Sean Hannity made an on-air appeal to Disney CEO Bob Iger in a rant criticizing jokes Jimmy Kimmel made about Tesla.
The comedian set off an angry MAGA backlash with a segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week in which he addressed the wave of attacks targeting Tesla dealerships. “Please don’t vandalize—don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles,” he said, prompting laughter in the studio.
Fox News veteran Sean Hannity, who has called the attacks “full-on domestic terrorism,” devoted a whole segment on his eponymous show Wednesday evening to the joke, and called on the chief executive of Disney—which owns ABC—to respond.
“Is that supposed to be clever?” Hannity said. “Jimmy Kimmel’s show is owned and run by ABC Disney. Disney is run by a guy named Bob Iger.
“Bob, are you OK with this seeming glorification of violence? Is this the inclusive woke DEI, the ABC Disney brand?”
Hannity also complained that the company was allowing what he perceived to be a host “celebrating what has been happening to Tesla, against regular Americans who drive Teslas, making jokes about it all.”
“Bob Iger, you are the CEO of Disney,” Hannity continued. “Are you proud of this? Jimmy Kimmel is an unhinged loser. You see the ratings every day. We all see the ratings every day. He’s pretending to be woke, compassionate while cheering for those that are involved in these actions against Tesla, against his political enemies.”
Hannity then played a montage of some of Kimmel’s contentious older comedy “before his rebirth as ABC’s woke hall monitor,” on The Man Show over 20 years ago. Hannity pointed out that Kimmel “wore blackface” on the show, adding that in his opinion, Kimmel had also “harassed women for kicks and giggles” in a sketch.
Kimmel used blackface in sketches on the show while impersonating NBA star Karl Malone. In 2020 Kimmel offered a belated apology, saying: “I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke.” He also said it was a mistake not to have apologized sooner.
Hannity, who has in the past called the comedy host a “pig, pervert and racist” for comments about first lady Melania Trump, also showed a Man Show skit from 2002 where Kimmel challenged a woman on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, to guess what’s inside his pants by pawing at his crotch.
Kimmel defended the segment during a 2018 Twitter spat with Hannity, writing: “Every woman involved WILLINGLY participated - it’s called a comedy bit.”
Fox News shows Outnumbered, America Reports, The Five, and The Ingraham Angle also discussed the gag.
Kimmel did in fact rebuke the attacks on Tesla on his show Wednesday. “No one should be setting fires. You could kill somebody. You could hurt somebody. Elon Musk might not care about other people, but decent Americans should,” he said.
It comes after former electric vehicle skeptic Hannity raved that the manufacturer created the “greatest car ever invented” during a Tuesday night interview with Musk.
Hannity even purchased a Tesla just last week—shortly after Trump did the same in a stunt that turned the White House’s front lawn into a Tesla showroom.
Disney and Kimmel, via ABC, have been approached for comment.
