Final evening on The Tonight Present, Mario Kart superfan Jimmy Fallon did what Jimmy Fallon does greatest: chuckle at his own jokes, make funny faces, and shrug his shoulders. Whereas he didn’t shrink back from dunking on Donald Trump’s journey to the UK, he did pull his punches when speaking about late evening TV’s different Jimmy getting bullied off the air by a rogue president, his FCC goon squad, and a complicit c-suite. “To be honest with you all, I don’t know what’s going on, and no one does,” Fallon informed viewers. That final half, at the least, is an apparent lie. Why Jimmy Kimmel was kicked off the air by ABC will not be sophisticated or complicated. A part of what’s so galling about it’s simply how silly, craven, and apparent what occurred is, and the way none of that stopped it from taking place.
Jimmy Kimmel was kicked off the air for making enjoyable of Trump. Not as a result of he joked about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, which he didn’t do, or as a result of he lied about it, which he didn’t do both. Feedback in regards to the “MAGA gang” attempting to attain political factors off Kirk’s homicide had been simply the setup to a punchline about how Trump can’t even muster a crocodile tear over the right-wing podcaster’s dying earlier than gushing about his White Home renovations. You may watch the tape. You may learn the transcript. There isn’t any ambiguity in what transpired, at the same time as pundits paid to make hay of the controversy attempt to hedge by condemning one thing Kimmel didn’t say whereas advocating for a First Modification that wasn’t straight violated.
That’s as a result of ABC, and it’s company proprietor Disney, rushed to conform earlier than it even received to that time. One of many greatest TV operators within the nation, Nexstar Media Group, is attempting to purchase one other operator referred to as Tegna in a deal valued at over $6 billion and that will require the approval of Trump’s Justice Division. Together with conservative community affiliate proprietor Sinclair, Nexstar introduced it will cease carrying Jimmy Kimmel Dwell! (Nexstar denies this was the explanation.) FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to research ABC and pull its broadcast licenses over Kimmel’s monologue. After which Disney Leisure Co-Chairman Dana Walden and CEO Bob Iger decided to preemptively pull the plug, frightening a celebrity-led boycott in the process.
Trump has been desperately attempting to get Kimmel fired for months. Shortly after Paramount sacrificed Stephen Colbert to get its merger accredited with Skydance, the president made this as clear as attainable. “Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone,” he posted in July. Anybody who retains appearing shocked by what’s happening, like Fallon, simply hasn’t been paying consideration or, worse, thinks that they’ll save themselves by attempting to fake none of it’s taking place. Even ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner goes, in so many phrases, “Wait, what the fuck is happening?”
Perhaps that’s why it felt surprisingly nostalgic and refreshing to look at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert final evening, every tackling Kimmel’s firing in their very own methods however in no unsure phrases. Like lots of people, I watched The Each day Present and The Colbert Report so much in school. Then I finished. In some unspecified time in the future the components started to really feel not solely cringe however aimless. The information was getting grimmer and the stakes much less humorous. However final evening jogged my memory what labored about all of them these years in the past. It’s cathartic to look at folks name out apparent bullshit, particularly when so many others maintain operating away from it, anxiously trying to their colleagues and executives to verify they don’t step out of line, even when the road is drawn by a harmful buffoon. That’s how the Bush years felt. Nothing’s modified and but now someway it’s even worse.
“I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny, and loving guy, and I hope he comes back,” Fallon mentioned final evening. It’s, after all, lower than him if he comes again. Fallon is aware of that. He additionally is aware of he’s subsequent. And that cynical calculus is what’s going to make sure that he’s not the final.
