In Jimmy’s defense, Japan thought “Kill the Chinese!” was funny too…
What a surprise—Jimmy Kimmel did something despicable involving children.
This time, the smug and unethical-to-his-very-DNA ABC late night host may have also triggered an ethics train wreck. Perhaps at last the network and his tasteless, enabling viewers will finally conclude what has been obvious for years—that Jimmy is a cultural corrupter whose miserable methods and values should be rejected, condemned, and sent packing to an obscure corner of table TV!
Nah.
Kimmel’s latest hilarious stunt aired on Oct. 16, in a segment called “Kids Table,” where Funny Uncle Jimmy asks small children who have no idea what is going on or that a creepy middle-aged man is luring them into saying things that will haunt them on Youtube until the day they die to comment on issues of the day. This time, Mirthful Machiavellian Jimmy caught comedy gold: when he asked a six-year-old how the U.S. could solve the $1.3 trillion trade imbalance, the giggling answer came back, “Kill everyone in China!”
Nice. Naturally, Jimmy thought this was a “real knee-slapper,’ as my grandpappy used to say, and up it went on the web, as being featured on his show, as his drooling, cretinous fans cheered. Train wreck! The Chinese registered a protest! Asian Americans were furious! Angry demonstrators teemed outside ABC studios! Letter writers compared the sentiment to Hitler’s Final Solution! And, of course, over 100,000 angry citizens petitioned the White House on its foolish “We the People” site, so now President Obama has a chance to once again issue ponderous directives about a matter that is none of a President’s business, bolstering his false, but self-nourished, image as Lord of the Realm, and, in the process, guaranteeing that the poor child Jimmy trapped in this mess will never live it down. Imagine having the President of the United Sates officially condemn your words when you are six. But when a soulless comic and a narcissistic President double-team you, what chance do you have?
The easy solution, or course, would be to fire Jimmy Kimmel, not for insulting China, which is his right as a comedian, but by doing it through the words of an innocent, properly clueless, victimized second-grader (who has irresponsible parents, like most of Jimmy’s young victims). Then President Obama wouldn’t have to butt in, though he wants to, and will.Two years ago I identified Kimmel as a sociopath after his first child abuse stunt, the forerunner of many to come:
“ABC late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel suggested to parents among his audience on Halloween that they lie to their young children and tell them that they ate all of their Halloween candy, and video their reactions to post on YouTube. Kimmel ran the “best” of the results on his show, introducing the segment by saying, “I didn’t expect so much crying.”Oh. Well, it’s all right then. It’s all right to appeal to the true assholes—there is no better word — among his audience members and urge them to upset their own children for his entertainment and the entertainment of YouTube viewers. That’s Jimmy! It’s good to know who the sociopaths are among late night entertainers…”
Was there ever a better example of the favorite Ethics Alarms principle of signature significance, where one unethical act is justification for a confident conclusion that the perpetrator wasn’t just unethical once, but is unethical, to quote President Obama, “period”? Sure enough, Jimmy did this again, and again, and his Halloween “joke” is now an annual feature (Jimmy had his zombie parents do it again this year), because so many Americans get a kick out of watch parents torture their kids for yuks.
That Kimmel would cross the line was inevitable, because sociopaths, not having a conscience, don’t know when to stop (since they never should have started.) Parents humiliating and upsetting their own children is okay for a laugh, apparently. but now Jimmy really stepped in it by being politically incorrect. In fact, this stunt is considerably less harmful than his other child-centered outrages, although I wouldn’t want to bet on the future prospects of his victim.
ABC is at least as culpable as its star. The network issued this risable “apology”:
“We would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large.”
What are we to conclude from this? That the segment was broadcast accidentally? That Kimmel somehow put it on ABC surreptitiously? That ABC isn’t in control of what it broadcasts? Does it mean that nobody at ABC thought having someone say “Kill everyone in China” just might upset “the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent,” given that it potentially threatens over a billion people? Does it mean ABC is run by idiots? Does it mean ABC thinks we are idiots?
Or does it mean that an ethics-free exec with a Jimmy Kimmel Fat Head on his wall sent out a memo, saying, “Oops. We got caught. Quick, send out a pro-forma apology and cool this thing down”?
Some how, I think the Chinese will survive a spontaneous utterance by an American 6-year-old. As long as Jimmy Kimmel is allowed on the air, however, children will continued to be exploited, exposed and hurt for the amusement of ethically-warped creeps like the architect of the abuse, and the network, its audience, and the rest of the public that shrug off his cruelty are accessories.
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Sources: Washington Post, WBEZ 91, Deadline,
Graphic: Windwing
Ethics Alarms 
I don’t like Jimmy Kimmel. At all.
Several days ago I read a news article about him getting parents to tell the kids they ate all of the Halloween candy.
I watched some of the video and I swear, most of it is fake, or scripted or whatever you want to call it.
Maybe one or two of the kids is genuinely shocked and upset, the rest of them seem like they are acting.
It’s stupid no matter how you look at it.
The last guy that was funny late night was Johnny Carson.
I’m sorry, I’m too young to know who that is. I was a Jack Paar fan.
Conan still has his moments, and I think Craig Ferguson is genuinely funny. I find Letterman so repugnant that I can’t tell if he’s funny or not. I found Jay funnier before I realized that he was a jerk.
What about Jimmy Fallon?
Nice guy who can be funny. I prefer the smart guys who can be funny.
I’m not a fan of Kimmel, but these kids are the least of our problems. They are being abused as you define it for a brief moment out of their lives. Nothing will be held against them in the future — they were kids when they were acting silly, stupid, or emotional. And yes, the parents who permit this are idiots and we probably can assume that they are making bad parenting decisions in general. BUT, when you compare these kids to their peers on TV (the ones in the reality shows, dramas, sitcoms, commercials, variety shows), I think it is safe to say that these kids are the “least” abused on TV.
I don’t even like the photographs of kids dressed up like fruit and vegetables, so obviously I am on your side about kids in the entertainment business. I just think there is something about Kimmel that makes you get out your angry red pen.
Among the least of our problems perhaps, but not the least of the kids’ problems Parents who will take cues from talk show hosts to play cruel tricks on their children are dangerous and juvenile parents, and talk show hosts who use their influence to get stupid people to abuse their children are playing with fire. I’m sure babies usually recover from having people poke them in the eyes or make them cry in other cruel ways—is that seriously an argument for dismissing the conduct of being cruel to babies as “no big deal”? I sure don’t think so.
And if you think a high school kid in Future Politically Correctness Crazy America (PCCA) won’t be a target when it’s discovered that there’s a video of him saying “Kill everyone in China, ” you are mistaken. That kid didn’t consent to that, and didn’t know what he was saying, and he’s stuck with it. Thanks, Mom! Thanks, Jimmy!
It is interesting that you should mention political correctness because I can’t help feeling that in deciding it appropriate to air this segment, ABC – perhaps as a reflection of societal attitudes at large – is illustrating the alleged double standard against Asians when it comes to how topics concerning minorities and other protected classes are handled in public. Imagine if Kimmel had asked the kids a question concerning problems in America resulting from, say, illegal immigration or drug cartels from Mexico (not that he would’ve, since those topics are likely verboten), to which one of them exclaimed, “Kill everyone in Mexico!” Likewise, I am confident that any question that would have elicited a remark from a kid that conveyed the slightest negativity – much less calling for genocide – toward Blacks, Jews, Muslims, or homosexuals would have been cut on the spot. While this could be just an an isolated incident, given what seems to be an almost nonexistent advocacy in the public sphere of Asians and Asian Americans (e.g. exclusion from the provisions of affirmative action in admissions and employment, being largely ignored by pandering politicians and the media, etc.), it seems to me that far from being an incidence of political incorrectness, this segment was allowed to aired precisely because negativity toward Asians still remains – if not politically correct – at least politically “neutral.”
All in all, I think this is just another tempest in a teapot for which people took offense for all the wrong reasons and are demanding all the wrong redresses. Of course, If Kimmel weren’t exploiting children as fodder for comedy, then none of this would’ve happened. Besides, any uproar-worthy “racial hatred” promoted in this segment would just be another symptom of the dysfunctional state of race relations in this country – interestingly concerning a race no one deigned to care about until now – and ironically seeking action from an administration that has consistently demonstrated itself capable of utterly botching and exacerbating any racial issue that it touches.
Comment of the Day, Alex. Excellent. And I’ll try to get it up tonight.
I remember loving “Sixteen Candles” as a teenager and am now horrified whenever I run across it on cable. A large gong was hit whenever the exchange student (his name was “Dong”) appears on camera. I don’t think that choice would be made today, so I do think attitudes are improving. Then again, Bill Maher made a stupid Asian driving joke last night. The joke bombed — but he still felt comfortable enough to make the joke in the first place.
It’s still a very good movie, despite Long Duc Dong.
Bill Maher is obviously comfortable being an asshole in public. If you can repeatedly call any Republican woman a cunt and a twat and not even get criticized by NOW, why fear engaging in a little cheap Asian bigotry?
Remember “America’s Funniest Home Videos?” I wonder how many parents deliberately put their kids into stupid or even dangerous situations to try for the grand prize. I don’t see anything new here — kids are exploited all the time and it is awful. My main point is that a bigger tragedy is what’s happening to the kids who are working as professional actors — I think that illustrates your point better given the mountains of evidence that there is on the topic. Here, you and I are both speculating about future ramifications, if any. Gosh, I can only imagine your post if he had Congresswoman Schultz on his program. Oh, and he was having Schultz interview kids about their thoughts on the ACA. Best … blog … ever.
I think that the point of bringing up Kimmel’s roundtable high jinks and the “Halloween Candy” prank was meant to address the problem with his particular acts of exploiting (or encouraging parents to exploit) children’s naiveté for laughs and ratings through public humiliation. But I would imagine that the nature of the exploitation and damage done to these kids would be much different from those experienced by actual child actors of the sort you mentioned. And unless I’m mistaken, the children in Kimmel’s show were not professional actors.
I have written here, frequently and at great length, about the plight of child actors, in general and some specific examples,often in relation to the wonderful work of Paul Petersen, and yes, they are very closely related issues.
Guilty as charged. I like the prank and see it as good natured teasing. I think using terms like “exploitation” is a bit dramatic. My dad used to joke with me like that and it was/is no big deal. There are so many others ways kids get “abused” that I’d have to take a kimmel joker over a cold fish, workaholic, bar fly or indulgent, helicopter, soccer mommy any day.
How warped you are!
Yet another use the children to propagate idiocy scheme. It does show quite a lot when a 6 year old’s “solution” is an enabler for war or genocide, and more disgusting that the populous in general find comedy in that and/or further support abuse, abuse supporters, and phantom delegations of power shifts such as the decision to broadcast an epitaph to war from the mouth of a child.
Ugh! Any time children are exploited, it’s just wrong. Where were the child’s parents who allowed this piece to be filmed and distributed?
Barbara Brooks Kimmel (who is always asked if I am a relation to Jimmy) which I am not.
Are you suuuuuuuure????
reminded me of this a bit.
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/soupy1.asp
Comedy has always been a questionable journey for ethical behavior, The 3 Stooges,(abusive yet sophomorically funny) Benny Hill (sexist yet funny for men only), Mel Brooks (sexist yet funny for anyone breathing), Chelsea whatshername (sexist and offensive). Letterman, a poster child for used to be funny but since he became politically obnoxious,- became unfunny. Americas Funniest Home Videos (not funny unless someone gets hurt). Remember Art Linkletter – Kids say the darndest things – now that was funny and totally ethical. Craig Ferguson is politically neutral and relies on his own comedic instincts – which is how Johnny Carson conducted his show- the whole lot of the rest of the “late nights hosts” are narcissistic, self gratifying, and patronizing. I’d rather sleep.
Kimmel is a misogynist abusive c@$t. Remember “The Man Show”. What I can’t believe is that the public tolerates this idiot. He’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Believe it.