Robert De Niro walked onto Jimmy Kimmel’s stage carrying a baseball bat, but the actor had arrived as someone else. During Brooklyn Week, De Niro spoofed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a sketch about Kimmel’s ongoing dispute with the agency.
The surprise cameo turned Kimmel’s FCC concerns into an absurd confrontation. De Niro’s fictional Carr grilled the host over his jokes about President Donald Trump and demanded “equal time.”
Robert De Niro spoofed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr during Jimmy Kimmel’s Brooklyn Week
The bit aired September 30 on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as Kimmel revisited the FCC dispute during his monologue. He said little had changed since the show returned from what he called an “unexpected FCC vacation week.” “While I would like to say that things have improved over the last year, they haven’t really,” Kimmel said. “We are still being threatened by the FCC.”
That set up De Niro’s entrance. Wearing a navy suit and carrying a bat, he played Carr and repeatedly poked Kimmel with it.
“You’re being threatened by the FCC? Who is threatening you? Am I threatening you?” De Niro’s character asked. “Do you feel threatened by me?” Kimmel replied, “A little. Yeah,” before identifying him as the FCC chairman. De Niro’s fictional Carr then launched into a mock inspection of Kimmel’s show. He cited 192 jokes about Trump’s appearance, including Kimmel’s “Macy’s parade balloon filled with cottage cheese” line.
The sketch then revisited other Trump jokes, including “Mar-a-Lardo,” “Benito Gasolini” and “Captain Cankleroo.” De Niro’s Carr also mocked Kimmel for jokes about Eric Trump, including a particularly crude Beavis and Butt-Head comparison. Kimmel eventually challenged the premise, suggesting the fictional chairman was trying to control his speech through federal power. De Niro’s character then explained the sketch’s “equal time” gag.
“Every time you insult the president, you got to follow it with something nice,” he said. The cameo arrived during Kimmel’s Brooklyn residency, which ran September 28 through October 2.
