Nick Cannon called out late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel for wearing blackface in the past.
On Sunday, Feb. 10, the “Wild N’ Out” host shared two old clips, one of Fallon pretending to be Chris Rock and the other of Kimmel impersonating former NBA player Karl Malone.
Not only were both Fallon and Kimmel wearing blackface in the old skits, they spoke in broken English and played on Black stereotypes, which Cannon said needs to be discussed.
“Are these your Kings of Late Night???” he wrote. “@JimmyFallon @JimmyKimmel you know I’m always on the side of the comedian and never pander to the sensitive, but I feel there needs to be some ‘truth & reconciliation’ discussions and teachable moments amongst our communities. I’m ready and willing for the discourse, so who wants to step up to the table first? In the meantime, I’ll just leave this right here. Tell the Jimmys to holla at me!”
This is the second time in recent months that Cannon has called out a fellow comedian on social media. In December 2018 he posted old homophobic tweets from Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler and Amy Schumer after Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting the Oscars after old homophobic tweets of his resurfaced.
Cannon also accused the media of unfairly targeting Black men after he cast Chris Brown to star in his upcoming movie “She Ball.”
At the time, Cannon brought up the actor Sean Penn, who, like Brown, was accused of assaulting his ex-wife Madonna when they were married in the 1980s. But it’s something the pop singer denied in a 2015 Rolling Stone article.
Cannon’s post about Fallon and Kimmel sparked plenty of comments, and many thanked him for unearthing the old clips.
“Damn, this is crazy asf,” one person wrote. “Luckily, I rarely support them. But am I offended? Hell yes. Both skits were degrading as hell‼️”
But others called Cannon a hypocrite, because he dressed up as a white person in 2014 and wore white makeup to promote his 2014 album “White People Party Music.”
At the time, the comedian received plenty of backlash, which he responded to.
“They’re using this term ‘whiteface,’ like, I don’t even know what that is,” Cannon said on “Good Morning America” that year. “I know ‘blackface’ was a term that was created in 1869 to describe offensive minstrel shows. ‘Whiteface,’ if you look it up and Google it, it’s a ski slope in upstate New York. I was doing a character impression. Blackface is about oppression.”
He also addressed the topic of backlash on Instagram Sunday, Feb. 10, which can be seen below.
