Jimmy Kimmel returns to late night with lengthy monologue in first show since strike

Jimmy Kimmel returned to the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" stage on Monday night, saying he was grateful to be back following the end of the Writers Guild of America strike.

After an opening skit involving guest Arnold Schwarzenegger and a "Terminator"-esque "you'll be back" joke, Kimmel took to the stage five months after his last show.

He said he found a quartet of pickleball players on his Hollywood studio turf, joking his studio had been rented out as courts for the popular sport during the labor dispute that brought Hollywood to a standstill. He also took a moment to reintroduce himself to the audience.

"In case you've forgotten, my name is Jimmy. I've been off the air for five months. … We've been gone so long 'The Bachelor' is now a grandfather," he said, referring to "The Golden Bachelor."

"We missed so much good stuff, huh? Donald Trump got arrested four times while [we] were out – [once for] classified documents, once [for interfering] in the election, once for Jan. 6, and once for shooting Tupac -- allegedly," he added.

Kimmel then took a moment to thank the crew who stood by the writer's guild during the strike.

"This was a big win for the little guy and a big win for the chubby guy and the hairy dude and the weird girl who doesn't make eye contact," he joked.

After reuniting with his security guard-and-sidekick, Guillermo, Kimmel said people have already started offering advice on how to do the show again.

"Here's how I knew that we were really back to work: Our parents are texting us notes about the show again. One of our writers got this message from his mother this morning at 6:11 a.m. She wrote, 'Please don't make tonight's monologue all about Trump.' Well, Sorry, Josh's mom, that is a no-can-do."

As his lengthy monologue continued, Kimmel touched on some of the former president's recent appearances and House Rep. Lauren Boebert's visit to see "Beetlejuice," which made headlines after she was removed from the theater.

He then wrapped things up by inserting himself into various news moments from the last five months. For example, he pretended to speak to the news media as a passenger on the Delta flight, which had to be diverted last month after a passenger had diarrhea. Kimmel, though, blamed his wife, Molly McNearney, a co-executive producer of the show, for the incident. She was in the studio and gave him a thumbs down for the joke.