Johnny Depp has called Barnaby Joyce an “inbred tomato”, in a bitchy swipe over the Pistol and Boo furore.

Appearing on the Jimmy Kimmel show, Depp was replying to a question about Barnaby Joyce, who fought to bring Depp and wife Amber Heard to face justice in Australia.

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“He looks somehow inbred with a tomato,” Depp said.

“Its not a criticism. I was a little worried. He just might explode,” he said.

In deadpan and wry delivery, Depp ridiculed Australia’s and Joyce’s crusade:

“[The dogs are] minuscule, tiny teacup things, clearly dangerous in Australia, ‘cos there’s so many poisonous creatures in Australia, you can die at any minute, so the dogs are obviously a problem in Australia,” he said.

“I think the choice they (the Government) made to utilise the taxpayer dollars to globally chase down a couple of teacup yorkies and give them 50 hours to live, I realised the baddies of my ways,” he said.

Australia’s battle with Depp made global headines, drawing attention to its strict quarantine laws.

“Just because he’s Johnny Depp does not mean he’s exempt from Australian law,” Mr Joyce said at the time.

“If dogs come in and they have rabies … the whole life in Brisbane changes. They won’t be so sympathetic to Depp at that point in time.”

Depp and Heard returned to Australia to plead guilty to the biosecurity charges and taped a contrite – and bizarre – apology on an iPhone.

Depp later said he hadn’t watched the recording because “I didn’t want to kill myself.”