Abbott Elementary Fans Criticize Jimmy Kimmel For Ruining Quinta Brunson's Emmy Moment

If you didn't watch the Emmy Awards tonight and are simply learning about them retroactively through social media, you've likely only heard about two moments: Sheryl Lee Ralph's incredibly moving speech for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Abbott Elementary or Jimmy Kimmel lying on the floor during Quinta Brunson's acceptance speech for Writing for a Comedy Series (also for Abbott Elementary). Regarding the latter, you might be wondering "why did he do that?" The answer is not completely clear.

Posted by Emmy Ward

The announcers for the Emmy for Writing in a Comedy series started the way that most award announcements started at this years Emmys: with a bit. The bit began as Will Arnet pulled Jimmy Kimmel onto the stage by the feet, as if her were a dead body. I was anticipating we were in for a Weekend At Bernie's type fare, but what we actually saw was far more confusing.

After painstakingly dragging his friend to the center of the stage Will Arnet regretfully told the audience, “Jimmy couldn't be here tonight. This is like the 13th time in a row that he's lost and he just got into the skinny margarita's back there. You okay there buddy? Yeah he's good.” Once that was out of the way, Arnet announced that Quinta Brunson won the Emmy for Writing in a Comedy Series for Abbott Elementary.

This is where the controversy began; as Quinta got onstage, it became increasingly clear that Jimmy Kimmel was going to stay lying down during her entire speech. She had to climb over his body to get to the microphone so she could deliver her acceptance speech. She even said “Jimmy wake up! I won!” during her speech to no avail.

Many Quinta Brunson and Abbott Elementary fans were reasonably upset at Kimmel's antics. They saw this act as disrespectfully taking away a Black woman's moment, and making it all about himself.

When asked to respond, Quinta commented that she wasn't angry, saying she knows Jimmy and the bit didn't bother her that much. As some will remember, Jimmy Kimmel invited Mrs. Abbott, Quinta's teacher whom Abbott Elementary is based on, onto his show and gave her a vacation.

Jimmy Kimmel also commented on Quinta's win, highly praising the pilot of her fantastic series.

This drama will likely culminate tomorrow night when Brunson appears on Kimmel's show. Either he will apologize for doing this, or he will double down. My money is on the former, but the latter would be so much more dramatic.