VIDEO: Jimmy Kimmel makes a cringe-inducing appearance on Rob Ford’s YouTube show

VIDEO: Jimmy Kimmel makes a cringe-inducing appearance on Rob Ford’s YouTube show

This week, on a very special episode of Ford Nation, Rob and Doug fawn over a late-night comedian who continues to humiliate them on a near-weekly basis.

That’s right: this week’s mayoral YouTube video is the long-awaited Jimmy Kimmel edition. As expected, the L.A.-based comedian Skyped-in his performance (actually, technically speaking, he used Google Hangouts).

Kimmel makes some subtle jokes at the brothers’ expense (his outfit is a three-sizes-smaller replica of the red-and-black getup Rob wore during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!), but for the most part Rob and Doug are able to laugh their way through the encounter. They debut a new line of Rob Ford bobbleheads, including one wearing his famous crack-confession tie. Doug tries to unsettle Kimmel with some interview-type questions, which Kimmel obligingly sidesteps. At one point, Rob alludes to his own substance problems:

Doug: Now, you know you’re starting to sound like a politician when you say, “I don’t know what happened that night.”

Kimmel: No, I’m just saying, I was so drunk I don’t know what happened that night.

Rob: (Laughing.) I’ve used that excuse one too many times myself.

Even though the video is genuinely cringe-inducing to watch, it’s a win for the Fords. Showing the mayor gleefully owning up to his own mistakes is a way of trivializing his behaviour. The more he’s able to advance the notion that his scandals have been minor sideshows to a generally successful administration, the better it will be for his reelection campaign. It’s odd that Kimmel is allowing himself to be dragged into the fray to this degree. Don’t make us take back all the nice things we said about you, Jimmy.