fallon, Meyers and Kosta each added their own take. Behind the jokes were real numbers, seven Senate seats and 32 House seats flipped as of November 5, per USA Today. This was the Wednesday night follow up, not a repeat of the Tuesday show.
