Quinta Brunson says Jimmy Kimmel’s Emmys bit ‘didn’t bother me that much’

Sept. 13 (UPI) — Quinta Brunson says she wasn’t bothered by Jimmy Kimmel’s controversial bit at the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards.

The Abbott Elementary creator and star reacted after Kimmel pretended to be passed out during her acceptance speech at the awards show Monday.

While presenting the Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series category, Will Arnett dragged an immobile Kimmel onstage, joking that this was the “13th time in a row that he’s lost and he just got into the skinny margaritas back there.”

After Arnett announced Brunson as the winner, Kimmel continued to lie motionless as Brunson took the stage and gave her acceptance speech.

Kimmel faced backlash on social media, with many calling the bit “disrespectful” to Brunson’s historic win as the second Black woman to win an Emmy in the Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series category.

Brunson laughed off the moment in an interview with reporters backstage.

“I know Jimmy Kimmel, and I don’t know, I felt like the bit didn’t bother me that much. I don’t know what the Internet thinks,” the writer and actress said.

“I know him… Jimmy gave me my first big late-night spot and was one of the first people to see Abbott,” she added. “He Instagram messaged me that he saw this comedy and thought it was one of the greatest comedies of all time and he was so excited it was going to be on ABC.”

“So in that moment I think I was just really happy that it was Jimmy up there … Tomorrow maybe I’ll be mad at him. I’m going to be on his show on Wednesday, so I might punch him in the face,” Brunson jokingly added.

Kimmel had nothing but praise for Brunson in an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the Walt Disney Company Emmys after-party.

“She is so unbelievably talented,” the comedian and television personality said. “And I saw her pilot before it came out on ABC, and I wrote to her, and I was like, ‘I don’t know how we got this, but congratulations. You made a pilot that any network would be ecstatic to get.”

Sheryl Lee Ralph accepts the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series award for “Abbott Elementary” onstage during the Primetime Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on September 12, 2022. Photo by Mike Goulding/UPI | License Photo