Jimmy Kimmel Proves People Don't Know What a Gary Johnson Is

Jimmy Kimmel hits the streets of LA to prove that most people have no clue who Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson is.

September 30, 2016

Quick question. Who the hell is Gary Johnson? This particular Johnson, not to be confused with the other Gary Johnsons in your life, is the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States in this year's increasingly depressing election. Perhaps you heard about his recent flubs in which he failed to know what Aleppo is and struggled on live TV to name a single foreign leader he respected. According to Jimmy Kimmel, that second one is hella forgivable given that most people don't know Johnson's name either.

To prove this, Kimmel sent his team out to the streets of Los Angeles to ask people who the hell this Gary Johnson guy is. "While Gary Johnson might not know the names of any foreign leaders, in fairness, very few people know the name Gary Johnson," Kimmel said on Thursday's show. "So this afternoon we conducted an unscientific but satisfying poll." This poll got off to a great start, with the very first answer to the difficult inquiry "Do you know who Gary Johnson is?" being an annoyingly murmured "No."

This pattern of "no" continued vigorously until one dude offered this exciting theory: "It's like a mix between Gary Coleman and Magic Johnson." As thrilling as the hybrid theory is, that is simply not true. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson is not a mix between Gary Coleman (RIP) and Magic Johnson.

But back to that whole foreign leader fumble. In a statement on his official website Thursday, Johnson seemingly referenced the recent spat of unflattering headlines by taking aim at "pundits disguised as journalists" who were working to "discredit" his campaign. "To survive in today's business of politics, they've traded analysis for opinion," Johnson said. "Research for regurgitation. And journalism for propaganda."