Jimmy Kimmel Is Feuding With Sean Hannity And It’s Heating Up Fast

By Joe Berkowitz

 

What: A war of ideologically opposed words playing out across TV stations

 

Who: Jimmy Kimmel and Sean Hannity

Why we care: Fox News pundit and noted Trump sounding board Sean Hannity is willing to put up with a lot in the name of towing the party line. The misogyny of former colleagues like Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes, for example, is not worth denouncing in his estimation. However, Jimmy Kimmel apparently crossed a red line recently when he made a joke at the expense of Melania Trump. The nerve! Such insolence! How dare a comedian make fun of the First Lady–even though A) her immigration path contradicts her husband’s hardline position on immigration, and B) before she became First Lady, she helped spread her husband’s racist birther lie on TV.

Kimmel joked on Tuesday’s show that Melania had not had time to set up the elaborate Easter decorations as she was too busy digging “an escape tunnel.” He also mocked her Eastern European accent. Considering these relatively tame jokes, Hannity’s fiery reaction on the following night’s Fox News broadcast feels perhaps a touch out of proportion.

“Jimmy, you’re a despicable disgrace,” Hannity said, perhaps reacting not just to the comedian’s barbs about the First Lady, but to Kimmel’s entire last year of emerging activism–from his outspoken stance on healthcare to his Oscar monologue, which took a memorable dig at VP Mike Pence.

Immediately, the media begin to declare a burgeoning feud between Kimmel and Hannity, and the former proved willing to play along, zeroing in on the latter’s use of the term “ass clown” to describe him.

“This is the guy who defended the multiple-alleged pedophile Roy Moore,” Kimmel said. “And I’m a despicable disgrace. I’m the ass clown. Here’s the thing, if I’m an ass clown, and I might very well be, you, Sean, are the whole ass circus. You’re the juggler, you’re the trapeze artist, you are the ass lion tamer and the ass human cannonball all jammed into one little car. You are the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey of Ass Clownsmanship.”

 

Because all dumb media wars will continue to escalate until the moment people stop paying attention, Hannity had some retaliatory words ready after Kimmel’s show aired. Around midnight, Hannity began tweeting out old videos from Kimmel’s tenure on The Man Show on Comedy Central 18 years ago, likening the host to “Harvey Weinstein Jr.” for some reason.

Nobody is arguing that The Man Show was in good taste, least of all the 2018 edition of Jimmy Kimmel. However, the idea of likening the misogynist antics of that show to the proclivities of a known rapist is pure smear. It’s a good thing nobody on Fox News has ever said or done anything sexist on air, though, otherwise Hannity would have egg all over his face! Oh, wait.

Look for this feud to continue on Hannity tonight and on Monday and possibly until the next major headline-grabbing moment in the Stormy Daniels saga.

 

Fast Company

(114)