Jimmy Kimmel accepted Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s first-ever Peabody Award Sunday night with a speech that doubled as both a roast of Donald Trump and a warning about the state of free speech in America.
Kimmel took the stage at the 86th annual Peabody Awards after being introduced by Ben Affleck, who used the moment to fold in one of Kimmel’s longest-running bits.
“For years he’s used his show to challenge authority on a nightly basis,” Affleck said, “and by authority I think we all know who that really means—one particularly credit-hogging narcissist named Matt Damon.”
Affleck then pivoted to the controversy that helped make Kimmel’s 2025–26 season Peabody-worthy: ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! last September amid pressure from FCC chair Brendan Carr, following Kimmel’s comments about the right’s response to Charlie Kirk’s murder.
“When they pulled his show off the air, Jimmy refused to back down,” Affleck said, adding that Kimmel told him he did so not for his own benefit, “but because he knows justice dies in the dark—I taught him that as Batman.”
“Comedy and satire are vital parts of democratic speech, whether the government likes them or not,” Affleck added before bringing Kimmel to the stage.
Kimmel, joined onstage by sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, opened by noting the company he was in among fellow Peabody winners, including journalists and filmmakers whose work exposed ICE abuses, prison abuse, Vietnam War protests, and resistance to Vladimir Putin.
“I called our president Fatty Shack and Blob the Builder and Liger Woods and the Hungry Hungry Hypocrite,” Kimmel said. “Our Fondling Father. Mar-A-Lardo. Nelson Tandella. And Nostra Dumbass. And somehow we got a Peabody out of that.”
He continued: “Making jokes about the president in America shouldn’t win you a prize. We have the right guaranteed by the Constitution to criticize and satirize our leaders. This is a right that many of us take for granted. It’s one that I took for granted for the first 57 years of my life until September of last year when the FCC delivered a very unpleasant surprise.”
Kimmel said what surprised him even more was the public response that followed.
“I watched as millions of people, even some from across the aisle, objected,” he said. “They spoke up. They marched. They canceled their subscriptions to Disney+ because they refused to allow our freedoms to be bulldozed like the East Wing of the White House.”
Kimmel said those viewers “sent a message” that Americans would not stand by “when comedy and journalism and dissent are censored and regulated and criminalized.”
The speech briefly turned into a Kimmel-and-Guillermo exchange after the host asked his longtime sidekick, “Right, Guillermo?”
“Right, Jimmy,” Rodriguez replied.
“Thank you for always having my back,” Kimmel said, before explaining, “Guillermo said, ‘Please make it fast, I have to pee.’”
Kimmel closed by thanking his coworkers, the Peabody jurors, and the viewers who supported the show during last September’s suspension. Then came one more round of Trump nicknames.
“Thank you to Donald Trump, our commander in thief. Abrascam Lincoln. Orange Julius Caesar. Greedy McGolfy. Dopey McGropy. And Pumpkin McPornhumper,” Kimmel said. “Thank you for inspiring us to fight for our freedom of speech.”
The recognition places Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside a select group of late-night programs that have previously earned Peabody honors, namely The Daily Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with David Letterman, The Colbert Report, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and Saturday Night Live.
