Adam Carolla defends Jimmy Kimmel over blackface: ‘What if everyone simultaneously stopped apologizing’

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As a man of consistent principles, comedian Adam Carolla has no qualms about defending fellow comedian and longtime friend Jimmy Kimmel, a man with no principles, now that Kimmel is facing the wrath of a cancel culture mob he helped create.

Speaking late Saturday on Fox News’ “Watters World,” Carolla said bluntly that society must learn to differentiate between acts of actual racial malice and acts of comedy, i.e., comedians dressing up as a black person as part of a sketch or using the n-word.

Listen:


(Source: Fox News)

I can tell you that we have to make a definitive difference between blackface and doing a character who happens to be black,” he said.

There’s a context for it. It’s fine Jimmy Kimmel’s doing Karl Malone, Jimmy Kimmel’s doing Oprah, Jimmy Kimmel’s doing Snoop Dogg. There’s a context. It’s comedy!

It’s “comedy” that’s made Kimmel public enemy number one to identity politics obsessed social justice warriors who feel any instance of a white person donning so-called “blackface” merits complete cultural and career cancellation.

It’s also comedy that’s drawn the attention of conservatives who, though they support free speech and oppose cancel culture, are eager to see the same standards they’re invariably held to be applied to a hypocritical far-leftist like Kimmel.

Carolla’s initial remarks prompted host Jesse Watters to note the historical implications of blackface.

“You understand that black Americans, when they see white Americans in many contexts, whether it’s comedy or anything, when they put darker makeup or whatever on their skin, it really has a negative effect because of the history,” he said.

Carolla acknowledged this point but essentially argued it’s contingent on those who take easy offense to learn not to be offended by every little thing on Earth, to paraphrase.

I get it, but they shouldn’t,” he said. “They should look at everything in a context. What is going on we’re going to have to start speaking about the difference between what is intentional and what isn’t.”

As an example, he brought up the “Bubba Smollett” hoax. For reasons that may never be understood, black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace assumed that a “noose” that had been found in his garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway had been left there intentionally.

An investigation later proved that there had been nothing intentional about it:

“Katy Perry makes shoes that are black and puts a smiley face on it. Is the shoe doing blackface? I mean, we’ve lost our minds!” Carolla continued. “The adults need to start speaking up.”

From there the discussion turned to Carolla’s book.

What Carolla said Saturday certainly didn’t mark the first instance of him standing up to the increasingly illiberal, irrational political correctness, identity politics and cancel culture that’s taken root in mainstream American culture.

Speaking with FNC host Tucker Carlson two years ago, he urged Americans to stand up to the madness by not apologizing anymore.

“What if everyone simultaneously stopped apologizing, stopped backpedaling, stopped walking back tweets when they were quoting Winston Churchill and then they had to apologize?” he said.

A month earlier, astronaut Scott Kelly had apologized to outraged liberal Democrats after he shared an otherwise unoffensive quote from legendary 20th century British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to Twitter.

“What if it all stopped on Monday?” Carolla continued. “There would be no more business on Tuesday for the people who want to shut you down. If we did it and we provided a uniform front — this would end immediately.”

Unfortunately for Kimmel, he chose to discount his former buddy’s advice. Last Tuesday, he issued a lengthy apology for the sin of having performed comedy.

“On KROQ radio in the mid-90s, I did a recurring impression of the NBA player Karl Malone,” he said. “In the late 90s, I continued impersonating Malone on TV. We hired makeup artists to make me look as much like Karl Malone as possible.”

“I never considered that this might be seen as anything other than an imitation of a fellow human being, one that had no more to do with Karl’s skin color than it did his bulging muscles and bald head.”

As Carolla noted Saturday, it really did have nothing to do with skin color. Yet Kimmel apologized for it anyway.

“There is nothing more important to me than your respect, and I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke,” he said.

Look:

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