Jimmy Kimmel in hot water after comparing BTS to COVID-19

Jimmy Kimmel is in hot water for linking Korean superstars BTS to the coronavirus.

Last week, the television host interviewed actress Ashley Park, who sang BTS's mega hit "Dynamite" in an episode of the series "Emily in Paris."

Park, an avid fan of the group, talked about her shock and delight when band members RM and V shared a clip of her performance on their respective Instagram accounts.

However, the next day, she found out that she had COVID-19, which contributed to her "fog" after she saw the IG posts.

Kimmel said she must have thought it was simply "BTS fever."

"They're both very dangerous, you're lucky to come out of those alive," he also joked.

Most recently, Kimmel said on his show that the COVID-19 variants reminded him of the boy bands from the late '90s and early 2000s.

"You had the big ones like Backstreet Boys, and N'Sync, and then that mutated into O-Town and 98 Degrees, and... the [Jonas Brothers] popped off, Big Time Rush. They keep splitting up in different directions, eventually One Direction," he said.

"They took pieces, and it popped up all over the world, until eventually we get to one that's so contagious that it destroys all life on Earth," he added.

Kimmel didn't specify who he was referring to as the boy band that's "so contagious that it destroys all life on Earth," but fans aired their grievances online, saying that it was easy to make the link to BTS following the host's comment the previous week.

Following Kimmel's latest remarks, #JimmyKimmelRacist trended on Twitter Philippines with over 100,000 tweets on Saturday, while #StopAsianHate also trended with over 30,000 tweets.

Netizens warned of the danger of comparing Asians to the coronavirus at a time when Asian hate is prevalent.

This is not the first time that Kimmel, host of the American talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live," was slammed for apparent racism.

In 2017, he was criticized for mocking an Asian woman's name when he hosted the Oscars.

In 2013, he caused outrage when he jokingly suggested that Americans should deal with their debt crisis by "killing everyone in China" during a skit. —JCB, GMA News