It was only a matter of time before the country’s divisiveness manifested into one public – and increasingly tense – feud between two polarizing TV personalities. It finally happened when the face of Fox News, Sean Hannity, declared a war of words on late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for joking about first lady Melania Trump’s accent, specifically when she read from a children’s book at the White House Easter Roll on April 2.
It all started when Hannity called Kimmel a "despicable disgrace" and an “a**clown" over his Monday night jab.
"A**clown Kimmel. Now I got to tell you something. What a disgrace. Hey, Mr. Kimmel, that's her fifth language. How many do you speak?" Hannity asked on Wednesday.
Kimmel’s jab at Trump also became a hot topic of discussion on other shows at Fox News, including “Fox & Friends.” "If he had done this to Michelle Obama ... All the mainstream media would have him on there if he were conservative, saying he's a racist," Ainsley Earhardt said.
On Thursday night, Kimmel had the stage to share his thoughts on the quarrel.
“I hop on my computer and find out I’m at war with Sean Hannity of Fox News,’ Kimmel explains. “Because there’s nothing important going on in the country right now, Sean had his fellow Fox News people spend a lot of time talking about me today. Hannity apparently took issue with a joke I made on the show on Monday night, and this is what he had to say about me.”
Then Kimmel showed the clip of Hannity calling him an “a** clown.” Kimmel returned to the camera, admitting that he speaks six languages – one of which isn't a** clown.
“What even is an a** clown?” Kimmel asks. “I was thinking about it this morning, is it an a** that’s a clown? Or is it clown that actually lives in an a**, like a little bozo bird that lives in your butt cheeks? I don’t know. And more importantly, why is Sean Hannity openly fantasizing about clowns in the a**? Is that your thing at night?”
The term a** clown rose in popularity in Mike Judge’s 1999 movie Office Space. During a venting session in his cubicle, Michael Bolton complained about sharing his name is a musician who he says is a “no-talent a** clown."
Kimmel continued to poke fun at Hannity, deadpanning: “Sean Hannity’s problem is for eight years while Obama was president he was unable to get an erection – for eight years.”
Presumably, Hannity viewed Kimmel’s take on the squabble, which provoked it to spill over into the wild west of Twitter. As of Friday afternoon, it appears as if Hannity had been spending a large chunk of his day tweeting about Kimmel. He’s now gone as far as labeling Kimmel as “Harvey Weinstein, Jr." and insinuating that he’s sexually harassed or assaulted women, specially pointing to an old clip of Kimmel from The Man Show on Comedy Central. Hannity also slammed Kimmel as a “pervert.”
Hannity tweeted:
To which Kimmel later responded on Twitter:
Presumably, Kimmel won't let Hannity get the last word when he walks out to give his monologue tonight. However, with Hannity’s persistence and determination, it’s unclear how battle will end – and when. As Kimmel alluded to, there are bigger fish to fry in the country right now.
You can watch the full video of Kimmel's response below:
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