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US comedian Kathy Griffin has joined the cacophony of voices criticising Jimmy Fallon for interviewing Conor McGregor.
The UFC fighter, who was found liable for the 2018 rape of Nikita Hand at the end of last year, is mounting a career comeback and joined the late-night talk show host in June for a jovial chat despite his dark past.
For those unfamiliar with the civil case, after the rape, Hand’s injuries included bruising on all four limbs, a bloodied scratch to her breast, tenderness to her neck, and a possible tear in her vagina from a tampon wedged so far up that it had to be removed using forceps.
She was awarded €248,603 (£206,000) in damages. He has maintained that the encounter was consensual and subsequently lost his appeal against the ruling.
The decision to platform McGregor, 37, was met with fury from many viewers who claimed it normalised violence against women and continues to allow men to face no consequences for their actions.
The TV host, 51, has not publicly addressed the backlash, which has included a stern repost from Christina Ricci. Now, Griffin – who was the centre of an outraged storm after posting a picture with President Donald Trump’s severed head in 2017 – has waded into the discourse.
Taking to her social media, she said: ‘I do think it was a bad call for him to have rapist Conor McGregor on… I think the Fallon folks made a mistake by having [him] on.
‘I think it sends yet another message to women and marginalised folks everywhere that we’re not equal and you can do anything to us and the perpetrators are still gonna be out there being glorified.’
Like others, she reminisced about the time when Fallon had on Trump, another interview he was heavily criticised for having a chummy attitude, despite the Republican president’s controversial tenure.
She reflected that ‘as the most cancelled celebrity in history’ it’s time ‘we make up our minds about who we’re gonna cancel and who we’re not’ and concluded: ‘As the kids say, do better’.
Her message was echoed in her caption, where she wrote: ‘Fallon, what kind of message are we sending here?! AND can we PLEASE save cancelling people for the ones who actually deserve it?’
Elsewhere in her video, she claimed she had been banned from the show itself.
She explained: ‘I have not done the Jimmy Fallon show since it was on at 12:30 Eastern and Pacific, so I guess I’m banned from the Fallon show, or inappropriate, or too controversial,’ adding that in her case, they ‘don’t have room for you’.
Although she caveated that the TV personality seemed like a ‘nice man’ when she did meet him.
Sources close to the show indicated to Variety that her claims around being banned were ‘exaggerated’.
As for Fallon, it’s been over two weeks since MMA fighter McGregor appeared on the show, and the outrage seems to be simmering on.
A post Addams Family star Ricci shared on her Instagram, declared: ‘Conor McGregor raped a woman so brutally that the EMT who saw her commented on the severity of her bruising.
‘She also had to have the tampon she was using when he raped her surgically removed, as it had been shoved so far inside her.
‘Why the absolute f**k is this piece of human garbage being given a platform on Jimmy Fallon’s show. Shame on you, Jimmy.’
Metro has reached out to NBCUniversal for comment.