Quinta Brunson had a pitch-perfect response to the awkwardly flat gag Jimmy Kimmel pulled during her acceptance speech at the Emmys on Tuesday night.
"I don't know. Tomorrow, maybe I'll be mad at him," a light-hearted Brunson told reporters after the ceremony. "I'm going to be on his show on Wednesday, so I might punch him in the face. I don't know, we’ll see what happens.”
Doing a bit for their presentation of the award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, actor Will Arnett entered the stage dragging the body of a too-drunk Kimmel. After Brunson was announced as the winner — a major achievement that served as a kind of icing on the cake for the beloved debut season of her ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary — and reached the stage, Kimmel committed and remained lying next to the mic while she gave her acceptance speech.
Many found Kimmel’s joke to be disrespectful to Brunson, distracting the audience from her big moment as the first Black woman to win a solo Emmy for writing.
Brunson, for her part, played into the bit, awkwardly maneuvering around Kimmel before telling him, “Jimmy, wake up, I won. Jimmy? Okay, hold my phone.” Backstage, Brunson, holding her trophy, appeared unbothered when asked about what she made of the moment.
“I know Jimmy Kimmel and I don't know — I felt like the bit didn't bother me that much," she said, before cheekily referencing the brewing storm online. “I don't know what the internet thinks."
While those online quickly came for Kimmel, Brunson gave credit to him as an early supporter of her show. “Jimmy gave me my first big late night spot and was one of the first people to see Abbott,” Brunson said. “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, I think, in that moment, I was just really happy that it was Jimmy up there. I kind of consider him one of the comedy godfathers.”
At some point in the night, Brunson appeared to jokingly lean into a perceived beef with Kimmel, taking a photo with him while using her Emmy to cover his face:
The highly anticipated second season of Abbott Elementary will premiere on ABC on Sept. 21.
