Jimmy Fallon is facing backlash after a 20-year-old video of him in blackface portraying Chris Rock on Saturday Night Live resurfaced online. Photos / Supplied, Getty Images
Jimmy Fallon is facing backlash after a 20-year-old video of him in blackface portraying Chris Rock on Saturday Night Live resurfaced online. Photos / Supplied, Getty Images
An unearthed Saturday Night Live clip of Jimmy Fallon performing a skit in blackface has triggered calls on Twitter for the host to be "cancelled".
The clip from 2000 shows The Tonight Show host impersonating comedian Chris Rock.
It resurfaced on Twitter on Tuesday, and the hashtag #jimmyfallonisoverparty quickly gained traction.
A number of users jumped on the hashtag to express their disappointment over the "racist" move, but others were dismayed by the internet's unhealthy obsession with cancelling celebrities in isolation.
The clip was uploaded with the caption "NBC fired Megyn Kelly for mentioning blackface. Jimmy Fallon performed on NBC in blackface", in reference to the US Morning Show anchor claiming that blackface was acceptable in the context of Halloween costumes in 2018.
Kelly had said blackface was "okay when I was a kid as long as you were dressing like a character".
I know I did not just open Twitter and see that Jimmy Fallon did blackface in 2000. Nobody is safe from Twitter when we got this much time in our hand. First Lana, then Doja cat, and now Jimmy Fallon. Please let me catch my breathe. #jimmyfallonisoverpartypic.twitter.com/3o1z5IchIa
Many expressed confusion over the fresh wave of criticism, given the clip is 20 years old and has been circulated and debated many times before. Others pointed out that a number of comedians have performed in blackface on SNL and should be copping the same criticism.
Fallon has actually performed his Chris Rock impersonation a second time since 2000, at the 2017 Golden Globes (sans face paint).
So people are just now realizing that Jimmy Fallon did blackface like 20 years ago. But he is far from the only one. SNL has a long history of it. Bill Hader did it as recently as 2013. #jimmyfallonisoverparty
The TV personality rolled out a drunken impression of Chris Rock telling a joke about The People Vs. OJ Simpson, as the camera cut to awkward reactions from the crowd.
It didn't go over very well with the audience then either, and after his "flat" hosting effort that year, he wasn't invited back.
