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Morrissey Cancels Jimmy Kimmel Live Appearance Over Duck Dynasty Guests, Kimmel Calls Statement “Dumb”

1362069394_morrissey jimmy kimmel article
Morrissey and Jimmy Kimmel

Morrissey is not a fan of Duck Dynasty. The British singer canceled his Tuesday, Feb. 26 performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live at the last minute in protest of the stars of the A&E reality show appearing as guests that night.

Morrissey, a vegetarian and animal rights activist, called the stars of Duck Dynasty, who own a company that makes products for duck hunters, "animal serial killers."

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"While I respect his stance on this, I really do, there's a very good reason why I didn't dump the Duck Dynasty guys for Morrissey," Kimmel explained on his show Tuesday. "And that's because they have guns." The host also joked that The Smiths frontman "keeps finding ways to depress us."

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Morrissey, 53, responded to Kimmel's comments on his canceled appearance in a lengthy statement (via The Hollywood Reporter) on Wednesday.

"I was disappointed with last night's Jimmy Kimmel show wherein our smiling host managed to ridicule depression (70 percent of Americans suffer from depression according to the National Institute of Mental Health)," he said. "He then found time to ridicule healthy eating (the obesity epidemic in the U.S. costs $147 billion per year in medical expenditure), and he also ridiculed the notion that animals should be entitled to the possession of their own lives."

"Furthermore, he found time to jokingly promote gun-ownership — hugely amusing for the parents at Sandy Hook, no doubt," Morrissey continued of the Newton, Conn. tragedy. "He also promoted his special guests [from] Duck Dynasty –- who kill beings for fun. None of the above issues are, of course, as important as Jimmy Kimmel himself, who has finally revealed his show to have an overwhelming loss of meaning. Tune in and relive the intellectual fog of the 1950s."

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But the late night host, 45, didn't back down. "Note to Morrissey — if you have more dumb statements to make, I invite you to make them where I do, on my show," Kimmel tweeted Wednesday.

On his show that night, Kimmel addressed his feud with the outspoken singer, who's also recently slammed Kate Middleton, and Victoria and David Beckham, in his opening monologue. "This has nothing to do with people who eat meat versus people who don't," he said. "I'm completely respectful of people who do not eat meat, but the statement he made is ridiculous. I'd like to invite him to join the show to discuss. I'm an open, even-handed person, and I consider all points of view."

"If I keep saying it, maybe it will be true," Kimmel joked. I've invited him to talk this out, and perhaps we will both be better men for it, but probably not."

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