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Tony Barbieri

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Tony Barbieri
Barbieri as his character Jake Byrd at the Trump criminal trial in Manhattan. Byrd's eyebrows are raised unevenly while obscured by the brim of his cap with an almost surprised childish grin. He has a white and grey close cropped mustache and beard that is somewhat patchy. Byrd is wearing a red, white, and blue baseball cap that reads "#1 Fan" in black block letters against a white background. Byrd is also wearing a backpack over a light blue colored t-shirt that Byrd is wearing over tan colored collared shirt with a red necktie (only an accent of the red tie is visible) the shoulder straps of the backpack frame his necktie and chest. On the light blue (outermost) t-shirt is the word: FREEDON!! (a play on FREEDOM) the text is on a white background with the FREE in white and the DON!! in blue. Beneath the FREEDON!! text is an image of a bald eagle with Donald Trump's head superimposed over the eagle's head. Trump's expression is ambiguous. He is squinting and his mouth is wide open; he could be yelling in pain or attempting to incite a mob. The eagle's right talon is handcuffed, but the chain of the handcuff is broken at the seventh link.
"Jake Byrd" wearing his signature "#1 Fan" baseball cap (in red, white, and blue) in Manhattan at Donald Trump's criminal trial.
Born
Anthony J. Barbieri

(1963-08-26) August 26, 1963 (age 61)
Framingham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupations
  • Comedian
  • writer
Years active1988–present
Known for
  • Appearances as "Jake Byrd" on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
  • Appearance as "Walter "Mole" Molinsky" in Windy City Heat

Anthony J. Barbieri (born August 26, 1963) is an American comedic writer and performer. He is known for his appearances as the Jimmy Kimmel Live! character "Jake Byrd",[1] and as "Walter "Mole" Molinsky" in the Comedy Central tv movie, Windy City Heat.

Career

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Barbieri was the writer of the monthly satirical Monroe comic strip for Mad Magazine from 1997 to 2010.[2]

In 1999, he got his first writer's credit for television while working on The Man Show. Barbieri went on to write for the sitcoms That's My Bush! and That '80s Show.

The Big Three

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Barbieri was part of a comedy team known as "The Big Three" with Perry Caravello and Don Barris. In 2003, the trio starred in the Comedy Central reality movie Windy City Heat, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait and written by Barris and Barbieri, and Jimmy Kimmel. The movie was an elaborate prank on Caravello who was under the impression he had landed his first starring role in a major motion picture.[3]

In 2010, Caravello, Barris and Barbieri started a weekly comedy podcast called The Big 3 Podcast, on Adam Carolla's ACE Broadcasting Network.[4] In 2011 the show moved to Barris' own network,[5] before ending in April 2015.[6]

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

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Barbieri began writing for Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2003, and in 2004 started appearing on the show as the character Jake Byrd.[7] Byrd is portrayed as a good-natured man obsessed with celebrities, and his bits involve him satirizing excessive media attention to celebrity spectacles such as the Michael Jackson trial or the arrest of Paris Hilton. Byrd usually interacts with the fans while they are being interviewed by the media or inserts himself into press conferences. He has successfully fooled major media outlets into thinking he is a real person, including The New York Times, who quoted him in a May 1, 2004, article about the Michael Jackson trial, before running a redact five days later noting that he was a character.[8] Despite this, the Times wrote again about him, as if he were a real person, during the 2007 O. J. Simpson robbery case.[9]

On May 30, 2024, posing as a supporter of former U.S. president and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump, Byrd was again quoted, as if a real person, in a Fox News article about the reactions of Trump supporters towards the former president's criminal conviction.[10] Byrd carried a sign with the words "Free Father Theresa" outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse while interacting with Trump supporters, in reference to a statement by Donald Trump comparing himself to Mother Teresa.[11][12] The words on Byrd's sign was used in the title of the Fox News article. Byrd was also filmed screaming by NBC News in their coverage of the event.[13] In his part as a parody Trump supporter, Byrd gained brief Internet notoriety as a meme on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).[14][15]

In 2008 Barbieri won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! song "I'm F**king Matt Damon". He was nominated for another Emmy in 2013 as part of Kimmel's writing staff for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.[16]

Filmography

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The following list includes shows or films in which he has a small, but credited, role as a writer or actor.

References

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  1. ^ "Fake 'Jake Byrd' Crashed Bernie Rally: He's Tony Barbieri of 'Kimmel'". May 26, 2016.
  2. ^ "Tony Barbieri". IMDb.
  3. ^ "What YouTube Pranksters Could Learn from 'Windy City Heat'". March 7, 2018.
  4. ^ "The Big 3 Podcast Premiere". The Big Three Podcast. October 15, 2010. Archived from the original on October 16, 2021. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  5. ^ "The Big Goodbye". The Big Three Podcast. August 5, 2011.
  6. ^ "For Real ... The Final Podcast". The Big Three Podcast. April 24, 2015.
  7. ^ "Tony Barbieri". IMDb.
  8. ^ "Jackson, on Time to Hearing, Pleads Not Guilty". The New York Times. May 1, 2004.
  9. ^ Friess, Steve (September 20, 2007). "O.J. Simpson Released on Bail". New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  10. ^ Wallace, Danielle; Miller, Andrew Mark (May 30, 2024). "'Free Father Theresa': Trump supporters and critics sound off on Trump's guilty verdict". Fox News. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  11. ^ Colton, Emma (May 29, 2024). "Trump vows to 'win election' as he battles charges 'Mother Teresa could not beat'". Fox News. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  12. ^ Allison, Natalie (May 29, 2024). "Mother Teresa, kangaroo courts and a rigged case: Trump's swan song as jury begins deliberations". Politico. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  13. ^ "Someone needs to do a wellness check on the "Free Father Teresa" guy outside the Trump courthouse". The Recount Media. May 31, 2024. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  14. ^ "Free Father Teresa Guy". Know Your Meme. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  15. ^ McCarthy, Bill (June 1, 2024). "Image shows late-night comedian, not Trump supporter". AFP Fact Check. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  16. ^ "Tony Barbieri". IMDb.
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