Jimmy Kimmel may have inadvertently stolen some of the spotlight from Quinta Brunson after she won her first-ever Emmy Monday night with a dumb comedy bit, so she stole all of his when she crashed his monologue on Wednesday.
The writer/producer/star of “Abbott Elementary” picked up the Emmy for her Writing on the pilot of the hit ABC comedy, but had to take to the stage after (or actually during) an ongoing bit where Kimmel pretended to be drunk and passed out.
The joke was that he’d gotten plastered after his show lost again to John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” so Will Arnett had to drag him out onto the stage. But as Quinta came up, Jimmy did not get up.
Instead, Will dragged him slightly out of her way. The moment immediately went viral on social media, and not for any good reasons, with many believe that he stole from her moment.
Quinta joked backstage that while she wasn’t mad at the moment — still riding the high from winning — she would maybe change her mind by the time she appeared on his show Wednesday. “Maybe I’ll punch him in the face,” she told reporters.
Well, that didn’t happen, but she did come walking out, Emmy in hand, during his monologue. And we think she was somewhat gracious waiting until the 11:44 mark to interrupt him, considering he bogarted her entire moment at the Emmys.
“You know how you win an Emmy, you only have 45 second to do an acceptance speech, which is, like, not that much time?” she asked. “Yeah, and then you get less time because someone does a dumb comedy bit that goes on a bit too long?”
She then told she was wondering, “or more demanding,” if she could go ahead and thank some people that she maybe didn’t have time to thank on Monday.
Later, during her actual interview, Kimmel quipped, “Congratulations on your Emmy. I missed it, how did it go?”
To catch his viewers up to speed on what they were referring to, Jimmy shared a clip from the moment at the Emmys where Quinta had to walk around him to get to the mic.
“Now, that was a dumb comedy bit that we thought would be funny,” Kimmel said. “And then, people got upset, they said I stole your moment and maybe I did.”
“I’m very sorry if I did do that,” Kimmel said, but then after a quick beat, he said with true sincerity, “I’m sorry I did do that, actually.” He went on to say that he’d never want to upset her because he thinks so much of her.
Quinta graciously let him say his piece and thanked him for his apology. But she also said that she was so in the moment, winning her first Emmy, she didn’t really see any of the controversy that had Twitter up in virtual arms.
“I saw, I saw you and I saw Will Arnett, and my Emmy and I was like, oh my god, I’m having so much fun, but thank you that’s kind,” she told him.
Kimmel then added, “I should also say, it was really Will Arnett’s fault, the whole thing.”
Quinta shared how exciting it was to win an Emmy at her first Emmys, and how exciting it was to get to see and hang out with other people in the industry, including a hilarious anecdote.
When Kimmel asked if she’d interacted with anyone knew, she said that she was excited to sit next to Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni, only she didn’t know their names off the top of her head.
“Black people call them Law & Order,” she told Kimmel. “The lady is Law, the man is Order.” She then had to check with the audience. “I am saying it’s Black people, maybe it’s just me.” But she did get at least one person who agreed with her — so we’ll say the jury is still out.
When she told Kimmel that she had to leave the afterparty early because she had an early call time at work, he told her that really the day after the Emmys should be a holiday for people in TV.
“As an actress, I’m really upset at the producer of my show for making that the case,” Quinta told him. “As the producer of my show, I feel like all the actors should fall in line and do what they need to do so we can get the show shot.”
All that hard work is certainly paying off. The Emmy-winning “Abbott Elementary” returns for its full-sized second season next Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
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