Billy Eichner enlists Jimmy Kimmel and friends to make participatory democracy sexy again

On Thursday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Billy On The Street star Billy Eichner enlisted host Kimmel’s help in unveiling his new project intended to liven up the upcoming 2018 midterm elections. Especially targeting those darned millennials (who, according to Eichner, only turned out for the 2016 presidential election to the tune of a measly 12 per cent), Eichner introduced, for the first time anywhere, his plan to “Glam Up The Midterms.”

Teaming with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s comedy site, Funny Or Die, Eichner has created the term, hashtag, and website of that name to both encourage those disaffected young voters (and old voters, too, if they’re similarly disaffected) to get involved with congressional races this November, and to undertake an ambitious voter education campaign in the nine months until the November 6th balloting. And Eichner’s not alone, as he played the “Glam Up 2018" campaign’s initial recruitment video, which featured Kimmel alongside such other late-night hosts as Robin Thede, Seth Meyers, Sarah Silverman, James Corden, Andy Cohen, Chelsea Handler, Conan O’Brien, and John Oliver, all of whose low-tech testimonials were glammed-up with CGI golden confetti and super-glam graphics. Describing himself as a three-time Emmy nominee and an American citizen “in that order,” Eichner said that he and his celebrity pals will “pinpoint hotly contested districts” in order to drive up voting numbers. (People in Texas-23, Pennsylvania-7, and Virginia-10—it looks like you’re up first.)

And, sure, the infamously vocal Eichner isn’t shy about his feelings concerning Donald Trump and the Republican Party—he’s not a fan—but, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he told the host that, hey, informing the electorate is a goal in itself, regardless of which candidate or party people choose to vote for. Still, by targeting those darned millennials (“I’m sure that’s very annoying,” barked Eichner, “but deal with it, okay? It’s a shorthand term.”), Eichner and company are clearly hoping that their “sexy,” “glamorous” sustained voter education and mobilization campaign will, indeed, increase the turnout of younger people whose politics tend to differ wildly from their older, wrinklier, more racist, crabbier, more likely to share Russian Facebook bots, decidedly less glamorous elders.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 6, 2018. To learn more about how to “Glam Up The Midterms,” check out the website at glamupthemidterms.com.