Jimmy Kimmel gave the perfect response to George Santos’ demand that he pay him $20,000 after the late-night show host tricked the ousted lawmaker into recording personalised Cameo video messages.
Mr Santos has taken to posting videos on Cameo, the site where celebrities offer short greetings for a fee, following his expulsion from Congress earlier this month.
In the videos, Mr Santos has recorded himself saying a number of bizarre things for the price of $500 – including congratulating a member of the public for “coming out as a Furry” and saying “haters are going to hate. And if you have haters, it means you’re doing something right, girl” – after he became the sixth person in American history to be expelled from the congressional chamber.
The videos have led many to believe that Mr Santos, who has been accused of lying about his personal history on several occasions, will say anything for money.
On his show last week, Mr Kimmel decided to put that theory to the test, revealing that he had sent Mr Santos a number of “ridiculous” requests on the platform to find out whether he would fall for them.
Jimmy Kimmel had a perfect response to George Santos’ demand for $20,000 from him— (ABC)
Mr Santos, in several Cameo videos, did just that, according to Mr Kimmel, who then aired the clips on his show.
The clips show the former congressman congratulating someone for winning a beef-eating contest and congratulating Mr Kimmel’s made-up mother for successfully cloning her dog “Adolf”.
Following the airing of the clips on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week, Mr Santos is now claiming that Mr Kimmel underpaid him for the videos since they were used for commercial purposes under Cameo’s terms of service, according to the former congressman.
“The balance is $21,800 and change,” he told The Spectator, claiming the amount totals the cost of the videos as well as a 50 per cent business rush rate.
But on Monday night’s show, Mr Kimmel didn’t seem at all fazed by the demand.
Instead, he openly laughed it off, airing further wild messages he’d paid Mr Santos, via an anonymous account, to film.
“Can you imagine if I get sued by George Santos for fraud?” joked Mr Kimmel, who said the stunt aimed to test what Mr Santos would be willing to say for money.
“I mean, how good would that be? It would be like a dream come true,” Mr Kimmel added. “Since I started buying his videos, his rates went way up to $500 apiece. He should be thanking me for buying these videos.”
Mr Kimmel said he still had “a big stockpile” of Cameo messages from Mr Santos and promised to release more.
Mr Santos this week claimed that his weekly income from Cameo has already exceeded his $174,000 per year salary from Congress.
The former congressman reportedly said he would be donating some of the money to unspecified good causes, and that the cash was only part of the appeal.
“Obviously there’s a monetary benefit – I’m not here doing it for charity – but the other aspect is to remind these a**holes who think they’re holier-than-thou that they will be forgotten in history and I will live forever, period,” he told Semafor.
Cameo’s founder and CEO Steven Galanis told the outlet that Mr Santos “is going to be an absolute whale,” and that his launch was among one of the most successful ever.
“Sarah Jessica Parker, Bon Jovi – he’s putting numbers up like that,” Mr Galanis said.
Mr Santos was expelled from the House earlier this month after over 100 Republicans joined almost all Democrats in voting to remove him from the chamber.
