Rosanne Barr returned to ABC’s airwaves last night after a seven-year exile.
Just kidding.
Jimmy Kimmel returned to ABC’s airwaves after a seven-day exile.
That was my attempt at a joke. Kimmel, who increasingly delivers speeches instead of punchlines, should try one sometime. (RELATED: The Return of Jimmy Kimmel)
When the network canned Roseanne for offensive comments issued on her own time, that amounted to freedom of association. When the network suspended Kimmel for offensive comments on its airwaves, that amounted to censorship.
The Left sees everything backwards in a funhouse-mirror reflection that distorts reality to its liking.
ABC suspended Kimmel last Wednesday after he attempted to characterize the murderer of Charlie Kirk as essentially subscribing to the same views as his victim. This follows a long-established pattern of people living in an ideological hallucination, denying reality and instead conveniently blaming the people they hate for political assassinations and other atrocities. (RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel Is Living in a Material World)
A Communist did not murder John F. Kennedy, they have insisted for the last 62 years — the John Birch Society or the CIA or some other villain straight out from Progressive, Inc.’s central casting did it. Black Muslims didn’t murder Malcolm X, George W. Bush really engineered 9/11, and a furry-enthusiast sharing a bed with a transgender paramour, radicalized to the Left according to his family, repeatedly complaining that Kirk spread “hate,” and writing anti-fascist slogans on his assassin’s tools did not kill the Turning Point USA founder — a MAGA Republican did it.
MAGA Republicans, at least in the Boston market, could find some irony in a commercial for Join.ICE.gov airing in the block of ads immediately preceding the program. Jimmy Kimmel Live started with a cable-news montage of commentary on the controversy that resulted in the host’s brief suspension — and undoubtedly a brief boost in ratings.
A teary-eyed Kimmel emerged to a standing ovation. He started, “As I was saying before I was interrupted …” He described the country as authoritarian. He thanked numerous people, to include Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Candace Owens, and others on the Right, for objecting to alleged Federal Communications Commission (FCC) interference. He depicted himself as a free-speech martyr.
Through crocodile tears, he said, “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there is anything funny about it.” He strangely depicted Kirk’s assassin as not belonging to any political camp, which seems another way of doing what he did last week: deflecting negative attention away from a hate-fueled Left that silences rather than debates opposing voices. Indeed, Kimmel attempts not just to deflect attention but to flip the script. He tries to depict censorship as coming from the political Right.
After calling the United States authoritarian to start the monologue, he celebrated the country that allows him to say what he wants to say on national television. It was incoherent like that. He quoted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Donald Trump. He never quoted the obnoxious, dishonest words that he uttered last week. He never apologized for saying this: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
It lacked class. Of greater salience for a late-night host, it lacked a punchline.
America needs jokes now more than ever. Last night, Jimmy Kimmel instead gave them another diatribe.
In comedy, boring offends most.
READ MORE from Daniel J. Flynn:
The Trigger on Charlie Kirk’s Slow-Motion Assassination Was Pulled Before His Birth
Charlie Kirk Was a Winner, His Murderer Was a Loser
The Part That the Obits Left Out About SF Power Broker John Burton