Former Bob's Burgers Co-Star Jay Johnston Faces Legal Trouble Over Alleged Actions During Jan 6 Riot
Being an actor often comes with several perks, though being recognized as such can be both a boon and negative depending on the situations one is spotted in. Former "Bob's Burgers" voice actor Jay Johnston, who played the antagonistic Jimmy Pesto Sr. on the popular show, was spotted back in 2021 participating in the history-making January 6 riot, his involvement in which was first reported by the Daily Beast later that year.
However, it seems as if the actor has finally been arrested for his actions, which saw him actually enter one of the Congressional buildings, as reported by NBC News. Johnston currently faces a felony charge of obstruction of officers during civil disorder, as well as a plethora of misdemeanor offenses such as unauthorized entry to a government building and disruptive conduct, as revealed by the court documents surrounding the case.
These documents go so far as to expose a text message from Johnston that confirmed his involvement, which read, "The news has presented it as an attack. It actually wasn't. Thought it kind of turned into that. It was a mess. Got maced and tear gassed and I found it quite untastic."
Johnston hasn't been on Bob's Burgers since May 2021
Though news of Jay Johnston's arrest is breaking, his presence in "Bob's Burgers" was already cut out upon the original confirmation of Johnston being at the January 6 riot. Checking out IMDb, one can see that Johnston appeared in 43 episodes of "Bob's Burgers" between 2011 and 2021, with his final appearance noted on May 2, 2021, with the episode "Bridge Over Troubled Rudy." For those that don't follow politics, this is the reason why Jimmy Pesto has been absent from the series, and Bob (voiced by the show-juggling H. Jon Benjamin) has been without his usual tormentor.
Surprisingly, the FBI themselves were the first ones interested in identifying Johnston for his role in the January 6 riot, tweeting two images of the actor on March 4, 2021 and asking for any help. This means that it didn't take long for "Bob's Burgers" to respond to the actor's alleged unlawful actions once they finally came to light.
In addition, Decider reported that several of Johnston's former co-stars, like Cassandra Church and Tim Heidecker, tweeted that the person the FBI was seeking was indeed Johnston. Whatever the results are of Johnston's case, one thing is certain, and that is that the character Jimmy Pesto Sr. will either continue to be absent or be recast at some point in the future.