Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>\u2019s late-night comeback<\/a> wouldn\u2019t have been complete without a sketch riffing on the situation that got him pulled off the air.<\/p>\n The celebrity guest starring in that sketch about a threat-making boss at the Federal Communications Commission<\/a>?<\/p>\n Robert De Niro<\/a>.<\/p>\n The sketch arrived after Kimmel, who returned to ABC<\/a> Tuesday after several days of being \u201cindefinitely\u201d suspended, broke down the ways that President Donald Trump<\/a> and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr<\/a> had threatened his job and the jobs of his whole staff at \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n As part of the big monologue<\/a>, Kimmel then said that Carr himself had agreed to talk to him from his office in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n But an intimidating character played by De Niro showed up instead.<\/p>\n After a phone call in which the character made a threat against \u201cThe View\u201d host Whoopi Goldberg, the Oscar-winning actor greeted Kimmel.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need to know my name,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I am the new chairman of the FCC.\u201d<\/p>\n He would only say he used to work for Trump \u201chere and there in Atlantic City.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: <\/b>Jimmy Kimmel in big return to late-night: Trump can\u2019t take a joke, tries to get everyone fired<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like the FCC is using mob tactics to suppress free speech,\u201d Kimmel said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the f— did you just say to me?\u201d De Niro\u2019s new FCC chairman replied, deploying the actor\u2019s famous scowl.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know we can\u2019t curse or we\u2019ll get fined by the FCC,\u201d Kimmel said.<\/p>\n \u201cI am the f—ing FCC,\u201d the De Niro character replied. \u201cI can f—ing say whatever the f— I want.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds a little like threats and intimidation to me, chairman,\u201d Kimmel replied.<\/p>\n \u201cStop that,\u201d De Niro said. \u201cLook, it\u2019s just me, Jimmy, the chairman of the FCC, gently suggesting that you gently shut the f— up.\u201d<\/p>\n JK<\/p>\n \u201cBut you can\u2019t say that,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cThat\u2019s a violation of free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah,\u201d De Niro replied. \u201cAbout that. Speech, it ain\u2019t free no more … We\u2019re charging by the word now.\u201d<\/p>\n If you want to say something \u201cnice\u201d about \u201cthe president\u2019s beautiful thick yellow hair, how he can do his makeup better than any broad,\u201d that\u2019s free, he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if you wanna do a joke like \u2018he\u2019s so fat he needs two seats on the Epstein jet,\u2019 that\u2019s gonna cost you.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, how much would <\/i>it cost, Kimmel asked.<\/p>\n \u201cCouple of fingers, maybe a tooth,\u201d De Niro said.<\/p>\n With that, he presented the FCC\u2019s new motto:<\/p>\n \u201cSticks and stones may break your bones.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut words can never harm you,\u201d Kimmel suggested.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, they can harm you now,\u201d De Niro replied. \u201cJust make sure you pick the right words. Capisce?\u201d<\/p>\n But the very busy new FCC chairman soon had to go.<\/p>\n Trump, who he called \u201chandsome\u201d when he picked up the phone, had gotten in touch to let him know that some cases of Tylenol<\/a> had fallen off a truck.<\/p>\n \u201cNow I\u2019ve gotta figure out how to put autism in \u2018em,\u201d De Niro said, echoing the assertion of Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a>, U.S. secretary of health and human services, that Tylenol causes autism. (The actor\u2019s son has autism.)<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be watching you, Kimmel,\u201d he said, issuing one last threat.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe not on ABC<\/a>. That\u2019s up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n You can see the full exchange at the 20-minute mark in the video above.<\/p>\n ABC<\/a> and its parent company, Disney<\/a>, suspended Kimmel<\/a> Sept. 17 for comments he made on the show about the Republican response to the political identity of Charlie Kirk<\/a>\u2019s suspected killer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing anything they can to score political points from it,\u201d Kimmel had said.<\/p>\n Just before Kimmel was suspended, Carr, the chairman of the FCC criticized the late-night host and ABC in comments he made on a podcast<\/a> with Benny Johnson.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way<\/a>,\u201d Carr said. \u201cThese companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or there\u2019s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n The FCC boss\u2019 comment has drawn comparisons to Mafia characters.<\/p>\n READ MORE: <\/b>Jon Stewart\u2019s gold-encrusted, Trump-praising take on Jimmy Kimmel: \u2018Free speech means speech that supports the president\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Carr\u2019s statement surfaced in an environment in which Trump had already called for Kimmel to be fired.<\/p>\n Before ABC suspended the late-night host, Nexstar Media Group<\/a>, which owns ABC affiliates across the country, said it would be dropping \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d<\/a> because of Kimmel\u2019s comments on the show.<\/p>\n Nexstar also wants to acquire Tegna<\/a>, another company that owns TV stations, for $6.2 billion<\/a>. That deal would require FCC approval.<\/p>\n People protested Kimmel\u2019s ousting<\/a> by canceling their Hulu<\/a> and Disney+ subscriptions<\/a>. Comedians<\/a>, late-night hosts<\/a> and celebrities<\/a> spoke out against<\/a> ABC and Disney\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n Days later, Disney said Kimmel would be returning to ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n ABC affiliates owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group have also removed \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d from their programming.<\/p>\n During his first night back on ABC, Kimmel said that his show is still not available on ABC stations in 20% of the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read the original article on NJ.com<\/a>. Add NJ.com<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late-night comeback wouldn\u2019t have been complete without a sketch riffing on the situation that got him pulled off the air. The celebrity guest starring in that sketch about a threat-making boss at the Federal Communications Commission? Robert De Niro. The sketch arrived after Kimmel, who returned to ABC Tuesday after several days of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2046628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[379156,23060,309938,39031],"class_list":["post-2046627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-fcc-chairman","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-robert-de-niro"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Watch-Robert-De-Niro-play-a-thuggish-FCC-chairman-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2046627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2046628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2046627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2046627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2046627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n