After the news about comedy legend Don Rickles made headlines, celebrities from the industry shared their grief over his demise and paid homage to the funny man. Rickles, 90, passed away on Thursday in Los Angeles.
TV show host Jimmy Kimmel took the news a little hard as he paid his respects to Rickles on his show. The Jimmy Kimmel Live host, who was clearly overwhelmed by the news of the comedian's death, started off his monologue informing viewers that he is going to cry.
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"This is not going to be our usual show tonight," Kimmel began. "And I'll tell you right up front that I'm going to cry — probably a lot, which is embarrassing. But I'm not good with this sort of thing and I'm sorry — especially to those of you who came here to see the show in person, because that's probably not what you came for. But we lost someone that we and I love very much today," he said.
Remembering the day the comedian appeared on Kimmel's show, the TV show host said, "I was fortunate enough to — not only have Don on this show as my guest — but also to become close to him and his wife Barbara, which was a lot of fun for me."
An emotional Kimmel also remembered Rickles' first appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2006. "It was so exciting. I felt like I was in some kind of talk show host fantasy camp. Sitting behind a desk while Don Rickles made fun of me. It was like being a real talk show host for a minute. For 20 minutes, it was like being Johnny Carson," he recalled.
After the first appearance, Rickles went on to make 17 more appearances on Kimmel's show in the years that followed.
Kimmel recalled a number of instances with his idol before he closed his monologue with a video tribute. The video previewed a collection of the best moments from Rickles' appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Watch the video below.
Here are few videos featuring the Late Comedian on Kimmel's show:
