After 20 years of impersonating Chris Rock on “Saturday Night Live” which he did in blackface, James Thomas “Jimmy” Fallon, an American comedian has tendered an apology.
After the ‘SNL’ clip from the year 2000 resurfaced early this week, the hashtag #jimmyfallonisoverparty started trending on Twitter and now, the late-night talk show host is apologizing. In the sketch which was aired on TV in 2000, Jimmy came out in blackface dressed as the famous comedian to join Regis Philbin, played by Darrell Hammond, and cracked some Chris Rock-esque jokes.
Fallon says, “I made a terrible decision to do an impersonation of Chris Rock while in blackface; There is no excuse for this, I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.”
However, Fallon hosts ‘The Tonight Show’ on NBC, which many online viewers were eager to point out is the same network that fired Megyn Kelly in 2018 for making controversial comments defending the use of blackface. No word yet from NBC on if there will be any consequences for Jimmy.
