Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel imitated rapper Snoop Dogg in 1996 for a parody song in which he dropped the N-word six times, according to Fox News.
Kimmel said during a 2013 podcast, which was obtained by Fox News, he had imitated the black rapper for a Christmas parody. Some of the lyrics include “fat [N-word] in a sleigh giving shit away” and “[N-word] in the manger.”
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In 2018, Jimmy Kimmel begged Tom Arnold to release a Trump ‘N-word’ tape. No tape has surfaced.However, in audio obtained by Fox this weekend, Kimmel imitates a black comedian (https://t.co/dN9pe8MN0y) and uses the ‘N-word’ six times. (https://t.co/yJ5gPDxygC). 1/2
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) June 22, 2020
In the 2013 podcast hosted by fellow comedian Adam Carolla, Kimmel admitted to imitating black people and also mimicked black comedian George Wallace during the show.
“This is when Snoop Dogg first came out, hit the scene, and I used to imitate him by only saying, ‘You know what I’m saying?’” Kimmel said during the interview.
“Jimmy, do you only do black people?” someone asked on the podcast.
“I prefer them, yes,” Kimmel responded.
The comedian announced last week that he was taking the summer off from hosting his late-night show after facing backlash for wearing blackface in an old, recurring skit on The Man Show.
“There’s nothing wrong,” he said. “My family’s healthy. I’m healthy. I just need a couple of months off,” he said.
In 2018, Kimmel urged comedian and actor Tom Arnold to release a tape he allegedly had of President Trump using the N-word.
“I want to hear this tape! Where is this tape?” Kimmel asked Arnold in 2018. “You keep saying you will! When? When he’s retired?”
The president was alleged to have used the slur when he hosted The Apprentice, but former employees of the show came out following the claims and said no such tape of Trump exists.
Kimmel has faced backlash since the Fox News report, including from Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
To be clear, I’m 100% against punishing comedians for jokes, even bad jokes from unfunny hack comedians like Jimmy Kimmel…but according to the left’s own woke rules that @jimmykimmel wants to force others to live by, it’s hard to see how @ABCNetwork allows him to keep his show. https://t.co/yYsC065pe1
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 22, 2020
Kimmel apologized for his impersonations in a statement given to the Washington Examiner.
“I have long been reluctant to address this, as I knew doing so would be celebrated as a victory by those who equate apologies with weakness and cheer for leaders who use prejudice to divide us. That delay was a mistake,” he said.
“On KROQ radio in the mid-90s, I did a recurring impression of the NBA player Karl Malone. In the late 90s, I continued impersonating Malone on TV. We hired makeup artists to make me look as much like Karl Malone as possible. I never considered that this might be seen as anything other than an imitation of a fellow human being, one that had no more to do with Karl’s skin color than it did his bulging muscles and bald head. I’ve done dozens of impressions of famous people, including Snoop Dogg, Oprah, Eminem, Dick Vitale, Rosie, and many others. In each case, I thought of them as impersonations of celebrities and nothing more. Looking back, many of these sketches are embarrassing, and it is frustrating that these thoughtless moments have become a weapon used by some to diminish my criticisms of social and other injustices,” Kimmel said.
His statement said that his vacation has been planned for over a year and that he will be back to work this fall.
