Jimmy Fallon Apologises For Wearing Blackface In ‘Saturday Night Live’ Clip From 2000
Jimmy Fallon apologised after a resurfaced video of him wearing blackface sparked outrage on social media — although it wasn’t the first time the video had circulated online.
On Tuesday, a short video of the “Tonight Show” host impersonating Chris Rock in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch from 2000 went viral along with the hashtag #JimmyFallonIsOverParty on Twitter.
#jimmyfallonisoverparty if ur trying to see what he did pic.twitter.com/5K2eAH7Vjn
— s🅰️m🐀 (@chefboyohdear) May 26, 2020
Fallon responded to the criticism in a tweet Tuesday evening. He said that wearing blackface was a “terrible decision” and “unquestionably offensive,” and he thanked those who condemned him “for holding me accountable.”
In 2000, while on SNL, I made a terrible decision to do an impersonation of Chris Rock while in blackface. There is no excuse for this.
I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) May 26, 2020
HuffPost reached out to “SNL” for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
Before Fallon apologised, some people called for the comedian to be “canceled” due to the 20-year-old clip. Others said they’d prefer an explanation, an apology or even an acknowledgment of wrongdoing from Fallon.
No one is asking y’all to cancel @jimmyfallon; however, what we are asking from Jimmy is an acknowledgment to his use of Blackface, why did he do it and an apology to Black people for donning such a racist, oppressive and downright disgusting overt display of symbolic racism.
— T. (@cheesewizbandit) May 26, 2020
he never acknowledged nor apologized for it. and PLS he's not even funny why are ya'll defending him 😭
— anne✨ (@youngnnugly) May 26, 2020
Others pointed out that “SNL” was at fault as well.
