Jamie Foxx defends Jimmy Fallon after he apologised for blackface skit

Jamie Foxx has defended Jimmy Fallon after the comedian issued an apology for impersonating Chris Rock in blackface, in 2000.

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In the resurfaced clip, taken from an SNL sketch, the Tonight Show host can be seen wearing makeup in order to make himself look like black comedian, Chris Rock.

You can see footage from the controversial sketch below: 

In response to footage going viral on social media, Fallon has issued an apology to his 51.9 million Twitter followers, saying the sketch was "unquestionably offensive". Fallon wrote:

"In 2000, while on SNL, 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."

After E! News posted a report concerning the backlash and the JimmyFallonIsOverParty hashtag that duly started trending on social media, actor Jamie Foxx commented:

"Bro you ain’t got to apologise for sh*t… you are a comedian… and a great one at that. You did an incredible impersonation of Chris Rock… it was not blackface… we did a show called In Living Color where we did a character from every race… you are all the way good…. keep doing you my friend! You are necessary!!

Some of y’all didn’t even see the sketch… relax and laugh! It’s other muuuuphuckas out here that really don’t care bout ya… use that energy for them!!! But leave my mans alone [sic]."

In another comment, the 52-year-old stated that it's a "tough time" for comedians right now, adding "But this one is a stretch… let this one go. We got bigger fish to fry… #changecourse."

This comes after the death of George Floyd - an African-American man who was arrested by Minneapolis police on Monday, May 25th - for reportedly using a counterfeit $20 note in a store. While being detained, officer Derek Chauvin - a 19 year veteran of the force - knelt on his neck for a number of minutes, which resulted in Floyd losing consciousness, and later passing away.