Many may argue that it’s the end times over at ‘land of the brave and free’ USA, but Jimmy Kimmel’s emotional return to television helped in making things better. The returning monologue was concluded with a very special appearance by the one and only Robert De Niro, who did his best impression of someone drunk with power in the Trump administration.
Kimmel, whose show was allegedly cancelled due to his comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, chose to make further statements about the whole event. Before inviting the FCC chair Brendan Carr for a video conference, he said, “In a lot of ways, we are still in the middle of an unprecedented fix. After almost 23 years of airing, we are suddenly not being broadcast in 20% of the country, which is not a situation we relish. So we reached out to the chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr. He has, to his credit, agreed to join us from his office in Washington.”
However, the person on the other end of this call was not Carr but De Niro. He was on a phone call when the video started and could be heard saying, “You tell Whoopi (Goldberg) over there that she better show some respect, or the only view she’ll be getting is from under George Washington, the bridge, not the person.” Jimmy then asked him where Carr was and whether he was just threatening actor and TV show host Whoopi Goldberg. De Niro clarified that he has assumed the duties of the chair of the FCC and that he wasn’t threatening Whoopi but just giving her a “lesson in consequences”.
“I was appointed by ‘Sir’ Trump. “I used to do some work for the man in Atlantic City,” said De Niro. When Kimmel asked what he thought about the FCC using mob tactics to suppress free speech, De Niro said, “What the f*** did you just say to me? Kimmel asked him not to swear in order to avoid fines from the FCC, to which the actor replied, “I am the FCC; I can say whatever I want. It’s not threats; it’s just me, the chairman of the FCC, gently suggesting that you gently shut the f**k up.”
Kimmel pointed out that this was clearly a violation of free speech, and De Niro said, “About that, speech isn’t free any more. We’re charging by the word now. It depends on what you want to say. If you want to say something nice about the president’s thick yellow hair and how he can do his makeup better than any broad, that’s free. But if you want to make jokes about how he is so fat that he needs two seats on the Epstein jet, that would cost you a couple of fingers, maybe a tooth.”
De Niro has been constantly vocal about his disapproval of the Trump administration. During an older appearance on the show, De Niro made headlines after calling the president “f****** stupid”, but this time not as part of a sketch.
