Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Donald Trump While Accepting Peabody Award for Roasting POTUS

Jimmy Kimmel accepted one of television’s most prestigious honors by doing exactly what helped win it: taking aim at Donald Trump.

At Sunday night’s Peabody Awards in Beverly Hills, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was honored for “embracing the responsibility of comedy to reveal truths amid political volatility,” following a year in which the ABC late-night show was briefly suspended under pressure from MAGA figures and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.

Kimmel opened by joking that he had “never felt dumber” being honored alongside documentaries and news programs that exposed war, prison abuse and other serious subjects. But he quickly turned the moment into a broader defense of satire.

“Making jokes about the President, in America, shouldn’t win you a prize,” Kimmel said. “We have the right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to criticize and satirize our leaders.”

He said he had taken that right for granted “for the first 57 years” of his life, “until last September, when the FCC delivered an unpleasant surprise.”

Kimmel also thanked viewers who objected after his show was taken off the air.

“They sent a message that we do care,” he said. “And that we will stand up. And that we will not stand by when comedy, and journalism, and dissent are censored, regulated and criminalized.”

Kimmel did not leave the stage without giving the audience a full reminder of the insults that have made him one of Trump’s most persistent late-night enemies.

“I called our President ‘Fattyshack.’ And ‘Blob the Builder.’ And ‘Lie-ger Woods.’ And the ‘Hungry Hungry Hypocrite.’ ‘Our Fondling Father.’ ‘Mar-a-Lardo.’ ‘Nelson Tandela.’ And ‘Nostra-Dumbass.’ And somehow, we got a Peabody out of it,” he joked. “This country really has gone to s–t.”

He closed by thanking Trump directly, calling him “our commander-in-thief,” “Abrascam Lincoln,” “Orange Julius Caesar,” “Greedy McGolfy,” “Dopey McGropey” and “Pumpkin McPornhumper.”

Ben Affleck presented Kimmel with the honor, praising the host for “refusing to back down” and joking that Kimmel had learned that “justice dies in the dark” from him, in his role as Batman.

“Comedy and satire are vital parts of democratic speech, whether the government likes them or not,” Affleck said.

The ceremony, hosted by Mo Amer, also included politically charged remarks from other winners, with Andor creator Tony Gilroy urging the crowd to “f--- the Empire.”