Mike Rowe doubles down on defense of blue collar workers after ‘tone deaf’ Kimmel joke

After being scorned on social media, “Dirty Jobs” TV show veteran Mike Rowe has doubled down on his criticism of Jimmy Kimmel’s “tone-deaf” monologues mocking new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for being a former plumber.

Rowe said he didn’t notice his post about late-night host Kimmel “belittling plumbers” went viral because he had been too busy working.

“I would like to apologize for not responding to any of the 22,000 comments inspired by my last post,” he wrote. “I’ve been filming all week and just noticed that my observations of Jimmy Kimmel and a former plumber named Markwayne Mullin have gone viral.”

Rowe said Kimmel’s dig at Mullin for being a former plumber is evidence of “long-standing stigmas and stereotypes” against blue-collar workers characterized as “uneducated, one-dimensional workers who never made it to college.”

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“I did not suggest – even remotely – that a plumber was inherently qualified to hold a ministerial position,” he wrote on X. “What I did say was that being a plumber should not disqualify a person from holding such a position.”

Mike Rowe said he was offended that Jimmy Kimmel criticized new Department of Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin because he was a former plumber. (Michael Buckner/WireImage; Getty Images)

Kimmel, a regular critic of the Trump administration, was recently criticized as elitist for using Mullin’s previous experience as the owner of a plumbing company as evidence that he is not qualified to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

“Trump has a whole new generation of thinkers in line, including his new Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne ‘Chuck Mike Bruce Dave’ Melon – Mullin. Maybe Melon is better,” Kimmel said on air March 24. It worked for Super Mario, why not Markwayne? »

He continued, “But honestly, I mean, if Trump keeps picking these unqualified people to run the department, why not have more fun with it? I mean, next time, instead of Markwayne, how about Lil Wayne for Homeland Security? At least we can get a gig out of it, right?”

Kimmel then doubled down, saying, “I’m not upset that the head of Homeland Security was a plumber. I’m upset that he’s not always a plumber anymore.”

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Mike Rowe said the fact that Markwayne Mullin, right, is a former plumber speaks to “long-standing stigmas and stereotypes” against blue-collar workers. (Photo by Jim WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Rowe had criticized late-night host Kimmel for the dig, saying he was offended by the “suggestion that skilled workers should never move on to something new.”

He asked if Mullin’s career progression from plumbing company owner to Congress to senior Cabinet official was “not the embodiment of the American dream?”

On Friday, he wrote that stereotypes reinforced by jokes like Kimmel’s contribute to a critical shortage of qualified American workers.

“Reasonable people can disagree about what’s funny and what’s not. Frankly, I don’t care. What I care about,” he wrote, “is the extraordinary shortage of plumbers and electricians our country faces, and the long-standing stigmas and stereotypes that continue to discourage people from considering lucrative careers in the skilled trades.”

“Jimmy’s joke – and his audience’s reaction,” Rowe wrote, “is proof positive that these stigmas and stereotypes are alive and well.”

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Jimmy Kimmel, host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” at the Disney Advertising Upfront on May 13, 2025, at North Javits in New York. (Michael Le Brecht/Disney via Getty Images)

Digging even deeper, Rowe asked, “What do their credentials and degrees have to do with their actual skills?” Aren’t we already surrounded by a legion of fully qualified experts who don’t know what they’re doing?

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“Jimmy is entitled to his opinion, as is anyone who believes Mullin is not qualified to lead DHS,” he wrote on X. “The Constitution says otherwise, and so does the Senate.”

Rowe, who runs a nonprofit promoting skilled labor careers called MikeroweWORKS Foundation, concluded by encouraging people to pursue careers in the skilled trades, saying, “Who knows? This could be the first step on your path to president.”

Fox News Digital has contacted Kimmel’s spokespeople for comment.