Jimmy Kimmel Enlists Batman in Back-and-Forth with Marjorie Taylor Greene That Began with Slap Joke

The talk show host joked that the Georgia congresswoman “might be a supervillain” in a handwritten letter to Batman, the latest volley in their TV and Twitter "brouhaha"

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Jimmy Kimmel made a joke earlier this week about Marjorie Taylor Greene and Will Smith.

Days later and the talk show host and the congresswoman have invoked Batman and the cops, respectively.

In his opening monologue on Tuesday, Kimmel, 54, called Greene "Klan mom" and then read a recent tweet in which she had attacked as "pro-pedophile" a few fellow Republicans supporting the confirmation of President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Then came the punchline: "Where's Will Smith when you really need him?"

Kimmel's audience laughed — but Greene, 47, said she was threatened, not amused.

Smith shocked many at the 2022 Academy Awards when he smacked Chris Rock in the face on stage during the live telecast after the comedian joked about Jada Pinkett Smith's hair.

The Best Actor winner later said it was "too much" for him to have to hear a joke about his wife's medical condition; she has been open about living with alopecia. Smith apologized for the altercation and resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures.

ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty

It was in that context that Greene, a headline-stirring Georgia Republican, responded to Kimmel's joke about her outlandish label of Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney as "pro-pedophile."

Greene said on social media she considered Kimmel's punchline a "threat of violence" and reported it to the Capitol Police, who told PEOPLE on Thursday, "We cannot confirm or discuss any potential investigation" in response to a request for comment and to verify whether Greene, who has a history of provocative statements, actually filed a complaint.

That's how the back-and-forth ended up on Twitter, where Kimmel initially responded in a post of his own: "Officer, I'd like to report a joke," he wrote.

On Thursday, Greene replied to Kimmel, saying, "You weren't joking. You hide your misogyny and your racism behind your 'jokes' on @ABC."

"This was a dog whistle to the violent left to assault me or worse, and your already inspiring fantasies of violence against me," she continued. "How many new death threats will I get that are your fans?"

Kimmel's turn: "The only fantasies you inspire are of silence," he tweeted, also on Thursday. "Maybe you should report this to Animal Control?"

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

That's another joke ("dog whistle," get it?) but Greene pretty much ignored the line when she tweeted back and posted audio of purported voice messages from people calling her crude names and using threatening language.

"@jimmykimmel your fans called my office today in direct response to you inciting physical violence towards me. It's not a joke," she wrote in a tweet that carried the audio. "You knew exactly what you were doing. @ABC and their parent company @WaltDisneyCo should not allow your misogyny & threats of violence."

Back on television (but also on Twitter) on Thursday, Kimmel addressed the whole affair in his monologue.

"What a night and what a day," he told his audience. "I have the weirdest life, I really do. Once again I find myself in the middle of a brouhaha as I appear to have run afoul of probably the worst woman in American politics, Marjorie Taylor Greene."

He also called her "Klan mom" again and repeated the punchline from Tuesday (which again got laughs) before going off on Greene, accusing her of voting to defund the Capitol Police, inciting the Jan. 6 pro-Trump riots in 2021 and being both a "snowflake" and a "sociopath" — or, as he put it, a "snow-ciopath."

Jimmy Kimmel Live

Kimmel said he did not condone death threats of any other kind.

He also showed an image of Greene aiming a weapon he said was from her campaign ad and acted perplexed over her concern about "inspiring fantasies of violence."

(Greene did fire a .50-caliber rifle at a car representing socialism in a separate video in September 2021 — and then raffled off the weapon.)

"If she's going to report me to the police," Kimmel said Thursday, "I'll report you right back."

He then did a bit — complete with a writing desk and "writing music" — in which he wrote a letter to Batman to tell him about a "woman who might be a supervillain," comparing her to the Riddler, the Joker and the Penguin.

He signed it, "Love, Jimmy."

As of Friday, neither Greene not Batman have replied.