Jimmy Fallon apologizes for using blackface in past SNL skit
'Thank all of you for holding me accountable,' Tonight show host says on Twitter
NBC Tonight show host Jimmy Fallon has apologized for doing an impersonation of fellow comic Chris Rock while in blackface during a 2000 episode of Saturday Night Live.
Fallon tweeted on Tuesday that "there is no excuse for this."
Discussion of Fallon's 20-year-old skit surfaced this week after a video of it was posted online.
According to entertainment trade media outlet Variety, it was first posted on Twitter by a user named "chefboyohdear," and showed Fallon, as Rock, appearing on a talk show.
Historically, minstrel shows and movies featured white performers donning blackface to mock blacks. The continued use of blackface has long been considered offensive.
Fallon tweeted that it was a terrible decision to impersonate Rock, also a former Saturday Night Live cast member.
"I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable," the late-night star wrote.
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. <br><br>I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.
—@jimmyfallonThe Twitter user who posted the clip mentioned Megyn Kelly, who was taken off the Today show and eventually left NBC News after suggesting in 2018 that it was OK for children to wear blackface in Halloween costumes. She apologized for her remark.
Another late-night comic, Jimmy Kimmel, wore blackface to impersonate basketball star Karl Malone while on Comedy Central's The Man Show 20 years ago. Sarah Silverman used blackface for a sketch on her Comedy Central show in 2007, a decision she later said she was "horrified" by.