Jimmy Kimmel has said he regrets apologising for a joke made during his late-night show in 2013, in which a child suggested killing everyone in China to solve the national debt. In an interview with Vulture, the 58-year-old host said he issued the apology under pressure from his network ABC and its parent company, the Walt Disney Company.
“For the good of the Disney company, I took that bullet,” Kimmel told the publication. He added that he does not consider apologising a defeat, but felt compelled to do so in this instance.
Kimmel has apologised for other controversial moments, including blackface impressions of Oprah Winfrey and NBA player Karl Malone in the 1990s. However, he said he pushed back against the idea of apologising for something he did not believe crossed a line, stating: “One of the things we talked about when I first got suspended was that I can’t do this show if I’m going to be micromanaged.”
Last September, Kimmel was suspended by ABC for a week after comments about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He has also repeatedly criticised President Donald Trump, recently joking that First Lady Melania Trump had the “glow of an expectant widow” days before an attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Kimmel said Disney did not require him to apologise for that joke, only to “respond and move on.”
In his monologue, Kimmel argued the joke was misinterpreted as a call to violence, insisting it referenced the age difference between Donald Trump, who will turn 80 this month, and Melania, 56. He added it was “not, by any stretch... a call to assassination.”
