Jimmy Kimmel Honors Adam Carolla at Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony
Jimmy Kimmel choked up on Wednesday while honoring adam carolla at Carolla’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony. He said their bond has survived politics that split them for years.
1994 and the first job
Kimmel said, "Adam and I, as you probably know, don’t agree much when it comes to politics," but added, "I love him dearly." He also said, "I’ve never worked with anyone funnier" and "I am proud of him. I am."
Their friendship began in 1994, and Kimmel tied it to work that followed on The Man Show and Crank Yankers with producer Daniel Kellison. That history turned the ceremony into more than a star presentation; it became a public account of how a late-night host and a comedian kept a working relationship alive across political distance.
Snapple, boxing, and a playhouse
Kimmel recalled that Carolla once built his children a playhouse in the backyard after being hired to train him for a TV boxing match. "We did very little training. We would box for about eight minutes and then drink Snapple and go to lunch," Kimmel said. "As a result, I lost that fight, but I gained a life partner."
He added, "Adam wasn’t just a boxing instructor. He was a carpenter and turned out to be one of the funniest people I’d ever met." Those lines put the ceremony on firmer ground than a routine tribute: Kimmel was not speaking about a distant collaborator, but someone who entered his family life and stayed in it.
Politics did not end it
Kimmel addressed their divide on Wednesday after Carolla had defended him last month when Melania Trump called on ABC to fire him over a joke about her having "the glow of an expectant widow." Carolla called it "a pretty typical roast joke" and argued the criticism would not have landed without hindsight.
Kimmel said last month on a podcast with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, "I have some very close friends who think very differently, and I’m OK with that." Carolla sounded equally direct in January, saying, "Jimmy knows who I am on a very deep and intimate level," and, "Jimmy knows me, and he knows I’m not horrible."
The Walk of Fame moment was the cleanest version of that argument: two men with a long record of disagreement, but enough shared history that one would choke up while handing the other a star. For readers, the takeaway is practical and simple — in a business that rewards loud distance, Kimmel and Carolla showed that a 1994 friendship can still outlast the politics wrapped around it.
