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President Obama Reads "Mean Tweets" On 'Kimmel'

by Joseph D. Lyons

On Monday night, Twitter, late night TV, and the president all reunited for the perfect two minutes of comedy. Cue the commander-in-chief reading gems like: "My mom bought a new conditioner and it sucks. It isn't even conditioning my hair. I blame Obama" or "Obama couldn't negotiate getting a Whopper without pickles." Yep, that's right, President Obama returned to Jimmy Kimmel Live! to read tweetsmean tweets — even one from Donald Trump raising the whole bar to another comedic and political level.

This is not the first time that Obama has participated in the Mean Tweets segment on Kimmel's show. Back in March, Obama proved his comedic skills during his first go at the segment. But this time, with Trump entering the fray, it was even better. Obama read verbatim from an August Trump tweet: "Obama will go down as the worst President in history on many topics but especially foreign policy." Obama's response couldn't have been better:

Well @realDonaldTrump, at least I will go down as a president.

Mic drop. There have been many a clever response over the years but not all of them have occurred on national television. Usually they're just written into the Twitterverse, not read with uncanny comedic timing. Should Trump continue his Twitter rampages after the election, this should really become a second Kimmel segment.

The other bits of Obama's Mean Tweets segment were hilarious too. Other virtual take-downs that the president read aloud included: "Barack Obama is the Sharknado of presidents. Loud, stupid and over-hyped" and "I just found out my daughter shares a birthday with Obama. PUKE!"

From there he moved over to Kimmel's desk for an interview, plenty of which was again about Trump. "When you watched the debate, and you watched Donald Trump, do you ever laugh? Do you ever actually laugh?" Kimmel asked. Obama's answer: "Most of the time." The giggles didn't end there — even when the topics got serious.

Kimmel asked Obama if he had watched the Billy Bush-Trump Access Hollywood tape, and Obama said he did, noting that a tape like that would be a problem for anyone — even if it were a friend who worked in your office, it would be a source of concern. Kimmel's response was classic: "Do you have dirtbag friends that you haven't been able to be in touch with for the last eight years in office?" Obama joked back, "There are probably some guys who didn’t make vet."

There were serious moments too:

Look we joke about Donald Trump, but part of reason you see Michelle so passionate in this election, part of the reason that we get involved as much as we have, is not just because we think Hillary is going to be a great president, but it's also because there is something qualitatively different about the way Trump has operated in the political sphere.

He went on to compare Trump to the Republicans that he ran against, John McCain and Mitt Romney. "Obviously I thought that I could do a better job," Obama said, "but they're both honorable men." If they had won, Obama said he wouldn't have worried about the course of the country. It might be "contentious and noisy" but things would work out in the end. "What we haven't seen before is somebody questioning the integrity of elections and the will of the people," Obama argued.

Plus, Obama got in some nice words about Clinton:

The brand of politics that Hillary represents, which is pragmatic and says that you don't get everything done all at once — you make progress in little pieces at a time — that may not attract as much attention, it's not something that goes into 140 characters as easily, but I think she will be an outstanding president.

The crowd interrupted the interview in raucous cheers, which might make you hope that Obama can show up on Kimmel every night until Clinton has won this thing. Even with the polls as good as they are, it couldn't hurt, right? The laughs would just be a bonus.