Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel ran into a bit of an incendiary situation while helping to prepare his family’s Thanksgiving meal. And while many Americans nationwide probably engaged in figuratively inflammatory discussions over family issues and political differences of opinion, Kimmel’s situation was quite literally on fire — at least temporarily.
Kimmel shared an Instagram photo on Thursday afternoon showing singed hairs all over his forearm and along his hairline under a baseball cap. He included the following caption: “happy thanksgiving everyone. try not to burn your hair and eyebrow off lighting the oven!”
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Kimmel’s daughter Katie commented, “Again???” to which the comedian replied, “Yep. it’s now a holiday tradition.”
The Kimmels appeared to be referring to a Fourth of July incident that had involved an exploding grill and the loss of one eyebrow, some eyelashes, and part of his beard. He described what had happened in an appearance last year on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Today.com reported just after it went to air:
“I turned the gas on on the grill and then I went for a little walk to look for matches,” he said. “And then when I came back I thought, ‘Hmm, I should probably open the lid and air this thing out, maybe turn it off and start over again.’”
“And then I thought, ‘No, I’m not going to do that. What I’ll do is I’ll light a piece of paper on fire, then throw it into the grill.’ I did that, and there was a massive explosion in my face. I burned my beard off and my eyebrow off and my eyelashes off. And what other hair do I have?”
“Jesus. Fine line between funny and 3rd degree burns. Glad for everyone you fell on the funny side,” television producer Daniel Kellison added in the comments of Kimmel’s Thanksgiving photo.
Several responded by saying simply, “I can smell this picture,” and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver responded with several praying hand emojis and, “Oh nooooo !”
Another celebrity chef, Marcel Vigneron, added, “How’s that smell? Defined[sic] Been there… Made me realize why we have eyelashes! It so our eyelids don’t stick together, lol! Glad you’re all right chef! Happy cooking.”
The mishap did not appear to do any real damage to the food, however, and Kimmel shared a photo of his finished product a short time later.
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“Burnt hair-smoked turkey,” the comedian captioned his second photo.
In addition to feeding his own family for Thanksgiving, burnt hair notwithstanding, Kimmel and wife Molly McNearney also personally matched the donations made by others to the Los Angeles-based St. Joseph Center to help ensure that homeless families could have enough to eat for the Thanksgiving holiday.
McNearney had put out a call for donations just over a week earlier, tweeting, “If you have 30 extra bucks, you can feed a family this Thanksgiving. Jimmy and I will match every donation. Let’s feed some people!”
If you have 30 extra bucks, you can feed a family this Thanksgiving. Jimmy and I will match every donation. Let’s feed some people! https://t.co/dCSsdZa7lq
— Molly McNearney (@mollymcnearney) November 16, 2021
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“Thanks to everyone who gave to @stjosephctr – @mmcnearney and I matched your donations to feed 1300 families today – we are grateful that an organization like this exists – let’s do it again for xmas!,” Kimmel captioned another photo that showed people unloading pallets of turkeys and boxes of food.