Jimmy Kimmel mocked President Donald Trump on Sunday night by unleashing a list of some of his most memorable insults as he picked up a Peabody Award.
“I called our president ‘Fattyshack.’ And ‘Blob the Builder.’ And ‘Lie-ger Woods.’ And the ‘Hungry Hungry Hypocrite.’ ‘Our Fondling Father.’ ‘Mar-a-Lardo.’ ‘Nelson Tandela.’ And ‘Nostra-Dumbass.’ And somehow, we got a Peabody out of it,” Kimmel said, according to Variety. “This country really has gone to shit.”
Kimmel was yanked off the air by ABC last year over comments he made about the suspect in the Charlie Kirk assassination. However, he was back on the air in days after a public outcry ― and after fans canceled their subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu in protest.
The Peabody Award announcement cited Kimmel’s return as “a master class in public apologia” and said he was given the prize for “reminding us that comedy and satire are vital ― yet also threatening ― forms of democratic speech.”
But Kimmel on Sunday night said it shouldn’t be that way.
“Making jokes about the president in America shouldn’t win you a prize,” Kimmel said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “We have the right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to criticize and satirize our leaders.”
Kimmel praised those who came to his defense.
“I watched as millions of people, even some from across the aisle, objected. They spoke up, they marched, they canceled their subscriptions to ‘Star Wars,’ because they refused to allow our freedoms to be bulldozed like the East Wing of the White House,” he said.
That last comment was a reference to Trump’s decision to knock down the East Wing to build the massive ballroom that he’s been obsessing over.