Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson got revenge after Jimmy Kimmel's comedy routine for the 2022 Emmys interrupted her historic Emmy win. Kimmel, whose comedic skit with actor Will Arnett was the lead-in to announcing the award, ended the skit seemingly passed out onstage. This would have been fine, and funny, even, had Kimmel not remained on stage, under the microphone, for the entirety of Brunson's acceptance speech.
The picture's weird, to be sure.
People online were angry that Kimmel distracted from Brunson's historic win, the second ever for a Black woman and the first one solo. However, later that night at an after-party attended by both Brunson and Kimmel, Brunson playfully got her revenge, upstaging Kimmel in a photograph by obscuring him entirely with her Emmy statue.
This was satisfying to many people, and kept the conversation going in new directions.
First, someone took the time to fully edit out Kimmel, giving Brunson the entire attention she deserves.
Folks immediately noted the similarities between Brunson's maneuver and one pulled in Monsters University.
A person pointed out that Brunson and Kimmel are friends and she has praised his mentorship in the past.
One part of the conversation centered on talking about how Brunson didn't appear to be bothered, even when people agreed that they would have been very annoyed with Kimmel. In particular, people noted that so often women—especially Black women—have to hold their tongues and go along with the joke.
One hopes that she can be happy unequivocally with the win, even with people online being grumpy about Kimmel's bit.
Or, finally, someone said, many things can be true at once.
Hopefully this will not be Brunson's only Emmy, and her next acceptance speech can give her the solo spotlight she deserves.
