Anthony J. Barbieri (born August 26, 1963) is an American Comedy writer and performer. He is known for his appearances as the Jimmy Kimmel Live! character "Jake Byrd",
Career
Barbieri was the writer of the monthly satirical
Monroe comic strip for
Mad Magazine from 1997 to 2010.
In 1999, he got his first writing 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
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.
In 2010, Caravello, Barris and Barbieri started a weekly comedy podcast called The Big 3 Podcast, on Adam Carolla's Carolla Digital.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Barbieri began writing for
Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2003, and in 2004 started appearing on the show as the character Jake Byrd.
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.
Despite this,
the Times wrote again about him, as if he were a real person, during the 2007 O. J. Simpson robbery case.
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.
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.
Filmography
The following list includes shows or films in which he has a small, but credited, role as a writer or actor.
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Rick and Morty (2015) – (TV program) (voice actor)
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Windy City Heat (2003) – (Television film) (writer/actor) – Appeared as Walter "Mole" Molinsky.
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Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003–) (talk show on ABC) – (writer/actor) – His own pieces, including his well-known character Jake Byrd.
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That '80s Show (2002) (TV program) (writer)
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Crank Yankers (2002–present) (TV program) (writer/voice actor) - Performed Niles Standish and the Concierge.
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That's My Bush! (2001) (TV program) – (writer/actor) – A political comedy spoofing George W. Bush (appeared in one episode).
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The Man Show (1999–2004) (TV program) (writer)
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(2000) (video game) (voice actor)
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Pledge Night (1988) (movie) – Horror film.
External links
