Adam Carolla Stands by Jimmy Kimmel Over Trump Roast Joke Controversy

Comedian Adam Carolla has come to the defense of his friend and former co-host Jimmy Kimmel amid criticism from President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump over a joke Kimmel made at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

In a segment on his podcast, The Adam Carolla Show, Carolla dismissed the controversy, calling Kimmel’s joke a standard roast trope. The joke, which compared Melania Trump to an “expectant widow,” was delivered during a Thursday Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue spoofing the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

The actual dinner was later canceled after a gunman stormed the venue with multiple weapons. The first couple subsequently called on Disney and ABC to fire Kimmel, though the network has kept him on the air.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also requested that Disney’s local ABC stations file for an early review of their broadcast licenses, though the agency stated the demand was unrelated to Kimmel.

Carolla: Joke Was Unrelated to White House Shooting

Carolla, who co-hosted The Man Show with Kimmel from 1999 to 2003, argued that the joke only sparked backlash because of the subsequent shooting. He compared the situation to a hypothetical scenario:

“When you make a joke and then nothing happens, like there was no shooting, no one made a thing about it before the shooting. So then it’s kind of a thing where you go, like, ‘Oh, that Elisha Krauss, I hate that b—h, I hope she dies!’ And then two days later, you get in a car crash, and you die, then everyone looks at me and goes, ‘Now I’m angry at you.’ But I’m like, if she never got in a car crash, you never said anything.”

Carolla, who leans politically to the right, emphasized that the joke was typical of roast-style humor:

“That’s a pretty typical roast joke. It is also a trope: Any younger, beautiful woman who’s married to an older guy, especially if the guy’s rumored to be sort of a douchey, you would make that joke at any roast.”

Kimmel’s Joke and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Kimmel made the joke during a Thursday Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue, days before the actual White House Correspondents’ Dinner was canceled. The first couple’s call for Kimmel’s termination followed the incident, though ABC has not taken action against the host.

Carolla also addressed the nature of the joke itself, suggesting that the controversy stemmed from timing rather than content:

“A) it’s unrelated. B) I mean, to be fair, now people do this one too, they go, ‘It’s not like he wrote that joke, but he said that joke, but he didn’t write that joke. Somebody wrote that joke and he said it. If Trump was at a roast on Thursday, you would do that joke. Well, if he’d never been president, you would do that joke.”

Carolla’s Past Defense of Kimmel

This is not the first time Carolla has defended Kimmel amid controversy. In September 2022, conservatives’ anger over a joke Kimmel made following the death of Charlie Kirk led Disney to temporarily suspend the late-night host. Carolla at the time called Kimmel “a very good guy and a generous guy” and criticized both sides for misinterpreting remarks.

The post Adam Carolla Defends Jimmy Kimmel Amid Trump Furor: ‘You Would Make That Joke at Any Roast’ appeared first on TheWrap.