Quinta Brunson to Appear on 'Jimmy Kimmel' Tonight: Will She Punch Him?

Emmy Award winner Quinta Brunson is set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday night, and if the history-maker follows through on a joke she made a few days ago, the TV host may have one knuckle sandwich, coming right up.

Brunson won her first Emmy on Monday night for outstanding writing for a comedy series for her show Abbott Elementary and had to step over Kimmel to give her acceptance speech. The late-night talk show host was lying "passed out" on the stage after being dragged on by Will Arnett as a part of a running gag and continued to lie at her feet while Brunson accepted her award.

Frustration ignited on social media, as many accused Kimmel of stealing Brunson's moment onstage. She was, after all, the first Black woman ever nominated in three Emmy categories in the same year, the youngest Black woman ever nominated for best actress in a comedy and the second Black woman to ever win for best comedy writing.

But in a news conference following the award show, Brunson told reporters, "I felt like the bit didn't bother me that much, I don't know what the internet thinks."

"I know him," she continued about the TV host. "Jimmy gave me my first big late-night spot and was one of the first people to see Abbott....He Instagram messaged me that he saw this comedy and thought it was one of the greatest comedies of all time, and he was so excited it was going to be on ABC, so I think in that moment, I was just really happy that it was Jimmy up there."

"Tomorrow maybe I'll be mad at him," Brunson joked. "I'm going to be on his show on Wednesday, so I might punch him in the face, I don't know, we'll see what happens."

She also said she regards Kimmel as "one of the comedy godfathers" and said she was wrapped up in the moment.

Kimmel echoed nothing but praise for Brunson in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, saying, "She is so unbelievably talented. And I saw her pilot before it came out on ABC, and I wrote to her, and I was like, 'I don't know how we got this, but congratulations. You made a pilot that any network would be ecstatic to get.'"

He added that during the moment, "I had my eyes closed, I had no idea where I was. It was one of the weirdest things that's ever happened to me."

While Kimmel and Brunson seemed to agree that it was all in good fun, many on the internet were still rubbed the wrong way.

"If I were Quinta Brunson, I would cancel my TV appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live this Wednesday," Twitter user @MJFINESSELOVER wrote. "He doesn't deserve to have Quinta on his late-night show after being utterly disrespectful towards her during her acceptance speech. Jimmy's white male privilege was on full display."

Newsweek reached out to representatives for Brunson and Kimmel for comment.