I dont watch Jimmy Fallon, but how incredibly thin skinned do you need to be to find Jimmy Fallon offensive? Is he able to be anything but adorable? Is he really ripping trump good these days?
"I’ve said it again and again: a private company has every right to fire an employee for conduct unbecoming their brand or whatever"
So you're basically a right-to-work guy. "Conduct unbecoming their brand," and you're out on the street whenever the bosses get a whiff that you're not 100% a company man.
Two down, one to go. Good riddance. Colbert and Kimmel along with John Oliver have become insufferable. They force you to ask do the Democrats ever do anything funny anymore because they certainly would never joke about it.
Does anyone remember when comedians were willing to make fun of the foibles of both parties? Now Colbert, Kimmel, and Oliver are so one sided they sound like scolds. Only Bill Maher, Ricky Gervais and Dave Chappelle are willing to take shots at both sides. They remain funny. The others not.
Sorry, dude -- There's only one party throwing people in prison camps, then finding out who they are. There's only one party breaking the law with impunity. Only one party forcing women to carry failed fetuses to term. Only one party preventing children from avoidiing measles and polio. And only one party supporting a totalitarian autocrat. Is that what you would call foibles?
Michael: Sorry dude. You are right about abortion and vaccines but the other fuck ups opened our borders to millions with no vetting, think that men can become women and belong in women’s sports and private spaces and that children should be mutilated in pursuit of the impossible. They also believe that we should discriminate on the basis of race and sex today because we used to discriminate on the basis of sex and race. Trump is insane but Biden was senile and Kamala clearly an ignorant DEI hire. A plague on both their houses and on any comedian who can’t see and joke about the flaws on both sides.
Aptly Named Susan: If DEI wasn’t being used to select and promote people on other than merit why are the Democrats so vehemently opposed to ending it? If you remember the three comedians I mentioned poking fun at decrepit Biden your memory is as flawed as his mind was. I have never voted for Trump and believe he is an ignorant jerk. That’s who I am.
"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little frightened."
I uttered similarly awful words to a friend yesterday. Thanks for writing this piece that, in many ways, describes how I feel, yet don't have the talent to put on paper.
Here’s what I don’t understand; why is no one mentioning that Jimmy Kimmel did not say a bad thing about Charlie Kirk. He said a bad thing about Donald Trump. He implied that Donald Trump doesn’t care about Charlie Kirk.
Not once not one time at all did Jimmy Kimmel say a bad thing or a dismissive thing about Charlie Kirk.
He said it looks like Trump doesn’t care because it looks like Trump doesn’t care
Forget the free speech argument, right now, the basic ethical argument of whether this was a punishable offense needs to be discussed because the man did not say a bad thing about Charlie Kirk!
Yeah man! Can we just get back to the good old days of unpopular opinions being suppressed because they aren’t profitable? In America, true patriots know that the “free” market is the only authority we should ever grovel to.
If you get canceled from CNN, I look forward to you and Amber starting a pirate radio station. Hopefully, Roy will join you too, but I don’t know if he’s as full-on crazy (in the best way) as the two of you.
The right doesn't have a late night equivalent to Colbert & Kimmel. It's a problem for them because they have no way to flood the narrative or control the messaging between 11:30 & bedtime. So they opt to fire the messengers.
I have mixed feelings on this. For the record, I have disliked Trump for 10 years. On the other hand, it’s clear that Late Night isn’t what is once was from a business perspective (not a political issue). Add in hosts started going after 50% of politicians (instead of all of them) and they lost even more of their audience. The tone also changed from “wink & smile” ribbing to “contemptuous & condescending”. This makes them much more of a risk from a corporate branding standpoint. Kimmel has drifted into left-wing disinformation while pretending to have the moral high ground. As always, Dems need to look at themselves to understand how they got so toxic that Trump was seen as an improvement.
And women in shelters for battered women should ask themselves what they did to make their wife-beating husbands so angry. Your hear how bad victim blaming sounds in a different context, right?
Making a business decision is one thing; having the government telling a media company to fire one of their employees because they don’t like what he/she/they are saying is very, very different.
Late night TV pokes fun at both political parties, not just 50% of them. However, recent comments and jokes may seem particularly geared towards the GOP but this is because they control the WH and both chambers of Congress, and humor often challenges those of whom are in positions of power. [I won't even address how the absurdist policies we are seeing in recent months provide a very fertile ground of material for comedians.]
Kimmel’s suspension (and likely termination) wasn’t a business decision. It also wasn’t because his comments during the monologue in question would cause such blowback that ABC was worried about their brand being sullied. Rather, it was because one very powerful person didn’t like that his own hypocrisy was the butt of a joke and then opted to use the weight of his position to intimidate ABC into making the decision to suspend/terminate Kimmel. That is chilling.
One other point about it being a “business decision” for ABC. We will likely see a large uptick in subscriber cancellations for ABC’s various streaming platforms over the next few weeks. When you combine that with make goods that ABC will have to pay advertisers for pulling Kimmel from their schedule, the losses they will sustain will be palpable.
Trump is the architect of "ribbing and condescending", and late night hosts responded likewise. And Trump has constantly banged the drum that Democrats are "toxic" (and he's used many more inflammatory insults as well). Sorry. The current mess of the Republican Party owns the title "toxic."
Totally true. What this illustrates though is that Dems are just following suit, and are therefore negating any potential advantage on the issue. Trump is great at bringing people down to his level, and they obliged.
The exposure has to come and it damn well better come soon. Epstein has given us a key to the hell that corruption has brought us. If the country wakes up and sees that EVERYTHING is connected and that the way to save us(US) and the world is to take down that exclusive cartel, we can start truly draining the swamp.
Isn’t it interesting how QAnon has set us up to not be believed? I’m saying the Kirk assassination, the obvious corruption of Netanyahu, the dismantling of America, silencing late night talk show hosts and the media in general (including our beloved PBS and NPR), the effing Republican Party for chrissake - it is ALL connected.
And the power of making these connections makes me an official conspiracy nut. Listen to Whitney Webb. I dare you.
I just hope they go far enough that we are finally able to stop them. (And that my cell is padded!)
Professor here who has gotten into comedy to escape the muzzling rampaging in higher education. Welp. Where to turn now?
I dont watch Jimmy Fallon, but how incredibly thin skinned do you need to be to find Jimmy Fallon offensive? Is he able to be anything but adorable? Is he really ripping trump good these days?
"I’ve said it again and again: a private company has every right to fire an employee for conduct unbecoming their brand or whatever"
So you're basically a right-to-work guy. "Conduct unbecoming their brand," and you're out on the street whenever the bosses get a whiff that you're not 100% a company man.
Two down, one to go. Good riddance. Colbert and Kimmel along with John Oliver have become insufferable. They force you to ask do the Democrats ever do anything funny anymore because they certainly would never joke about it.
Does anyone remember when comedians were willing to make fun of the foibles of both parties? Now Colbert, Kimmel, and Oliver are so one sided they sound like scolds. Only Bill Maher, Ricky Gervais and Dave Chappelle are willing to take shots at both sides. They remain funny. The others not.
Sorry, dude -- There's only one party throwing people in prison camps, then finding out who they are. There's only one party breaking the law with impunity. Only one party forcing women to carry failed fetuses to term. Only one party preventing children from avoidiing measles and polio. And only one party supporting a totalitarian autocrat. Is that what you would call foibles?
Michael: Sorry dude. You are right about abortion and vaccines but the other fuck ups opened our borders to millions with no vetting, think that men can become women and belong in women’s sports and private spaces and that children should be mutilated in pursuit of the impossible. They also believe that we should discriminate on the basis of race and sex today because we used to discriminate on the basis of sex and race. Trump is insane but Biden was senile and Kamala clearly an ignorant DEI hire. A plague on both their houses and on any comedian who can’t see and joke about the flaws on both sides.
"Kamala clearly an ignorant DEI hire" tells us who you are, Dave.
Aptly Named Susan: If DEI wasn’t being used to select and promote people on other than merit why are the Democrats so vehemently opposed to ending it? If you remember the three comedians I mentioned poking fun at decrepit Biden your memory is as flawed as his mind was. I have never voted for Trump and believe he is an ignorant jerk. That’s who I am.
So, when can we expect to hear from Seinfeld/Chappelle/Rogan and all the other "free speech warriors" on this?
"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little frightened."
I uttered similarly awful words to a friend yesterday. Thanks for writing this piece that, in many ways, describes how I feel, yet don't have the talent to put on paper.
🫗
Here’s what I don’t understand; why is no one mentioning that Jimmy Kimmel did not say a bad thing about Charlie Kirk. He said a bad thing about Donald Trump. He implied that Donald Trump doesn’t care about Charlie Kirk.
Not once not one time at all did Jimmy Kimmel say a bad thing or a dismissive thing about Charlie Kirk.
He said it looks like Trump doesn’t care because it looks like Trump doesn’t care
Forget the free speech argument, right now, the basic ethical argument of whether this was a punishable offense needs to be discussed because the man did not say a bad thing about Charlie Kirk!
So scary! For our kids and grandkids especially!
Yeah man! Can we just get back to the good old days of unpopular opinions being suppressed because they aren’t profitable? In America, true patriots know that the “free” market is the only authority we should ever grovel to.
If you get canceled from CNN, I look forward to you and Amber starting a pirate radio station. Hopefully, Roy will join you too, but I don’t know if he’s as full-on crazy (in the best way) as the two of you.
The right doesn't have a late night equivalent to Colbert & Kimmel. It's a problem for them because they have no way to flood the narrative or control the messaging between 11:30 & bedtime. So they opt to fire the messengers.
I have mixed feelings on this. For the record, I have disliked Trump for 10 years. On the other hand, it’s clear that Late Night isn’t what is once was from a business perspective (not a political issue). Add in hosts started going after 50% of politicians (instead of all of them) and they lost even more of their audience. The tone also changed from “wink & smile” ribbing to “contemptuous & condescending”. This makes them much more of a risk from a corporate branding standpoint. Kimmel has drifted into left-wing disinformation while pretending to have the moral high ground. As always, Dems need to look at themselves to understand how they got so toxic that Trump was seen as an improvement.
And women in shelters for battered women should ask themselves what they did to make their wife-beating husbands so angry. Your hear how bad victim blaming sounds in a different context, right?
This is silly. “Democrats should ask themselves how their brand became so toxic” is victim blaming?
"drifted into left-wing disinformation" + "how they got so toxic" ...
You can't even do both-sides-ism remotely convincingly.
What did I saw was wrong? Legitimately interested
Making a business decision is one thing; having the government telling a media company to fire one of their employees because they don’t like what he/she/they are saying is very, very different.
Late night TV pokes fun at both political parties, not just 50% of them. However, recent comments and jokes may seem particularly geared towards the GOP but this is because they control the WH and both chambers of Congress, and humor often challenges those of whom are in positions of power. [I won't even address how the absurdist policies we are seeing in recent months provide a very fertile ground of material for comedians.]
Kimmel’s suspension (and likely termination) wasn’t a business decision. It also wasn’t because his comments during the monologue in question would cause such blowback that ABC was worried about their brand being sullied. Rather, it was because one very powerful person didn’t like that his own hypocrisy was the butt of a joke and then opted to use the weight of his position to intimidate ABC into making the decision to suspend/terminate Kimmel. That is chilling.
One other point about it being a “business decision” for ABC. We will likely see a large uptick in subscriber cancellations for ABC’s various streaming platforms over the next few weeks. When you combine that with make goods that ABC will have to pay advertisers for pulling Kimmel from their schedule, the losses they will sustain will be palpable.
Trump is the architect of "ribbing and condescending", and late night hosts responded likewise. And Trump has constantly banged the drum that Democrats are "toxic" (and he's used many more inflammatory insults as well). Sorry. The current mess of the Republican Party owns the title "toxic."
Totally true. What this illustrates though is that Dems are just following suit, and are therefore negating any potential advantage on the issue. Trump is great at bringing people down to his level, and they obliged.
Thank you, MIB. Absolutely accurate.
The exposure has to come and it damn well better come soon. Epstein has given us a key to the hell that corruption has brought us. If the country wakes up and sees that EVERYTHING is connected and that the way to save us(US) and the world is to take down that exclusive cartel, we can start truly draining the swamp.
Isn’t it interesting how QAnon has set us up to not be believed? I’m saying the Kirk assassination, the obvious corruption of Netanyahu, the dismantling of America, silencing late night talk show hosts and the media in general (including our beloved PBS and NPR), the effing Republican Party for chrissake - it is ALL connected.
And the power of making these connections makes me an official conspiracy nut. Listen to Whitney Webb. I dare you.
I just hope they go far enough that we are finally able to stop them. (And that my cell is padded!)
I’m reminded of the times that HUAC prosecuted folks for being “ prematurely anti fascist”.