Ask A Genius 1460: Most Creative People He Has Worked With: Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/07/15
Rick Rosner names Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney as the most creative individuals he has worked with. He praises Kimmel’s comedic ingenuity and long-term success, as well as McNearney’s exceptional writing and production skills. Rosner reflects on how true creativity involves not just ideas, but the ability to realize them.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Who is the most creative person you have worked with, Rick?
Rick Rosner: Kimmel and his wife are up there—from a practical standpoint—in terms of creativity. Kimmel has a multitude of funny ideas, and through a combination of hard work, talent, and a small quantity of luck, he has built himself a substantial workshop to explore those ideas over the past twenty-two years. Even before that, he co-created Crank Yankers and The Man Show.
I was thinking about some of the things Kimmel came up with. One of his ideas was hilarious: you are familiar with infomercials. They sell some gimmicky product—a vegetable slicer that cuts things in a new way, or some exercise equipment.
Often, they include a bunch of extras in the background—especially in fitness ads—just regular people demonstrating that “anyone” can do it. Well, about twenty years ago, Kimmel thought it would be funny to be one of those background extras.
So he had someone reach out to infomercial companies on his behalf, even though he already had his late-night show at the time. Moreover, they put him in the second or third row of people exercising.
He did not publicize it at all. He just quietly left himself in there to be discovered among a group of anonymous people. I think that is freaking hilarious. So, he is super creative.
TV shows have bookkeeping systems. They track scripts, bits, segments—basically, every creative idea that comes up during the production process.
On a late-night show, thousands of ideas get pitched every year. Some are produced, some are not. However, they all go into the tracking system—because otherwise, it would be chaos.
So, I used to look into the system to see how I was doing—how my contributions compared to those of everyone else.
Moreover, honestly, I have to say that Molly was—and probably still is—the most effective writer in the history of the show.
She consistently came up with great ideas and knew how to bring them to fruition.
She eventually became one of the two head writers. Moreover, this was before she ever started dating Kimmel.
She got that position based purely on talent because she was one of the most capable writers on staff.
At one point, I pitched her an idea—she was my boss at the time—and I thought it was my job to bring ideas.
However, she looked at me and said, “How would you produce that?”
Moreover, I just went, “What?”
Because I did not want to think about that.
I wanted to pitch the idea and get credit for it.
Moreover, she goes, “Where would you shoot it? How would you get the people? How would you do it?” Moreover, I was like—whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
She was making me think about all the things I should have been thinking about all along—but I had been lazy about it.
Being creative is not just about generating ideas.
Being creative is also figuring out how to make those ideas producible.
So, to answer your question, the people who come to mind immediately are Jimmy and Molly.
Just incredibly effective at their jobs.
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