Jimmy Kimmel tried to explain why comedy is a 'meritocracy' and got taken down on Twitter

Last weekend, Louis CK made his return to stand-up comedy, less than a year after he admitted to a string of sexual misconduct incidents.

The comedian's controversial return to his profession has obviously stirred some discussion in that respective industry.

The most notable response came from Jimmy Kimmel during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. The extract that has caused debate is the following:

Comedy is very democratic. The people who are great, rise to the top; the people who are good, rise to the middle; and the people who aren’t good, don’t make it.

We want to get a lot of very funny people, and we want to give new comics an opportunity to work. I don’t focus on their gender or their skin colour.

I’d never want a woman to think that the reason she’s booked to be onstage at a club is because she’s a woman. The reason she’ll be booked to be onstage is because she’s funny.

Although it's unlikely that there was any maliciousness behind Kimmel's statement it did come across as slightly naive and unsympathetic.

These quotes provoked a Twitter thread from NPR host Linda Holmes, who pointed out why Kimmel's statement about comedy being a meritocracy is fundamentally wrong.

Linda's thread then provided other examples of why Kimmel's statement just doesn't make sense.

HT Someecards

More: Jimmy Kimmel asked Americans to name any country on a map, and the results were terrifying​