Jimmy Kimmel says critics tried to 'blame this on me' after Rudy Giuliani hospitalization

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: After brushing off the embers of backlash over his “expectant widow” joke about Melania Trump, Jimmy Kimmel is back in the spotlight defending his quip about former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani “rising from the grave.”

The late-night host used the opening monologue of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Monday, May 4, to mock Newsmax commentators for trying to “pin” Giuliani’s hospitalization on him.

Giuliani’s spokesperson announced on May 3 that he had been rushed to the hospital, where he remains in ‘stable but critical condition.’

Days before his hospitalization, Kimmel was defending another of his quips made before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting during a monologue on Tuesday, April 28, when he brought up 81-year-old Giuliani. 

“So last night, America's mayor, Rudy Giuliani, rose from the grave to weigh in on the ongoing drama involving me,” the host remarked.

Jimmy Kimmel responds to Rudy Giuliani backlash

Kimmel addressed the expected fallout over his ‘grave’ joke about Rudy Giuliani, saying, “When I read this, I thought, I really thought. I said, I wonder if they’ll try to blame this on me.”

“And then, sure enough. One of these podcast bozos points to a joke I made about Rudy about him being a vampire and then suggests I might actually have some inside knowledge of what’s going on in Trumptown there," he continued.

Kimmel then zeroed in on Newsmax’s coverage of the Giuliani joke, where one panelist asked, “Is this supposed to be comedy?” while another dismissed him as “really not funny,” calling the remark “abhorrent” and accusing Kimmel of hiding behind the “gauze of comedy.”

Seizing on the slip, Kimmel turned it into a joke on his show, standing under a sheet of gauze held up by performers.

“Right. In fact, I’m under the gauze of comedy right now,” he said, adding, “Every day in the morning, I wake up, I make coffee, and then I look into the future to see which events have yet to occur, and then we write jokes we know are going to make trouble.”

Kimmel briefly struck a more serious tone, adding: “For the record, I hope Rudy Giuliani lives another 100 years,” before returning to humor with a reference to Giuliani’s widely mocked press conference outside a landscaping business in Philadelphia.

Jimmy Kimmel defends Melania Trump 'widow' joke

This came after Kimmel pushed back against growing demands from Melania Trump and Donald Trump for ABC to fire him over his “expectant widow” joke.

In an earlier monologue, he clarified that he never intended anything violent, describing the remark as a “pretend roast,” a light-hearted jab about Donald Trump nearing 80 and Melania Trump being younger than him.

"It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination and they know that, I've been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular," he added.

He also pointed to the First Amendment, stressing that everyone has the right to speak freely, including himself, the president, and the first lady.

"I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I think a great place to start to dial that back is having a conversation with your husband about it,” he continued.