All of the big network late night hosts have to find a way to set themselves apart, and Jimmy Kimmel from Jimmy Kimmel Live! has a doozy. In a segment called "Mean Tweets,” celebrities are filmed reading rather unkind tweets about themselves. Kimmel has now put a new spin on the segment with Mean Tweets Week, in which celebrities will read the rude remarks live in front of the studio audience. As one of the first three to kick off the event, Benedict Cumberbatch closed out the first night of Mean Tweets Week with an awesomely British and frankly hilarious response. Check it out!
Benedict Cumberbatch’s seemingly unrehearsed reading of the tweet only makes his response better. He even had a certain strut in his step as he strode away. Giving the finger without actually giving the finger was a delightfully civilized zinger that was so much more effective than a casual flipping of the bird. There’s nothing quite like humor that manages to be both polite and scathing, and Cumberbatch nailed it. His reaction to the tweet is well worth a rewatch.
Of course, it should come as no surprise that Cumberbatch has presence on screen. Active across the pond in Britain for many years, Benedict Cumberbatch hit the international mainstream with his much-lauded performance as a modern Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock. He made the jump to film with ventures ranging from blockbusters a la Star Trek: Into Darkness to more critically acclaimed projects such as The Imitation Game. Of course, being nominated for an Academy Award does not disqualify one from barrages of mean tweets, but Cumberbatch rose to the occasion to get the biggest laughs of the first night of Mean Tweets Week.
That’s not to say that the other celebrities didn’t supply a chuckle or two. Jeff Bridges and Kristen Bell both put up good showings. Bridges brushing off a tweet about his mental stability was fun, and Bell was a good sport about reading a tweet comparing her nether regions to a prison on national television. Nevertheless, Benedict Cumberbatch won the day with his retaliation to a comparison featuring a cat’s anus, and we can only hope that this was but a taste of the hilarity that will come with the rest of Mean Tweets Week.
You can catch new episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET, only on ABC.
