Wait, does George Santos’ fraud case against Jimmy Kimmel actually make sense?

George Santos is suing Jimmy Kimmel for fraud.

That’s either the joke or the point in the timeline where irony is murdered by absurdity. Mr. Santos is the disgraced Republican who was expelled from Congress in December for — wait for it — fraud.

He’s probably working on a comeback bio right now: “I invented Ozempic as the dean at Johns Hopkins and faked the moon landing at the urging of my father, Martin Luther King Jr. I have won 17 gold medals at the Olympics and starred as Don Draper in ‘Mad Men.’ I can go 96 hours without blinking.”

Santos has churned out more lies than Lego makes bricks. But he is now accusing Kimmel of “fraudulent inducement.”

It’s as if the sun sued the moon for being too hot.

Bloomberg Law posted the civil complaint filed in New York.

Quote: “At the heart of this dispute lies the deliberate deception and wrongful appropriation of the Plaintiff’s digital content by the Defendants (Santos is also suing ABC and Disney), orchestrated through the platform Cameo.com, where celebrities and public figures are meant to connect with their fans through personalized video messages.”

Santos turned to Cameo after getting the heave-ho from politics. He currently charges $473 (Canadian) to send his “fans” videos in which they submit the scripts. Birthday greetings, wedding speeches, roasts, pep talks — George will say it if you pay it.

This gave Kimmel an idea. What if he created aliases and hired Santos to record wacky messages? In court documents, these 14 video requests included: “George please congratulate my mom Brenda on the successful cloning of her beloved schnauzer Adolf.” “George can you please congratulate my legally blind niece Julia on passing her driving test.” “Hey George. My friend Heath just came out as a Furry and I’d love for you to tell him that his friends and family all accept him. His ‘fursona’ is a platypus mixed with a beaver. He calls it a Beav-a-pus.”

Kimmel later aired five such videos in a bit called, “Will Santos Say It?”

That’s where this gets interesting. Yes, Santos is a cultural punching bag of his own making. But does he have a point here? I defer to the lawyers who specialize in social media and terms of service. Did Kimmel’s “Fake Requests” infringe upon Santos’ copyright by violating Cameo’s “personal use” licence that prohibits commercial gain?

Santos is requesting a jury trial and is seeking $150,000 in damages for each video that aired. He also wants to be reimbursed for legal fees and an injunction so the videos he recorded for Kimmel are never broadcast or streamed again.

One thing is clear. If this goes to trial, the cross-examination will be a doozy: “Mr. Santos, you claim you were defrauded. But did you not lie about your own education, employment and family background? Did you not use campaign donations to pay for Botox, OnlyFans and Hermès? Sir, is there any part of your stated existence that is factually accurate?

“Is your name even George Santos?”

The implications are intriguing for both comedy and the law.

If Kimmel made his requests using the screen name “Jimmy,” would that be bulletproof? You can see both sides on this one. Santos believed he was recording videos for random normies, not a TV host. But he was also not obliged to record any videos. If a prankster asked Snoop Dogg to film a birthday greeting for David Duke, I guarantee the rapper would take a hard pass.

Santos alleges Kimmel “misrepresented himself and his motives” to ridicule the plaintiff’s “gregarious personality.” This raises a bigger question not in the court documents: why can’t George Santos just go away already?

He entered public office by deceiving voters. Then he got kicked out after his deception was exposed. That should be a wrap. See you later, Georgie Boy. Good luck in your next career as you colonize Mars or reinvent the zipper.

But these MAGA Republicans are blind to exit signs because they are beyond shameless. Every accusation is projection. Every boo-hoo is a confession. They have spent years watching Dear Leader get away with lying every hour and now they lie every day.

That’s all the shambolic GOP is these days: one big lie-a-palooza.

If Lauren Boebert thought she could win re-election in a new district by claiming to be a distant relative of George Washington, she’d be campaigning in a powdered wig with a flintlock pistol concealed in her fishnet stockings. If Marjorie Taylor Greene thought she could raise a few bucks with a deep fake video of Hunter Biden having sex with a vacuum cleaner, she’d now be doctoring images lifted from Dyson brochures.

Lindsey Graham vowed to support Ukraine until “the end.” It seems “the end” means whenever Dear Leader flashes the stink-eye because now Mr. Graham has gone wobbly on supporting a country that was invaded by Russia and has proven again why he is a mendacious jellyfish drifting in the toxic rivers of Trumpville.

Santos’ Cameo bio is “Former Congressional Icon.”

But forget Hermès. He’s more like herpes — he just refuses to go away.

The lawyers must now sort out his lawsuit against Jimmy Kimmel.

But in the court of public opinion, George Santos will always be a joke.