Like any late night television host, comedian Jimmy Kimmel has attracted his fair share of controversy during his tenure. He’s made wildly inappropriate remarks, trafficked in racial humor, and for a moment, it recently appeared that this all finally caught up to him, as it looked like ABC binned him on a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
For those who have not watched it, the show ⏤ which does not actually honor its premise ⏤ was airing Monday night when at around nine and a half minutes into Kimmel’s monologue, a news cut-in graphic took over the screen. From there, Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, read a “statement” from the network claiming that it had decided to part ways with Kimmel after decades together, and wished him the best in the future.
Rodriguez followed up with a parody of Tucker Carlson being fired from Fox News, with comments advising Kimmel to not let the door hit him on the way out. Kimmel joked that it could have been worse. To be clear, this was a scripted comedy bit, not an actual firing, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t confusion online afterward.
Here’s some context, for the uninitiated:
So, no, Jimmy Kimmel was not really fired by ABC. For those who want to advocate for a real-life Kimmel firing, you could argue that his odd appearances in blackface earlier in his career, being rude to Megan Fox, or his stunt with Quinta Brunson when she won her Emmy all warrant renewed investigation. But a history of comedy shenanigans in questionable taste hasn’t been enough for Jimmy Kimmel to share Tucker Carlson’s on-air fate in real life. Not yet, anyway.