Jimmy Kimmel used to be funny, I swear he did. Remember “The Man Show” with Kimmel and the much funnier Adam Carolla? Absolute gold! Of course, if you tried to pull off a show about beer drinking and women on trampolines now you would likely be exiled far away from Hollywood, which might be a good thing all things considered. Kimmel was even good on “Too Late With Adam Carolla” back in the mid 2000’s. Come to think of it, Kimmel has only been good when riding Adam Carolla’s coat tails.
Kimmel parlayed his success with Carolla into a late-night show, and the rest is leftist history. Ironically good late-night television is history as well, as the genre never fully recovered from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. At this point it’s long TDS. Kimmel has spent the last several years raging against Donald Trump and doing cringe sketches on Covid while telling poorly written political jokes. Not good. The Emmy Awards were just held, and predictably Kimmel lost to someone named John Oliver (that’s how bad it’s gotten), so when Jimmy was set to present the Outstanding Writer award with Will Arnett, he pulled perhaps the most awkward stunt since a certain slap earlier this year. Check this out from Entertainment Weekly:
When Quinta Brunson won her first Emmy, for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Abbott Elementary’s pilot, she accepted the award from Will Arnett and Jimmy Kimmel.
After losing yet again to John Oliver, the late-night host left his body, as Arnett explained, once he had dragged Kimmel onto the stage. Kimmel remained committed to the bit even as Brunson retrieved her hardware and she gingerly stepped over him on her way to the mic.
Every woman in the background is NOT amused Jimmy Kimmel. Trash. #Emmys2022
You took away from Quinta’s moment. https://t.co/RTH3VLwJNd
— BlackHawkSCorp (@BlackHawkSCorp) September 13, 2022
It should be noted that Brunson is a black writer and actress, and Kimmel is a rich, middle aged white man. Anyone else see the problem here? Instead of allowing Brunson to have the spotlight for her achievement, Kimmel made it all about him and his loss to John Oliver.
Brunson, the writer of “Abbot Elementary” handled the situation with as much grace and humor as she could. Rather than “accidentally” give Kimmel a shot to the riblets with her high heel, she attempted to play along. It should be noted as well that “Abbot Elementary” is one of a few watchable shows on network television, so Brunson should’ve been allowed to bask in her achievement rather than share it with failing late night host Kimmel.
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Backstage in the press room after her big win, Brunson said “the bit didn’t bother me that much,”
“Tomorrow, maybe I’ll be mad at him,” she added, joking, “I’m gonna be on his show on Wednesday, so I might punch him in the face. We’ll see what happens.”
The optics on Kimmel’s stunt are terrible. I’m shocked that in today’s climate no one told him that it was a bad idea, unless he and Arnett cooked it up last second, in which case Arnett should’ve definitely opted out.
The fallout is going to be bad, and perhaps it should, but maybe Jimmy Kimmel will learn a lesson and not make everything about himself in the future.