Last night, Jimmy Kimmel threatened Aaron Rodgers with a lawsuit after the New York Jets player alleged that the late night host is on the list of Jeffrey Epstein clients that is set to be unsealed by a judge. The remarks happened on The Pat McAfee Show where Rodgers is a frequent paid guest, and McAfee immediately apologized at the top of Wednesday’s episode.
“I can see exactly why Jimmy Kimmel felt the way he felt, especially with his position. But I think Aaron was just trying to talk shit. But did it go too far? Jimmy Kimmel certainly said that was the case,” McAfee said via Variety. “We obviously don’t like the fact that we’re associated with anything negative ever. We like our show to be an uplifting one, a happy one, a fun one. But it’s because we talk shit and try to make light of everything. Some things obviously people get very pissed off about, especially when they’re that serious allegations, so we apologize for being a part of it.”
McAfee’s extremely shaky legal defense that Rodgers was “just trying to talk sh*t” sparked a flurry of jokes on Twitter where people also noted that both ESPN and ABC are owned by Disney, who was presumably not thrilled at their wildly popular late night host being falsely connected to Epstein.
You can see some of the reactions below:
“Please don’t sue me for defamation or fire me for allowing defamatory statements against a fellow Disney employee, it was just talking shit.” https://t.co/dS1ItGsDCK
— Norm Charlatan (@normcharlatan) January 3, 2024
spoken like someone who got a call from jimmy pitaro and/or bob iger last night https://t.co/AR3Jv6OiQg
— Douglas Reyes-Ceroñ (@dreyesceron) January 3, 2024
Just doing a little shit talking with the fellas by publicly accusing celebrities of being a pedophile https://t.co/HpeM66qEst
— B.W. Carlin (@BaileyCarlin) January 3, 2024
Pat McAfee dropping the “Aaron Rodgers is too stupid to know the meaning of his words, that’s why we give him unfettered access to broadcast television” defense. https://t.co/pOrQnRQ6Zg
— Shehan Jeyarajah (@ShehanJeyarajah) January 3, 2024
Pat McAfee looks like your fun aunt’s boyfriend of 30 years who has still never asked her to marry him. Who made this guy so fucking important? https://t.co/4hwVi3r3T0
—
Super Nintendo Chalmers
Disney has gone woke*
*concerned about a defamation suit from one of its own employees https://t.co/NBsRh3ZVlM
— Charlie J. Johnson (@Charliemagne) January 3, 2024
not really sure “Aaron made baseless accusations, you got angry at them, mistakes were made on both sides” is really the cogent legal argument Disney’s looking to make here but you do you, Pat. https://t.co/WOcpzZBj5U
— Go Get Him, Tom (@tcopain) January 3, 2024
If you ever wondered if Pat McAfee was secretly a fucking idiot who lucked into shit due to being charismatic, wonder no more. https://t.co/BJzd9EtbHy
— Fart Hands (@WesIsDad) January 3, 2024
When the “free-thinking” “just having a conversation,” dude bros realize there might be some consequences, the excuses are so pathetic https://t.co/D2EnwPbUV6 pic.twitter.com/ZhRfftJdb5
— Malcolm Jamal Dorner (@WGH2nd) January 3, 2024
i’m crying aaron rodgers fucked up so bad they told mcafee put a damn shirt on https://t.co/QVnFPMWGBj
— chuba (@MostCrucified) January 3, 2024
Rodgers is set to appear on McAfee’s show on Wednesday, so it’ll be interesting to see if he also apologizes or stirs up even more trouble. It honestly could go either way.
(Via Variety)