The Late Night host continues to have no accountability for his past and present racially violent “comedic” content.
Jimmy Kimmel, 54, knows better. Year after year, one late-night segment after another, he’s been let off the hook and allowed to continue his deranged and racist antics, for an estimated 1.84 million viewers, on his seriously un-funny show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, Asians and Asian Americans experienced an increase in xenophobic crimes and were ridiculously blamed for the current state of the world. In early March of last year, multiple Asian Women and a few persons of color were gunned down at three spas in Atlanta, Georgia. Kimmel, being his usual disrespectful self, compared the Coronavirus variants to the boy-band craze of the ‘90s and early 2000s. “You had the big ones like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, and then that mutated into O-Town and 98 Degrees. The JoBros popped up, Big Time Rush, they kept splitting off in different directions, eventually One Direction,” he spewed. “And they took pieces, and it popped up all over the world until eventually, we get to one that’s so contagious it destroys all life on earth.” This monologue resulted in Kimmel being accused of racism. Not only is he an insensitive man, but he’s also recklessly uncouth.
Though his verbal crimes against those of Asian descent are an adequate display of his stupidity, his crimes against Black people are also common in his performances up until recently. In the ‘90s comedy show The Man Show, Kimmel appeared twice in Blackface, mocking Oprah Winfrey and NBA star Karl Malone. Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup in which white actors portray Black people as racist stereotypes. This form of makeup was popularized during the 19th century and has since seen a resurgence sporadically during the 20th and 21st centuries, mainly from white comedians and even some politicians like former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam have done.
Nearly twenty years later, Kimmel issued an apology, calling his horrid portrayal of Black people an “embarrassment,” according to CNN.
As of late, Kimmel has found himself buried in the same ditch he’s made for himself for well over 20 years in the entertainment industry. Most recently, at the 74th Emmy Awards, a night of unimaginable decadence and a true celebratory moment for so many Black artists, the “comic” himself decided to make a Black woman’s success his comic bit.
Philadelphia native and now Emmy Award-winning, Quinta Brunson had just won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for her sitcom, Abbott Elementary. During her acceptance speech, Kimmel played dead, lying incredibly still beside her copper and bronze evening gown. Thankfully, the camera remained on Brunson’s beaming face. Backstage, she was asked about her feelings toward the man below her, she replied that it “didn’t bother me that much.”
That same night, Kimmel received backlash for his childish antics and was fiercely scolded by Brunson’s co-star Sheryl Lee Ralph, who also won her first Emmy that evening. Ralph noted that she spoke to Kimmel backstage and told him how wrong his actions were, and that “he understood” her point. The blatant disrespect and outward disregard for the communities he’s verbally harmed have been incredibly poignant in knowing that Kimmel will only continue his rampage.
Two days after the Emmy’s, Brunson appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and was given a mediocre apology. “I’m sorry I did do that, actually,” Kimmel said. “And also, the last thing I would ever want to do was upset you because I think so much of you. And I think you know that — I hope you know that.”
It sounds like the common apology that Kimmel has always given, and will perhaps always give. The “I’m-sorry-you-feel-that-way-so-what” script that’s been overdone and lost its flavor by himself and so many others. Kimmel is exactly like his comedic presence – undercooked and never had any flavor to begin with.