ABC’s late night host Jimmy Kimmel admitted on Good Morning America today that he wasn’t going to address Hollywood’s problem with sexual assault, while hosting this year’s Academy Awards, because he didn’t want to “make it unpleasant.”
However, he also confessed that he didn’t regret “anything” he’s said against President Trump, Republicans and the millions of legal gun owners in this country. “I don’t think you can go too far,” he told ABC’s Paula Faris on the February 27 GMA.
The GMA anchor sat down with Kimmel to find out what the comedian turned liberal commentator had in store for hosting the 2018 awards show, (which he also hosted in 2017.) Faris brought up the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements against sexual harassment and assault and wondered how Kimmel was going to “walk” that “tightrope” at the Oscars, March 4.
“Are you nervous at all that you're going to strike the right tone?” Faris asked, adding, “How will you know if you’ve gone too far?”
Kimmel snarked that he had a “tendency to not strike the right tone,”but he’s sure that “the internet” would tell him in real time if he’d “gone too far.” At the same time, he admitted, he didn’t think it was possible for him to go “too far” politically.
“Do you think that maybe there have been times where you pushed the envelope too far and maybe become a little too political?” Faris asked Kimmel, after noting that the comedian “wasn’t shy” when it came to talking about “the government, legislation or the president.”
Kimmel denied he’d ever gone too far to the left. “No, I don't,” he immediately responded, adding that he had no regrets over “anything” he’s said on his show.
“Not at all. I don't think you can go too far,” he said, acknowledging that he was “still doing comedy” but adding that it was time for society to “accept” late night hosts could be political as well. “I think it’s almost necessary now,” he urged.
Kimmel did add that he had hopes that President Trump would come around to his side of the political aisle and do “the right thing.”
“I do think that there's probably a person in there who knows what the right thing to do is and who wants to do the right thing,” he told Faris.
But Kimmel apparently didn’t feel like it was “necessary” to be serious in addressing his liberal Hollywood audience’s problems with sexual assault.
After Faris asked him about what he’d say to confront the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements at the Oscars, Kimmel dismissed the need to talk about these issues, because he didn’t want to sour the mood in the room.
“This show is not about reliving people's sexual assaults. It's an awards show for people who have been dreaming about maybe winning an Oscar for their whole lives. And the last thing I want to do is ruin that for someone...by making it unpleasant,” he bluntly stated.
“You know, that’s not what I want to do. I'm not going to stop any bad behavior with my jokes,” he added.
Afterwards, the GMA anchors gushed over the interview.
“He has a lot of things he wants to get off his chest and we’ll be there to watch him do it,” anchor Michael Strahan emphasized to end the segment.
Later in the show, Stephanopoulos added, “We've seen a lot of his heart this year. A lot of his passion.”
