Did we really think Jimmy Kimmel would go the whole Oscars without making fun of Matt Damon?
We really didn’t think Jimmy Kimmel would go the entire Academy Awards without getting in a dig at Matt Damon, did we?
Right as the show was ending, it looked like Kimmel wouldn’t keep his ongoing fake feud with Damon alive in his fourth Oscar hosting stint.
In the amended words of Lee Corso, not so fast, my frenemy!
A brief gag closed the show right before the credits of Messi the dog from Anatomy of a Fall pretending to hoist his leg up to pee on Damon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as Kimmel got in his annual roast.
Without flinching, Charles Barkley admits he would have engaged in fisticuffs with Aaron Rodgers.
Like Aaron Rodgers, Charles Barkley says what he thinks, including that he would have decked Rodgers if he made the same joke he spouted about Jimmy Kimmel.
The beef between Rodgers and Kimmel has permeated sports circles and has found its way to television analyst Charles Barkley. During a recent appearance on CBS Mornings, he was asked how we would have handled the situation if he was in Kimmel’s position.
Barkley flatly said he would have punched Rodgers in the face.
Charles Barkley saying he’d have punched Aaron Rodgers in the face has made my morning. pic.twitter.com/EFTPDA6Vz3
Jimmy Kimmel got back at Aaron Rodgers for those awful, baseless accusations.
Jimmy Kimmel didn’t waste a single second on Monday night.
In his return to the air on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the late-night host kicked off his monologue right away by talking about New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who made baseless claims about Kimmel potentially being on the Jeffrey Epstein list. Rodgers did that on Pat McAfee’s ESPN show and promised that he’d address it again on Tuesday.
But Kimmel got in the next word. He broke down how we got here, looking back at how making fun of Rodgers which “so badly bruised his Thanksgiving Parade-sized ego.” Then, he spoke about how Rodgers believes he’s smarter than everyone else and it was off to the roasting of the quarterback, a full seven minutes devoted to ripping the QB:
Kimmel is spot on here. The accusations are not OK, not “trash talk,” not anything, and we’ll see if Rodgers decides to apologize on Tuesday after doing some damage with his words.
While ESPN apologized for Aaron Rodgers’ comments on The Pat McAfee Show, McAfee himself took a much different tone.
ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show has found itself in hot water and potential legal jeopardy with one of the parent company’s biggest stars, and McAfee doesn’t seem to be on the same page as his bosses.
During an appearance earlier this week, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers — a frequent guest on the show — implied Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC, would appear on the Jeffrey Epstein list, seemingly without any evidence.
ABC is owned by Disney, as is ESPN.
After Kimmel threatened potential legal action, ESPN senior vice president Mike Foss called Rodgers’ comments “dumb and factually inaccurate,” Front Office Sports first reported Friday.
“It never should have happened,” Foss said in a statement obtained by USA TODAY Sports. “We all realized that in the moment.”
Front Office Sports continued reporting that “Foss did not condone Rodgers’s comments, but he says he expects the Jets quarterback to remain on the show through the rest of the football season.” More from the report:
“Pat announced today that he’s planning on Aaron joining the show Tuesday. Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel,” Foss tells Front Office Sports on Friday. “The show will continue to evolve. It wouldn’t surprise me if Aaron’s role evolves with it.”
McAfee has taken a much different tone, however. He initially brushed off Rodgers’ comments as a joke, and he took his rhetoric a step further on his Friday show.
He accused Norby Williamson, an executive senior vice president of studio and event production at ESPN, of sabotaging his program. McAfee went as far as calling Williamson a “rat.”
Pat McAfee — while on ESPN — accuses certain ESPN executives of sabotaging his show and leaking info to the media.
McAfee said he believes Williamson is leaking false information about his show in order to make the program look bad. The Pat McAfee Show began on YouTube in 2020 but has aired on ESPN since September when the network acquired it in a lucrative deal.
McAfee also appears as a co-host for ESPN’s College GameDay.
While it’s clear that the suits at ESPN are intent on smoothing things over with Kimmel, who has hosted his show on ABC since 2003, McAfee seems to have different plans.
When Disney/ESPN made Pat McAfee among its highest-paid TV personalities last year with a reported $17 million annual salary, it probably didn’t anticipate the hire leading to a massive feud with Jimmy Kimmel.
But that’s what happens when you allow McAfee to platform Aaron Rodgers’ conspiracies on live TV.
In a Tuesday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers baselessly linked Kimmel — who hosts the Disney-owned Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC — to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A furious Kimmel tweeted a response to Rodgers, and he couldn’t have been happy about how McAfee handled the topic.
Come Wednesday, McAfee — who decided to wear a sleeved shirt to work — tried to address Rodgers’ remarks. McAfee mentioned that his phone was blowing up after the show. But despite the presumed heat from Disney and ESPN brass, McAfee dismissed the remarks as part of the free-wheeling nature of his show. (Warning: Some NSFW language)
"I can see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position. But I think Aaron was just trying to talk shit."
Pat McAfee opens his show by responding to the fallout and threats of legal action coming out of his Tuesday interview with Aaron Rodgers pic.twitter.com/UCv1yAp62Z
He essentially said that Rodgers was just trying to talk smack to Kimmel after Kimmel had joked about Rodgers on his late-night show. But there’s a big difference between making fun of a conspiracy theorist and accusing someone of being a pedophile.
It’s hard to imagine that ESPN will be pleased with how McAfee addressed the situation. We’ll have to see if Rodgers is back with his regular appearance next Tuesday.
Gooooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us this morning. We appreciate you reading!
I’m sure you saw the uneasiness that came across the internet from Aaron Rodgers’ latest guest appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. It’s been all over the internet at this point.
Rodgers’ appearances on the McAfee Show are normally cringeworthy enough without the Jets’ star quarterback basically saying one of ABC and Disney’s biggest stars could be on the Epstein list that will reportedly be released. But, uh, that’s exactly what happened after McAfee’s co-host, AJ Hawk, brought up the list to Rodgers on Tuesday.
For those of you who don’t know, it’s a list of over 200 names of the business associates Jeffrey Epstein worked with. Epstein was an alleged sex trafficker who hanged himself while imprisoned back in 2019. This list supposedly contains the names of some of the biggest luminaries, celebrities and politicians we know.
To be clear, being on that list doesn’t mean that the individual is guilty of sex trafficking or participating in any of the crimes Epstein allegedly took part in. But it could mean that. That’s why this list is a big deal.
That’s what Rodgers — seemingly baselessly — directly accused ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel of. The Jets’ QB said “A lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are really hoping that doesn’t come out,” during his appearance on Tuesday.
That triggered a swift — and strong — response from Kimmel, himself, who actually threatened to sue the quarterback if he keeps this up (WARNING: NSFW language ahead).
Dear Aasshole: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any “list” other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality. Your reckless… https://t.co/p8eug12uiS
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is one of Disney’s premier programs on ABC, which is one of the company’s flagship networks. The Pat McAfee Show is an ESPN property, which is also owned by Disney. So, through that connection, these are two programs on sister networks working under the same umbrella.
For Rodgers to create a situation that Disney CEO Bob Iger may have to step in on to mediate and mend fences is not a good look, plain and simple. It’s getting in the way of business. And, if it gets in the way, it may be moved out of the way. Again, the Mouse doesn’t play when it comes to money.
If it is? Then: good riddance. Aaron Rodgers has been nothing but a public nuisance. He comes on the show every week, puts on his best tinfoil hat and just throws baseless claims everywhere under the guise of doing his own research.
In reality, this is just a dude who loves to hear himself talk. He can’t get enough of his own celebrity. He’s totally wrapped up in it — consumed by it. His hubris is constantly in control. That’s even the case in this situation here, which essentially stems from Kimmel making fun of Aaron Rodgers a year ago for, well, doing exactly what he did on Tuesday.
We’ll see how this ultimately turns out. There’s been no official response from Disney on all of this as of yet. It’s hard to feel bad for the company considering that this is what the Pat McAfee Show has always been. Working with McAfee and giving him the longest leash by far at the company means dealing with problems like this one. ESPN and Disney earned this chaos — it’s well deserved.
Pat McAfee isn’t going anywhere. The company pays him way too much for him to just be dismissed. He’s interwoven in its programming and will be for years to come.
You can be sure of one thing, though. The company is monitoring this. There’s a solid chance that this is the last time Rodgers will be putting his foot in his mouth — at least on ESPN’s airwaves, anyway.
A 141-point win is WILD
(AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
When I woke up this morning and saw the box score from Grambling State’s women’s basketball team at home against The College of Biblical Studies, I thought I was looking at a typo.
But nope. The final score was 159-18. That’s really a thing that happened. One team made 70 shots. The other team made 8. Two of Grambling’s players scored at least 20 points, which means they outscored CBS by themselves.
Tom Brady may have been right all along. In Christian D’Andrea’s latest NFL power rankings, he makes the point that both the 49ers and Ravens seem like legitimate title contenders.
Everyone else? They’re kind of just…middling. Literally. Here’s Christian with more.
That makes this week’s power rankings a tricky enterprise. The AFC and NFC have each crowned their regular season winners. The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers have each locked up home field advantage through the playoffs. After that? Well, it’s tough to have confidence in teams like the Eagles (spiraling to their doom), Kansas City Chiefs (host to a suddenly pedestrian offense), Dallas Cowboys (can’t win big games on the road) or Miami Dolphins (can’t win big games unless they’re against the Cowboys).
That leaves a ranking system with a lush second tier of untrustable teams. Here’s how they shook out after 2023’s penultimate week.
The NFL’s playoffs are a different beast. All anyone has to do is simply win one game and they advance, so anything can happen. But, man. The 49ers and the Ravens just seem unbeatable right now. Or, maybe more accurately, everyone else just seems extremely beatable. At least by good team standards, anyway.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading the Morning Win today. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic Wednesday. Let’s chat again tomorrow. Until then, peace.
Pauly Shore didn’t let a few jokes keep him from giving love to his Oscar-winning Encino Man co-stars.
Comedian Pauly Shore took some Oscars jokes from Jimmy Kimmel in stride while congratulating his Encino Man co-stars Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan on their Academy Awards wins.
Shore acted alongside Fraser and Quan in the ’90s comedy and has gotten to watch his old screen partners ascend to Oscar gold for their roles in The Whale and Everything Everywhere All at Once, respectively.
Kimmel used the Encino Man connection to crack a few jokes at Shore’s expense, but “The Weasel” didn’t seem to mind. He just wanted to congratulate his “old buddies from back in the day” on their big night.
I don’t know if you guys saw the @TheAcademy Awards last night, but @jimmykimmel poked fun at me in the monologue. I loved it.
But what I REALLY loved is that my old buddies from back in the day, Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan, took home the Oscars!
It’s a classy move from Shore to brush off Kimmel’s jokes and still be willing to hype up his old co-stars. Nobody probably pegged two of the Encino Man co-stars to win Academy Awards in the same year, but it definitely happened.
Will Shore earn an Oscar one day? Well, anything is possible!
Are you curious why there was a donkey at the Academy Awards?
Are you wondering who that donkey was who appeared on Sunday night’s Academy Awards broadcast?
It’s Jenny the miniature donkey from Oscar-nominated dramedy The Banshees of Inisherin! Well, it’s not actually the Jenny the miniature donkey, but it’s an adorable donkey to pay homage to Jenny the miniature donkey.
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel brought out an adorable donkey during the show, with the camera moving over to show the elated stars of the Ireland-set film.
Jenny plays a crucial role in The Banshees of Inisherin, and she became one of the true breakouts of the film that was nominated for Best Picture.
Everybody loves animals, and they especially love them when they unexpectedly show up at the Academy Awards. Animals are the best.
This donkey might walk away one of the real winners from this year’s Oscars. Everyone in the world who watched the show is now going to want to meet this adorable donkey and give it pets and treats.
While winning an Oscar is great, winning global adoration for being an adorable donkey is even better.
Will Smith wasn’t in attendance at the Oscars this year after the actor slapped presenter Chris Rock last year. The slap followed a joke made about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s expense. That didn’t stop Will Smith’s name from coming up. A lot. Jimmy Kimmel, hosting his third Academy Awards ceremony, made several cracks about the incident in his opening monologue.
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Kimmel covered everything from telling the crowd that there was an incident response team to saying that any would-be attacker would have to get through actors like The Rock, Michelle Yeoh and Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield).
He also made reference to it again before the award for Best Documentary — which was when the slap happened in the show last year. Here’s his opening monologue segment:
