Jimmy Kimmel broke down in tears while paying tribute to his childhood best friend, Cleto Escobedo III, after his death Tuesday.

“We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years and I’ve had to do some hard monologues along the way, but this one’s the hardest because late last night, early this morning, we lost someone very special who was much too young to go,” the emotional comedian told his audience on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday.

Kimmel then shared how he and Escobedo became inseparable after they met as neighbors in Spring Valley, Nev., in 1977.

“There was a boy who lived down my block … lived across the street and two houses over. His name was Cleto but we all called him Jr.,” the talk show host shared.

“We had so many adventures. We would laugh so hard. We had our own language tha

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