He may have performed in blackface and mocked Caitlyn Jenner, but don’t let that fool you into thinking Jimmy Kimmel is losing new ways to earn a living. It’s quite the opposite — he’s thriving.
College bowl games have some ridiculous names. The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, Beef ‘o’ Brady’s Bowl, and the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, are a few that come to mind. But we have a new contender for the most ridiculous bowl game name — the Jimmy Kimmel L.A. Bowl.
The late-night talk show host announced on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Wednesday night that the first edition of the freshly named bowl game will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA, on December 18.
The game will select the number one team from the Mountain West Conference against the number five team from the PAC-12.
“This is not a joke,” Kimmel said during his opening monologue. “This is a real bowl game named after me, so mark your calendars. … It’s like an early Christmas gift for all of us.”
Another lavish Christmas gift for the wealthy elite is always nice to see.
According to Yahoo Sports, Kimmel signed a multi-year deal with SoFi stadium, which is a first of its kind. The L.A. Bowl has been delayed a year — originally scheduled to kick off in December 2020 — due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and its inaugural game will be the first college football game played at the stadium.
“Jimmy Kimmel L.A. Bowl will not only bring an incredible game-day experience to fans, but it will also focus on supporting our community 365 days a year,” executive director Jason Gannon said.
The bowl game is currently the only bowl to be named after an individual, a fact Kimmel seems to relish.
“Never before has a bowl game been named after a human being (as far as I know, I didn’t check),” Kimmel said in a statement announcing the news. “On December 18, my dream of being forever enshrined alongside orange, rose, cotton and peach comes true.”
Kimmel has made headlines as of late, getting himself in hot water after comparing Jenner to Donald Trump.
“Are we sure that isn’t Donald Trump in a Caitlyn Jenner wig?” asked Kimmel last week. “She’s just trying to get attention. Caitlyn Jenner has a better chance of being the next Batman than she does governor of California. She knows little to nothing about anything, really.”
Jenner responded on Twitter, accusing Kimmel of believing that “trans women are simply men with wigs on.”
Last night @jimmykimmel called me Donald Trump with a wig. He obviously believes that trans women are simply men with wigs on. Where is the outrage from the left or LGBT community? Being WOKE must be optional if you are a Democrat. pic.twitter.com/1PITkYE01w
— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) June 11, 2021
Kimmel’s past use of blackface has also come under scrutiny this year, as “cancel culture” has started picking off celebrities one by one. Somehow, Kimmel has avoided cancellation, continuing to host his late-night show on ABC after apologizing for impersonating NBA player Karl Malone in the 1990s.
“On KROQ radio in the mid-90s, I did a recurring impression of the NBA player Karl Malone. In the late 90s, I continued impersonating Malone on TV. We hired makeup artists to make me look as much like Karl Malone as possible,” Kimmel admitted. “I never considered that this might be seen as anything other than an imitation of a fellow human being, one that had no more to do with Karl’s skin color than it did his bulging muscles and bald head.”
“Looking back, many of these sketches are embarrassing,” he continued, “and it is frustrating that these thoughtless moments have become a weapon used by some to diminish my criticisms of social and other injustices.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].