When Jimmy Kimmel was speaking about the new variants of coronavirus during yet another episode of his live show on Thursday, he compared the waves of the pandemic to the massive obsession with boy bands yet again, just a week after he met viral backlash over such comparisons with BTS.
"These variants, all the different variants in the world right now, it reminds me of the boy bands in the late 90s and early 2000s", Kimmel said during a monologue on COVID-19. "You had the big ones like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, and then that mutated into O-Town and 98 Degrees. The JoBros popped up, Big Time Rush, they kept splitting off in different directions, eventually One Direction".
Whether it was a subtle attempt to smooth things over after he said "both [COVID and BTS are] very dangerous" and actress Ashley Park was "lucky to come out of those alive" last week, or just an innocent remark, it did not work for Kimmel at all. After dying down, the wave of condemnation has hit him again, propelling the hashtag #JimmyKimmelRacist back to the top of worldwide Twitter trends.
Angry users have already resurfaced old grievances and less than witty jokes that Kimmel made in the past on the same topic. Among the unpleasant memories was the "kill everyone in China" joke and the time Kimmel mocked an Asian name at an Oscars ceremony.
After the new comparison between boy bands and COVID, users refused to believe it was ignorance behind Kimmel's punchline, saying that he "knew what he was doing".
This scandal went way beyond Kimmel and BTS. Last week, when Kimmel compared the coronavirus pandemic with so-called "BTS fever", Billboard appeared to have attributed his words to his guest, Ashley Park. Although the outlet edited the article, it still received accusations of racism, fuelling stereotypes, and placing the controversial words in the mouth of an Asian woman.
Now, that the scandal has reignited, users have blasted Twitter for what they see as an inaccurate description of their grievances.
Neither Kimmel, nor ABC has made any comments regarding the matter. Ashley Park has not directly commented on the issue either.