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ARMY restart 'Stop Asian Hate' trend after Jimmy Kimmel compares BTS to Covid-19

Jimmy Kimmel tells Korean-American actress Ashley Park, '[BTS and Covid-19] are both very dangerous. You’re lucky to come out of those alive'

ARMY are increasingly getting frustrated with American late-night talk shows for belittling BTS when using them in their jokes. Fans of the global K-pop group first slammed James Corden for calling BTS’ appearance at the UN “unusual” and calling ARMY “15-year-old girls." Billboard had then point-blank asked RM if his fans were involved in chart manipulation. Now we have Jimmy Kimmel seemingly mocking Korean-American actress Ashley Park’s love for BTS and comparing fangirling and BTS to Covid-19. 

On January 21, ‘Emily In Paris’ actress Ashley Park was interviewed by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel about being noticed by BTS’ RM and V for her cover of ‘Dynamite’ on the new Netflix show season. Throughout the segment, fans called out Kimmel for mocking ARMY as he said, “We’ve had BTS on our show and, like, their fans will camp out. They’re probably still out in the parking lot waiting for the next time [BTS] come on. They are absolutely crazed for these guys.”

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Jimmy Kimmel calls BTS and Covid-19 'deadly'

Then at another point, he adds, “You have to be careful with an army because they can attack.” Fan felt that while Park was gushing over BTS, Kimmel need not have mocked BTS’ fandom for laughs. When the actress added that she was shaking when she found out V had noticed her, Kimmel pointed out, “I can see you’re actually getting crazy about it right now.” And then in a hilarious segue, she explained that following the shoutout, she couldn’t talk or get up which she thought was out of shock but turned out to be her Omicron symptoms. Kimmel then joked, “You thought it was BTS fever.”

He goes on to add, “They’re both very dangerous. You’re lucky to come out of those alive.” Fans found Kimmel’s comments especially comparing BTS to the deadly Covid-19 virus insensitive since there was a sudden surge of hate against Asians all over the world as they were blamed for the spread of Covid-19. Well, the #StopAsianHate trend has restarted following Kimmel’s racist joke and American outlets’ sensational reporting. We even had Billboard tweeting that it was Park who compared BTS to Covid-19.

Watch Ashley Park’s interview with Jimmy Kimmel.

'He should have known better'

Angry fans and Asian users have made tweets like, “I’d say it’s surprising but it’s really not. He’s had a history of being racist and rude esp to Asians. He fcked up pronouncing Asian names at the Oscars, had a very racist skit about “k!lling everyone in China” and did old skits with blackface.” Another ARMY tweeted, “This is not what ashley park said, it’s jimmy kimmel. please report the tweet below if it’s not yet gone i am so fucking tired of people being racist towards asians. we’re people like you who’s afraid to catch the damn virus and we’re not here to take the blame.”

One fan pointed out, “The fact that millions of Asians around the world have been targeted, harassed, physically assaulted, among other worse horrible things bc of the ignorant bullsht spread about covid....and they thought joking like that was acceptable....” Another added, “It’s just makes me sick. BTS, Ashley Park and other Asians shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of racism on national TV and from publications like Billboard.” One fan shared, “No coz Billboard shifted the blame on Ashley, when it was Jimmy Kimmel who made the statement. Billboard, you're utter trash. Why make things harder for asian people in general?”

Another angry fan commented, “I am so f*cking tired of the covid jokes being made at asian people’s expense. it’s just the same shit for the past 2 years and it’s exhausting. the way people are just so casually racist and brush off our anger bc “it’s just a joke”. NO, IT’S LITERALLY OUR LIVES ON THE LINE.” One ARMY tweeted, “Jimmy Kimmel is actually a good representation of the supposed “woke” western male population we see on local twt. They don’t think twice about how they have internalised this superiority complex over Asians and think they can get away with this type of casual racist comments.”

Some even found his remarks about Park going ‘crazy’ as misogynistic, “Tf do armys gotta with this. just say ur mysoginistic too that likes to label girls having fun and being exited as crazy. blame the racist and mysogynistic white man and leave armys tf alone dumbas*s.” And while fans understood that Kimmel probably meant the widespread popularity and excitement of BTS, it was insensitive, “I get what he meant but he should have known better. Racists already have the idea that Asians started the pandemic in the first place.”

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