Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci: These are just a few of the political figures who have been keeping up a side hustle by wishing random grandmas a happy birthday on Cameo. So it was hardly surprising that within days of being expelled from Congress, serial fabulist/now-former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) began hawking his own well wishes on the video messaging platform for $400 apiece (that’s up from $200 when he first began).
We know, we know—allowing Santos to profit from his endless series of lies is no laughing matter, and Jimmy Kimmel understands that, too. But the late night host’s curiosity regarding just how low the disgraced congressman would stoop to snatch up a couple of C-notes got the best of him, which he admitted caused an internal dilemma. “Because, on one hand, you hate to give money to a guy like George Santos,” said Kimmel. “But on the other, eh, pretty good chance he has your credit card information already.”
So Kimmel took a chance and submitted a number of Cameo requests to Santos under different names to see which ones he would respond to.
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While we don’t have a full answer to that exact question yet, here’s what Kimmel did determine: Put a handful of words in front of Santos’ face and he will pretty much just read them, with no regard for or interest in the context.
Kimmel didn’t use his real name, but promised that he’d be “parceling” out clips from his Santos project over the next week. On Thursday, he kicked his show-and-tell off with three full clips of successful Cameo requests, including one in which he asked the alleged volleyball wunderkind:
“George, please congratulate my friend Gary Fortuna for winning the Clearwater Florida Beef Eating Contest. He ate almost 6 pounds of loose ground beef in under 30 minutes – which was a new record! He’s not feeling great right now, but the doctor thinks he will be released from the hospital soon. Please wish him a speedy recovery!” “Will Santos say it,” was Kimmel’s question—though you probably already know the answer: of course.
Other Cameos—including two that looked as if they were filmed from the back of a getaway car—included a congratulations to Brenda “on the successful cloning of her beloved schnauzer Adolf” and a very confused husband who got Santos all mixed up with the following request:
"My name is Ron. Please tell my wife to call me George. Not George, my name is Ron. You are George. Just tell her to call me George. But again, Ron. I haven't seen Swoosie or the kids since my disco birthday and it’s not fair. She says I burned down the shed shooting off fireworks, but I was trying to scare a bear away. It isn’t fair. I love my Swoosie, and I just want our family together on Christmas or if not that, Valentine’s Day, or Flag. Watch out for bears." Kimmel promised that he “ordered about a dozen more of these—so join us all next week for the rest of them!”
