Jimmy Fallon Apologizes for Impersonating Chris Rock With Blackface SNL Skit

A rediscovered Saturday Night Live sketch from 2000 featuring Jimmy Fallon impersonating Chris Rock by wearing blackface made the rounds over the weekend, and many internet folk were calling out The Tonight Show’s host for the bit.

After receiving backlash for the skit, Fallon tweeted out his apology for what he calls an “unquestionably offensive decision.”

“In 2000, while on SNL, I made a terrible decision to do an impersonation of Chris Rock while in blackface. There is no excuse for this,” he wrote. “I am very sorry for making this…and thank all of you for holding me accountable.”

The skit in question featured Fallon as Rock, another former SNL star, in a textured wig and brown makeup painted on his body. During the skit, Rock was a guest star on Regis Philbin’s talk show. Philbin was portrayed by Darrell Hammond.

The skit itself is not featured in NBC’s or SNL’s website archives, but it found its way to Twitter, where reactions to it ranged from shock to anger. #JimmyFallonIsOverParty trended on the social media site throughout the day.

“No one is asking y’all to cancel @JimmyFallon,” one Twitter user wrote. “However, what we are asking from Jimmy is an [acknowledgment of] his use of blackface, why did he do it and an apology to black people for donning such a racist, oppressive and downright disgusting overt display of symbolic racism.”

Chris Rock has not commented on the resurfaced clip.