Kimmel Brings Out Gov Gavin Newsom to Explain California’s Vaccine Lotto (Video)

Jimmy Kimmel had a surprise guest during his monologue on Thursday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”: California Gov. Gavin Newsome, who showed up to explain the state’s new vaccine lotto — and, we guess, also get some fun publicity for Newsom amid the recall effort.

So in case you didn’t know, on Thursday Newsom announced a new vaccine incentive program worth $116 million. This includes $50 prepaid grocery store gift cards for the next 2 million people who get vaccinated, with the leftover money — $16.5 million — to be split between 10 winners. And yes, eligibility is retroactive: Even Californians who have already been vaccinated are eligible for the prizes, which will be announced June 15. (Except for the Governor.)

So it is that early on in Kimmel’s monologue, he explained that he has largely been doing his in-studio shows in front of his staff, but “to liven things up we’ve been inviting one or two vaccinated people per week to sit in our audience. And tonight we are joined by, uh, what is your name sir?”

Yes, we know you guessed that the man’s name was “Gavin” and that the bit then became a joke about how Kimmel had no idea who he is.

“What do you do for a living, Gavin?” Kimmel asked.

“I hate to admit this, I’m in politics Jimmy,” Newsom said.

“Oh really, what do you do in politics?” Kimmel replied.

“I’m a governor,” Newsom said.

You get the gist. This banter continued for a few moments, until Kimmel said “so you might know something about this new lottery,” at which point Newsom explained all the stuff we broke down near the beginning of this article. And of course Kimmel had to ask some weird follow up questions.

“What if you got vaccinated under the name Carlos Danger, would you still be?” asked Kimmel, referring to the humiliating pseudonym used by disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner.

“Jimmy, I have no idea what you’re asking,” Newsome joked.

Newsom then said he is not personally eligible for the lottery, but made it clear that Kimmel is, joking “you need the money.”

“How mad would everyone be if I won,” Kimmel replied.

Watch the whole monologue above. The Newsom stuff happens right at the beginning.