Jimmy Kimmel hardly resembles the guy we first met back in the late 90's on Comedy Central.

It's hard to imagine the same personality now taking politicians to task on healthcare reform used to host a show with bikini-clad "juggies" jumping on trampolines, but hey.

Reflecting on those "Man Show" days with Vulture, Kimmel says the show would very likely be a bigger hit now in our current climate:

I guess the Juggies would be proud. You’ve come a long way.

It probably looks like I have, anyway. We always said The Man Show’s audience was divided between people who thought it was funny and understood we were joking and other people who really thought we had some kind of an agenda.



And people who just watched for the Juggies.

Well, yeah, people wanted to see women jumping on trampolines.



Do you look back at The Man Show and cringe?

I look back at every show I’ve ever done and cringe. My vision of hell is a bunch of monitors with my old shows running on them. But yes, of course, and not necessarily for the reasons you think. I just think, Oh, we could’ve done that better. It was a show people loved, and I got to work with Adam [Carolla], which was a dream at the time, and we did a lot of funny stuff. We also did a lot of stupid stuff.



Could you get away with doing that show in 2017?

If we put The Man Show on today in its identical form, it would be an even bigger hit than it was back then. I believe that very strongly.



Why?

Because there’s more back to lash against. There’s more scrutiny. There’s more political correctness. That always offers more opportunity to run counter.



I don’t think people would be particularly kind to that show’s idea of humor.

It would absolutely result in a shitstorm, and there’s absolutely nothing better for ratings than a shitstorm.

Read the rest of Kimmel's excellent profile here.