Comedian Jimmy Kimmel found more than half a dozen people on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day who were willing to weigh in on “a very impassioned speech” King gave “this morning,” nearly five decades after the iconic civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis.
The “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host called the segment “perhaps the most disturbing edition ever” of “Lie Witness News,” a running feature in which an actor posing as a reporter asks “ridiculous questions” of L.A. pedestrians.
One young man from Burbank, Calif., praised King’s speech, which supposedly featured Beyoncé and Jay-Z singing backup, as “very current.” Another urged King to focus on his public image and “hit the treadmill.”
The off-screen reporter informed another young man that it’s “very, very rare to see [King] speak in public these days,” before asking, “How did you feel seeing him speak in public this morning?”
“I was shocked,” the man replied. “I mean, I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘How could it happen?'”
The team also injected a bit of absurdist humor into the largely depressing segment. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about his dream,” the reporter told the interviewee from Burbank. “And he said that last night he had the strangest dream: He sailed away to China in a little row boat to find ya, and he said you had to get your laundry clean,” he said, quoting the 1983 new wave song Break My Stride. “What do you think he meant by that?”
“Man, I don’t even know, dude,” the interviewee responded. “Now I’m totally confused.”
Watch below:
h/t: The Fix
