Hot Pockets heiress sentenced in college admissions scandal — here's why people want comedian Jim Gaffigan to weigh in

Raechal Shewfelt
·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment
Updated ·3 min read

When Hot Pockets heiress Michelle Janavs was sentenced to five months in prison for her role in the college admissions scandal on Tuesday, all anyone could talk about was Jim Gaffigan.

Michelle Janavs was sentenced for her role in the college admission scandal Tuesday in Boston. (Photo: Scott Eisen/Bloomberg)
Michelle Janavs was sentenced for her role in the college admissions scandal Tuesday in Boston. (Photo: Scott Eisen/Bloomberg)

The comedian famously did a bit about the microwavable sandwiches on his 2006 album, Beyond the Pale, in which he imitated the jingle. “I’ve never eaten a Hot Pocket and thought, ‘I’m glad I ate that,’” he joked. “I’m always like, I’m gonna die!’”

So when Janavs — whose family developed the snacks and has since sold the company — made headlines, people thought of Gaffigan pretty quickly. They called on him to react and, of course, they made plenty of jokes.

Gaffigan did not immediately respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.

Despite the jokes, Janavs’s case is serious. The Newport Beach, Calif., resident pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit both money laundering and wire fraud, for promising to pay Rick Singer $300,000 to have her daughters admitted to the University of Southern California. She paid $100,000 to have one daughter’s ACT scores corrected and another $200,000 to have a second daughter falsely identified as a beach volleyball recruit, according to a sentencing memorandum obtained by CNN.

Along with the prison sentence, Janavs was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and serve two years of supervised release after she gets out.

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