Jamie Foxx Defends Jimmy Fallon Amid Blackface Scandal

Jamie Foxx is supporting fellow comedian Jimmy Fallon after the late night show host suffered backlash over an unearthed Blackface video.

On Tuesday, #JimmyFallonIsOverParty began trending after a 2000 “Saturday Night Live” sketch resurfaced where Fallon performed as Chris Rock in dark make-up.

“He was doing an impression of chris rock,” Foxx commented in an Instagram post about the controversy. “It wasn’t black face. We comedians I know it’s a tough time right now. But this one is a stretch.”

“On a show called in living color we played every race Let this one go. We got bigger fish to fry… #changecourse.”

The news comes as Fallon issued an apology hours after the clip went viral.

“In 2000, while on SNL, I made a terrible decision to do an impersonation of Chris Rock while in blackface,” he posted on Twitter. “There is no excuse for this.”

“I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.”

While this was not the first time this clip surfaced online, it kickstarted a firestorm of tweets criticizing Fallon.

A caption for a video shared on Twitter read: “NBC fired Megan Kelly for mentioning blackface. Jimmy Fallon performed on NBC in blackface.”

“Megyn Kelly was dismissed for being insensitive in merely DISCUSSING kids wearing blackface on Halloween. Jimmy Fallon actually WORE blackface while impersonating Chris Rock. He’s still working for NBC,” read one tweet.

The video had resurfaced back in 2018 when Kelly was let go from “The Today Show” after she argued on air that wearing blackface for Halloween was acceptable.

And in 2019, Nick Cannon posted an Instagram of several comedians — including Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman — who wore Blackface and captioned it, “Happy ‘BLACKFACE’ History Month!!! 🤦🏾‍♂️ I’m sure we can expect some more ‘Apologies’ by Monday…”

Fallon joined the ranks of other celebrities, such as Lana Del Rey and Doja Cat, facing backlash this week for actions or words deemed racially insensitive.

“I know I did not just open Twitter and see that Jimmy Fallon did blackface in 2000. Nobody is safe from Twitter when we got this much time in our hand. First Lana, then Doja Cat, and now Jimmy Fallon. Please let me catch my breath [sic]. #jimmyfallonisoverparty,” posted a social media user.

Some, however, were in the same camp as Jamie Foxx and felt that the cancel culture had gone too far, as one shared, “Y’all whack. How long ago was this? Was this snl? No one can be famous anymore bc we’ve all done something the society of 20years from now doesn’t like🙄🙄 can we stop with trying to cancel people on their ost and focus on the present?”

Other fans were upset that Fallon was targeted as Robert Downey Jr. has largely gone unscathed for performing an entire movie in Blackface in 2008’s “Tropic Thunder.”

“Well since Jimmy Fallon is cancelled for wearing blackface, are we going to cancel Robert Downey, Jr. also? Just sayin, y’all are a bunch of hypocrites,” wrote a follower.

Fallon even imitated Rock once more after the “SNL” sketch when he hosted the 2017 Golden Globes. Although Fallon wasn’t wearing blackface, the joke still came off tone-deaf to critics.

“It was ugly to watch a white guy imitating a black man’s voice, especially coming from Fallon,” reported Vanity Fair at the time.

Meanwhile, the resurfaced “SNL” clip, which shows Fallon imitating Rock while auditioning to be Regis Philbin’s co-host, is featured on NBC’s “SNL” website without Fallon’s part.

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