Jimmy Kimmel received a major backlash over social media Friday evening after he compared boy band BTS with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These variants, all the different variants in the world right now, it reminds me of the boy bands in the late 90s and early 2000s,” Kimmel said in the monologue. “You had the big ones like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, and then that mutated into O-Town and 98 Degrees. The JoBros popped up, Big Time Rush, they kept splitting off in different directions, eventually One Direction. And they took pieces and it popped up all over the world until eventually we get to one that’s so contagious it destroys all life on earth.”

Fans immediately took to Twitter Friday evening to criticize the host.

“Jimmy Kimmel has been racist MULTIPLE times,” one of the fans captioned the video. “Yet, he has never apologized and no one has held him accountable despite him being a major NATIONAL tv show host & having access to millions of people. Everyone, including the press, is keeping quiet. Speak up. #JimmyKimmelRacist.”

Jimmy Kimmel has been racist MULTIPLE times. Yet, he has never apologized and no one has held him accountable despite him being a major NATIONAL tv show host & having access to millions of people. Everyone, including the press, is keeping quiet. Speak up. #JimmyKimmelRacist pic.twitter.com/0lQ5a9ZTeN

— Mu⁷ (@130613fate) January 28, 2022

“I want jimmy kimmel unemployed Woman shrugging that racist unfunny imbecile has had a mic for far too long and he got some cousin’s that can go down with him too let’s get actual funny people in the timeslot already,” a fan wrote.

“I didn’t expect Jimmy Kimmel to apologize, especially after BB backed him up like that, but I definitely didn’t expect him to double down within a week,” one of the fans wrote. “Hope this won’t happen again but I won’t be surprised if now he’s going to take every opportunity to do it.”

One of the Twitter users noted that this is an example of Asian hate in America, “Listen, i’m going to use an example to show how disgusting anti-asian hate is. even if bts didn’t know jimmy kimmel at all, him using asian people and comparing them to the ever-so-serious covid 19 virus is pure racism. it isn’t even hidden behind a veil.”

his intentions were and it was malicious. the fact that ashley park, an asian woman, had to witness what he said in first person just makes me even more frustrated. why does a white man, or anybody, need to vilify the existence of asian peoples (specifically east asians) +

— ᴮ ᴱ ₊ˑ????? // bts7god (@bts7god) January 29, 2022

“Sick of white people being openly racist in the name of “comedy”. Constantly comparing an Asian group to a deadly virus is just so disgusting & vile. Jimmy Kimmel & his team know exactly what they’re doing with these unfunny nasty racist comments,” a user said.

sick of white people being openly racist in the name of “comedy”. Constantly comparing an Asian group to a deadly virus is just so disgusting & vile. Jimmy Kimmel & his team know exactly what they’re doing with these unfunny nasty racist comments….

— i miss mimi (@liIjiminvert) January 28, 2022

Another one noted:

the way jimmy kimmel managed to do Another Racism so quickly after the first one that the twitter intern didn't even have time to update his topic caption pic.twitter.com/MqSuDovL6u

— keen⁷ (@tamesis) January 29, 2022

Our team is reaching out to Jimmy Kimmel and will update the response soon. Keep watching this space for more updates.