Adam Carolla Comes to Defense of Ex-Partner Jimmy Kimmel Amid Suspension: ‘Very Good Guy’

Adam Carolla defended his former co-host Jimmy Kimmel, amid the late-night comedian’s indefinite suspension and revealed details of a conversation with him following his controversial Charlie Kirk comments.

Carolla addressed his friend’s suspension this week on The Adam Carolla Show where he acknowledged that Kimmel said something “inaccurate,” but he pushed back on the response to the comment. Carolla co-hosted The Man Show with Kimmel for six seasons, and the two have remained friendly despite their almost-opposite politics. Kimmel has long been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, while the more conservative Carolla has expressed some support for the administration and described himself as as Libertarian.

On Kimmel’s show, the comedian accused “MAGA” of “desperately trying” to make out Kirk’s suspected shooter as “anything other than one of them.” The comment sparked backlash, including from Nexstar, which owns dozens of ABC affiliates, which said they would preempt Kimmel’s show for the foreseeable future. ABC eventually announced an indefinite suspension. Broadcast group Sinclair has also taken issue with Kimmel.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” Kimmel said, referring to 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.

According to Utah officials, Robinson was “indoctrinated” in “leftist” ideologies in the years leading up to Kirk’s murder.

Carolla said he does not believe his friend should have been suspended, and he accused both the left and the right of misinterpreting what was said.

He argued:

My feeling is this: I don’t think he should have been fired. It’s a weird thing. The right and the left are always sort of misinterpreting things. He was inaccurate about something. It wasn’t like he was necessarily attacking Charlie Kirk. He was trying to dump it on Trump and inaccurate about it because that’s what — we’re living at a time where something happens. Nancy Pelosi’s husband gets hit with a hammer. This side says he had a MAGA hat on. That side says he’s some kind of nudist hippie… you know, that’s all we do now. I don’t feel like it’s necessary, but that’s, that’s what we do.

Carolla added that he doesn’t like the government getting involved,” referring to FCC Chair Brendan Carr red-flagging Kimmel’s comment ahead of his suspension.

“Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Carolla said he supports all sides getting the chance to speak and letting the “ratings do the talking.” The comedian also blasted today’s divisive culture where he argued that his conservative friends look at his liberal friends like “cartoon characters,” and vice versa.

Carolla said:

My perspective is different just because I know Jimmy. And I know Jim to be a very good guy and a generous guy. And I’ve always said that about him. And I realized that while everyone else knows Jimmy as a caricature, I know him as a person. So when people, you know, when I run into the people that don’t know Jimmy as a person, you know [Bill] O’Reilly or Dave Rubin or Dennis Prager and they go, what’s up with your buddy, Jimmy?

Well, I know him. So that’s why I don’t think of him like you think of them. But on the other hand, they think of you as a cartoon character too. And I know you, I know Dennis Prager is a very sweet man, lovely, lovely man… And then at a certain point there’s the assassin who thinks of Charlie Kirk as a cartoon character, not a dude. I know him as a guy, sweet guy, fair guy, family guy. Good American, but that guy looks at him as a cartoon character, and that’s why he gets to kill him, you see? And so I know Jimmy is a human, and I know how good he is, and I now how decent he is. And we disagree politically, but who cares?

Earlier in the show, Carolla described a conversation he had with Kimmel after his suspension in which the comedian referenced the “strange times” they are living in.

“I just sent him a text because you want to be on record as understanding or knowing or whatever,” Carolla said. “It just said, you know, ‘Thinking about you. I hope you’re okay.'”

Carolla said his friend texted back that they’re living in “strange times” and the story was so big that he was being “followed by a helicopter.”

“He just wrote back, ‘I’m being followed by a helicopter,'” he said.

Watch above via The Adam Carolla Show.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!