A petition to boycott ABC’s late-night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel has reached more than 50,000 signatures after the Live host dedicated a segment of his show on Monday to mock First Lady Melania Trump and her accent.
“We may not get him kicked off the air,” reads the recently launched petition, which calls for the boycott of Jimmy Kimmel Live. “But we can send a message that these attacks on our First Lady will NOT be tolerated!”
Kimmel caused a stir last week with his monologue mocking Mrs. Trump reading a children’s book to kids at the White House Easter Egg Hunt.
“No White House Easter celebration would be complete without story time with our first lady,” Kimmel said.
“Be clever and curious, just like a cat,” Mrs. Trump reads in the video played by Kimmel. “Ask lots of questions. about this and that.”
While his audience laughed along, Kimmel delivered a mocking impression of the first lady’s accent, saying, “Yeah, about dees and dat.”
“Guillermo, you know what this means, you could be first lady of the United States,” Kimmel said to his Mexican immigrant sidekick.
The boycott organizers plan to mail the petition to “the front door of Disney/ABC Studios in Burbank, CA.”
“Let’s send a message that these attacks on our First Lady will NOT be tolerated!” the group said.
Kimmel — who is facing fierce criticism for repeatedly making grotesque gay sex jokes about Fox News host Sean Hannity and President Donald Trump — said last month that he’d seen polling that shows his anti-Trump rhetoric “has cost me commercially.”
“That’s not ideal, but I wouldn’t change anything I said,” Kimmel said defiantly.
***Update***
The petition has soared to more than 100,000 signatures.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson