Months after he apologized for previously wearing blackface , Jimmy Kimmel has found himself in hot water again.
He recently told a joke about ignoring politics that has some fans struggling to find the punchline.
RELATED STORIES
As a result, the late-night talk show host has been slammed online for being “privileged” and “tone-deaf.”
Earlier this week, Jimmy Kimmel dug up the first joke he ever made about former president Donald Trump.
He did so on Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live , which served as the 18th anniversary of his late-night show.
“Yes, it is about his hair,” Kimmel told the audience, setting the joke up.
The joke was told on January 13th, 2004, five days after Trump’s show, *The Apprentice* premiered.
“You know, they say it’s going to be the coldest week in two decades on the East Coast this week,” a younger-looking Kimmel says.
“It’s supposed to be minus-8 over the next couple days.”
Then came the punchline: “It’s so cold in New York, Donald Trump’s combover broke off.”
Modern-day Kimmel then shared some behind-the-scenes secrets about what went into that infamous joke.
“We rehearsed that all day,” Kimmel joked. An inauspicious start, but hey. “It was a simpler time.”
Kimmel also shared the first joke he ever made about President Joe Biden.
This was told back in 2008 after then-presidential candidate, Barack Obama, chose Biden as his potential Vice President.
“I have to say, after all the name-related problems this campaign has had, why Obama would pick a vice president with the last name ‘Biden’ is beyond me,” Kimmel said .
“It’s like they’re trying to make their ticket sound as much like ‘Osama bin Laden’ as possible,” he continued.
He carried on with his rather controversial remarks:
“They found the two guys in America whose names matched up most closely with the person we hate more than anyone in the world and they put them on the bumper sticker.”
But not every joke Jimmy makes gets rave reviews.
This was made more than evident recently when he rubbed fans the wrong way with a joke about ignoring politics.
“It feels good to only have to worry about a deadly pandemic now,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the controversial Donald Trump no longer being in office.
At first, some people agreed with Kimmel.
“It’s true – we now have someone working to end the chaos, not cause it,” wrote this user.
“We don’t have the burden of existential dread every day anymore,” added another.
But some fans took Jimmy’s tweet to mean that he believes that politics are irrelevant now.
For instance, user @proudsocialist pointed out how there are many other crises we have to deal with, including racial injustice, housing, and the climate.
Some believe that Jimmy’s tweet is bullying.
“So now we just have to pretend you didn’t show us bullying is not only OK but great when it’s aimed to someone you don’t like,” wrote one.
They’ve even called him privileged if a pandemic is all he has to worry about.
“I have a long list of mutual aid groups, bail funds, and others still in crisis you can afford to help if that’s all you’ve got on your worry list,” wrote this woman.
“Credit card bills, mortgage, electricity, gas, internet. That’s a list of things I’m worried about personally,” added another.
Others view his tweet as downplaying the deadly coronavirus. “Love you, truly, but this is a bad tweet,” one user replied.
“If this isn’t complete sarcasm then it is incredibly tone-deaf,” added another.
This certainly wouldn’t be the first time Jimmy got himself in hot water over a “joke.”
He had to apologize over the summer for an old clip of him performing in blackface to impersonate NBA player Karl Malone.
What do you think of Jimmy’s political tweet? Is it tone-deaf? Let us know in the comments below!
