Jimmy Kimmel on Jay Leno: 'F--- Him'

The comedian tells an audience in New York that his "proudest moment" was the time he humiliated the "Tonight Show" host on live TV.

Jimmy Kimmel is no fan of his new time-slot rival, Jay Leno. Asked what he thinks about the Tonight Show host at a talk Monday night at New York's 92nd Street Y, xfinity.com reports, the comedian and upcoming Emmys host replied without hesitation, "F--- him."

The angry words came after Kimmel expressed admiration for David Letterman, who he'll also be facing off against when his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, shifts from a midnight to 11:35 p.m. start time.

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"How about Leno?" the event's host, Bill Carter, author of The Late Shift (1995) and The War for Late Night (2011), asked, to which Kimmel offered his explicit, two-word response.

Kimmel then discussed the time -- during the tense period when NBC was attempting to restore Leno to his 11:35 p.m. slot, at Conan O'Brien's expense -- that he did a blistering impression of Leno on Live!, replete with white wig and prosthetic chin.

Leno responded by inviting Kimmel on his 10 p.m. NBC show, The Jay Leno Show, to participate in a "10 on 10" segment. In it, Kimmel was even more merciless with his responses to Jay's list of queries.

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Kimmel looked back on the exchange fondly at Monday night's event, telling Carter, "It was probably my proudest moment."

"People, it turns out, really don't like Jay Leno," Kimmel said, adding, "We have not spoken since that time."

Kimmel was spotted in the Mill Basin neighborhood of Brooklyn on Tuesday with a production crew. He attended P.S. 236 as a child before he and his family moved to Las Vegas.