Jimmy Kimmel responded to angry gamers on Monday night after a segment poking fun at YouTube’s new platform, YouTube Gaming, garnered a considerable amount of backlash last week.
Friday’s video, in which the comedian makes fun of those spending their time watching other people play video games, has over 500,000 views and almost 56,000 dislikes on YouTube. According to Kimmel, it’s one of the most disliked videos the ABC late-night show has ever uploaded.
“Watching another person play video games is like going to a restaurant and having another person eat your food for you,” Kimmel joked on Friday. “When I was a kid you only watched other kids play video games when you ran out of quarters.”
The video sparked mean tweets, as well as death threats, and even insults hurled at his wife and daughter. Kimmel read some of the gems to his audience.
“You stupid fat boy, people love watching people play video games you are just mad because you will be job less in 1 year you stupid bearded gorilla,” one offended gamer wrote, while another called him an “irrelevant old man.”
Kimmel’s not sorry about Friday’s episode, though, but he does encourage video gamers to invite him over to watch other people play these games so he can understand the appeal.
“People got so very fired up about this,” he said. “Why? I’m not sure, but I am an open-minded person. Maybe I am missing out on something, maybe it’s a lot of fun… so if one of you wants to invite me over, we can watch people playing video games together, and who knows? Maybe I’ll like it.”
Watch the video above, and watch Friday’s controversial video below.
