Why Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon aren’t talking about blackface

It’s been a cringe-inducing story, but if Kimmel had addressed it, that would have invited us all to look back on the skit he filmed for his former show, “The Man Show,” wherein he mocked NBA player Karl Malone.

“Sometime at night, Karl Malone look up at the sky and say what duh hell goin’ on up der?” Kimmel says in the bit, wearing a basketball jersey and covered in makeup to darken his skin.

Kimmel has used his late-night program in the very recent past to influence big cultural and political debates, like health care, as when he dramatically held his baby son on stage as a sign of opposition to Republican changes to ObamaCare.