Jimmy Kimmel is under fire for conceding that he used the N-word several times while imitating the rapper Snoop Dog for a track in a Christmas album back in 1996. He also admitted to impersonating the African-American comedian, George Wallace.
Kimmel, who is due to host the Emmy Awards on the 20th September, made the admission in a January 2013 podcast obtained this weekend by Fox News.
Per the publication, in the podcast, Kimmel changed his speech pattern in a bid to imitate the voice of Wallace, in what the host Adam Corolla referred to as the talk show host's "crazy black voice".
Further, Kimmel impersonated Snoop Dogg's on a comedic 1996 Christmas album, titled, A Family Christmas in Your a**. Kimmel wrote all of the material and co-produced it with "Kevin & Bean", a DJ duo who hosted a radio show on KROQ-FM in California.
In the expletive-filled track, a singer calls Santa a "fat [n-word] in a sleigh giving sh*t away" and references a "[n-word] in the manger."
"Me and my [n-word] down in LBC, we'll smoke that m*therf*ck*ng Christmas tree," one of the song's lyrics said.
In the 2013 podcast, Carolla said "Jimmy is doing Snoop" in the track, and Kimmel responded: "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?'"
"Jimmy, do you only do black people?" someone else can be heard asking on the podcast. ''I prefer them, yes,” Kimmel replied, reportedly in jest.
This comes after the 52-year-old announced that he was taking "a couple months off" from presenting work this summer, following the emergence of several clips where he can be seen in blackface.
Kimmel made the announcement on June the 18th. "I've been doing this job for almost 18 years," he said. "I've done 3,130 shows. And there's nothing wrong, my family is healthy, I'm healthy, I just need a couple of months off."
Kimmel wore blackface several times during his time on the Comedy Central series, The Man Show, which ran from 1999 to 2004. These included impersonations of NBA player, Karl Malone, and a parody of Oprah Winfrey, called Oprah Jimfrey.
Donald Trump Jr. has since taken to Twitter to criticize Kimmel, writing: "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.''
