Serious matter
“This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this”: this is one of many quotable moments from last night’s monologue as delivered by returning comedian Jimmy Kimmel after a White House-led pressure campaign had gotten him off the air last week.
And it made a difference.
As he reminded everyone yesterday, Jimmy Kimmel is no Harvard PhD, rather a fun-loving TV comedian known for his pranks, running jokes (that include hating Matt Damon) and employing most of his colorful family. Yet, in a matter of days, he effectively became one of the — few — beacons of reason we currently have in America. And it happened thusly:
Following a monologue last week in which Kimmel presented activist Charlie Kirk’s shooter as a MAGA sympathizer, Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, an organization that regulates TV broadcasting licenses, implied that it would go after Kimmel’s channel, ABC, if they didn’t take the show down.
ABC and its parent company, Disney, did decide to put the show on hold “indefinitely”. The immediate reason for that was that a couple of local TV affiliates, which are currently trying to buy out competitors and need FFC approval to do so, decided to broadcast other content. Meanwhile, Disney’s sports channel ESPN is in the process of buying out NFL network, another deal that requires FCC approval…
What followed was whidespread backlash from democrats, naturally, from celebrities across the board, including within the Disney family, from a few Republicans including Senator Ted Cruz himself… and more to the point from the public at large which started cancelling their Disney+ subscriptions. We can’t say for sure which lever was the most effective, but Disney CEO Bob Iger got the gist and, lo and behold, reinstated Jimmy Kimmel Live…
Many were concerned, myself included, that the reemerging Kimmel would play it safe and follow the rules that had implicitly been set by Disney so as not to antagonize the Trump administration further. Instead, the comedian did not hold back. But he did so with a degree of subtlety not often witnessed in the current media landscape. He did so with empathy.
He acknowledged why people may have felt hurt by his earlier comments; he reiterated his utter condemnation of Kirk’s tragic assassination; he praised his widow for her graciously forgiving the killer; he noted that the ultimate point of this, his show and everything else in-between was to emphasize our shared humanity. He reminded us that morals have meaning. And value.
To think that a late night TV comedian’s comments would hold more weight than those of the sitting US president in this day and age arguably proves that television has grown as an art form. But it also signals that Donald Trump and his cohort must be seen for that they are: a bunch of dangerous, cynical opportunists that are effectively trying to curtail individual liberties to their personal gain.
And we cannot let that happen.