Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue last night consisted entirely of repeating the news about the Trump administration’s stupid intelligence leak to the Atlantic magazine in a serious not even close to funny tone. I had just spent the evening watching the exact same information on the regular news shows. It’s the same every fucking night with Kimmel. He has simply gone insane about Trump. I didn’t vote for Trump or the DEI hire so I am not going to shill for him here but I will ask one question.
Do the Democrats ever do anything funny anymore?
Does anyone remember when comedians were willing to make fun of the foibles of both parties? Now Steven Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart and John 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.
Most normal people don’t find Trump funny in the least. But conservatives are known for getting their humor from others misery and abuse, so I can understand why you would think it's funny.
I don't think Bill Maher has ever in his 30 years on television been funny. Chappelle also has become unbearably boring, going on long smug diatribes instead of telling jokes..
I probably sound like a dinosaur saying this, but there has been zero worth staying up for since Carson retired. Letterman had some moments, but Carson was the gold standard. Google some of his old clips if you’re too young to remember.
Carson retired when I was in kindergarten, so I definitely missed that wave. Conan was a big thing for my generation, but he was explicitly apolitical and focused more on absurdism. I never got into Letterman. David Foster Wallace wrote a great short story called "My Appearance" that really nailed what I don't like about him.
Here’s a Carson monologue. He was probably even better interviewing guests. The jokes are dated of course, but the political humor of funny and gentle. https://youtu.be/9cKHg3qg1i8?si=Bkm5ei4kuNHokSZy
Janice: Her name is Harris. Just recognition of the fact that Democrats are proud of using factors other than merit in selecting students, employees and leaders. Factors like race and sex. Since they are proud of DEI they shouldn’t complain about people selected by that approach being referred to as DEI hires. Right?
Maher face Trump a reach around. Chappelle now punches down, abs is not funny at all at this point.
And everytime someone says “I didn't vote for Trump”, and then follows it with a bitch about democrats means they're guilty of supporting him by not voting Democrat when they needed to. Because they'd do anything but vote Democrat. Abs then they can deny culpability for the Shitshow they helped create
Sure miss the good Ole days when you could tell nigger jokes around the water cooler. Thank God we got beyond the whole beating up on the crippled kid isn't funny thing. Hopefully all us lazy comedians can finally get back to doing the old stereotypical jokes whilst the majority nods along knowingly.
I am 74. That was never allowed ever as far as I can remember. I am not saying there wasn’t racism 50-60 years ago. But what you said hasn’t been true for three generations.
Can tell you first hand that this is still going on in red county North Carolina. In fact it has never stopped. My boss freely uses the N Word amongst the management and it gets an approving smirk every time.
Suppose it depends on where and with whom you interact. Working in a northern NJ retail location amongst lower middle class individuals the off handed remarks receiving nods of agreement mirror the language and attitudes of the time when America was great and Huckleberry Finn had his adventure.
I honestly do feel a sense of empathy for her. She didn't create the monster, she just exposed a lot of people to it for the first time and caught a very intense response in kind. She was pretty tame compared to what was to come.
Great post, thank you for this! I’m not sure political satire can even exist (much less be effectively comical) in this age when exaggeration, excessiveness, and extremism of absolutely everything is normalized. It just feels like exhausting the already exhausted.
Thank you for reading. The opening sketch on SNL is a great example of this. It’s just reciting what happened during the week. There’s no escalation point for them to take.
The first time I came across the concept of cancel culture—though not by that name—was on the old AOL discussion boards in the early 2000s. At the time, I couldn't help but wonder, "What happened to the brotherly love I experienced growing up in the late 60s and 70s?" That sentiment has been growing ever since
What I remember about this is at the same time she was trying to get Colbert fired she was supporting Steve Salaita, whose job is a professor was rescinded because he cheered on the massacre of some Jewish teenagers in Israel and said that anti-Semitism was brave.
Yes! I remember it this way too. I think this is indeed why "cancel" became the word to describe this behavior rather than "destroy" or something else.
Around 1990 it seemed that the battle -- nay, the (cold) war -- was over & Marxism-Leninism lost. Yet that wasn't the case at all (see Allan Bloom's 1987 bestseller *The Closing of the American Mind*); & this became apparent in the mid-2010s (up to quite recently). I don't think triumphalism is the proper attitude at this point.
> We should be aiming for something higher. By aligning ourselves with timeless virtues
Sure, let's do that ... but the nature of such timeless virtues have to be taught to the young *unapologetically* -- something which isn't easy within the current educational *zeitgeist*.
Fair point. I think similar to the actual Cold War, wokeism as a central, authoritarian force is done, but it’ll continue to pop up in more amorphous, less powerful forms. It’ll be easier to deal with, but it won’t be gone entirely. Gotta keep an eye out for sure though.
Agreed on the second part. I don’t have kids in school yet, so I don’t have a concept of what it’s like in there. But I know what I’ll be teaching at home. I just hope it sticks hard enough to push back against whatever happens in school.
Thanks Peter I definitely got why journalist, political pundants,comedians & others in entertainment liked Twitter it just wasn't for me. Having watched a lot of standup over the years I can picture the old school guys/gals that disliked it because of the obligation it presented them of promoting themselves when they figured the clubs should be doing that.
What was your experience during this time with successful comedians, maybe not nationally known but good enough to make a living at it. Anyway these aforementioned comedians not bothering with social media even though they knew it was a good way to promote their act. I asked this because at the time I was a big fan of The Colbert report but I do not remember hearing anything about that one person wanting him canceled. I can only attribute this to me not liking or using Twitter. By then I was tired of Facebook and more likely to use YouTube and then later Instagram sparingly. I guess my point here is I do think that especially Twitter at the time really amplified events like this that for the most part even more than casual fans of Colbert wouldn't be aware of.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, a lot of those comics either adapted to the environment or didn't last. You could get away with avoiding the internet at the start of the decade, but by the end you pretty much didn't exist if you didn't have an online presence.
Also Twitter was/is a very specific echo chamber. Only around 10% of the population is on it, but nearly 100% of journalists are. So what happens on Twitter gets reported like the rest of the country is impacted/cares, when that's usually far from the truth.
Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue last night consisted entirely of repeating the news about the Trump administration’s stupid intelligence leak to the Atlantic magazine in a serious not even close to funny tone. I had just spent the evening watching the exact same information on the regular news shows. It’s the same every fucking night with Kimmel. He has simply gone insane about Trump. I didn’t vote for Trump or the DEI hire so I am not going to shill for him here but I will ask one question.
Do the Democrats ever do anything funny anymore?
Does anyone remember when comedians were willing to make fun of the foibles of both parties? Now Steven Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart and John 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.
Trump being funnier than 99% of them has completely upended their entire creative output
Most normal people don’t find Trump funny in the least. But conservatives are known for getting their humor from others misery and abuse, so I can understand why you would think it's funny.
I don't think Bill Maher has ever in his 30 years on television been funny. Chappelle also has become unbearably boring, going on long smug diatribes instead of telling jokes..
I probably sound like a dinosaur saying this, but there has been zero worth staying up for since Carson retired. Letterman had some moments, but Carson was the gold standard. Google some of his old clips if you’re too young to remember.
Carson retired when I was in kindergarten, so I definitely missed that wave. Conan was a big thing for my generation, but he was explicitly apolitical and focused more on absurdism. I never got into Letterman. David Foster Wallace wrote a great short story called "My Appearance" that really nailed what I don't like about him.
Here’s a Carson monologue. He was probably even better interviewing guests. The jokes are dated of course, but the political humor of funny and gentle. https://youtu.be/9cKHg3qg1i8?si=Bkm5ei4kuNHokSZy
Yeah, compare his easygoing approach to Kimmel’s constant anger. I can’t let political crap ruin my final years.
Peter: We were fans of both Conan and Dave. Nothing today matches either of them.
Is funny.
AIrish: I am old enough to have watched Jack Paar when Johnny was still in Omaha. 😎
Me, too.
I kid you not.
Me too. Jack was witty, but never cruel. Then there was Steve Allen.
Who exactly is the “DEI hire?”
Janice: Her name is Harris. Just recognition of the fact that Democrats are proud of using factors other than merit in selecting students, employees and leaders. Factors like race and sex. Since they are proud of DEI they shouldn’t complain about people selected by that approach being referred to as DEI hires. Right?
You’ve a point about Ricky Gervais being funny for both sides but Bill Maher is a fucking shill idiot, he never has any jokes on his show anyway.
Wow
It's so unfortunate how comedy died in 2016
Maher face Trump a reach around. Chappelle now punches down, abs is not funny at all at this point.
And everytime someone says “I didn't vote for Trump”, and then follows it with a bitch about democrats means they're guilty of supporting him by not voting Democrat when they needed to. Because they'd do anything but vote Democrat. Abs then they can deny culpability for the Shitshow they helped create
Sure miss the good Ole days when you could tell nigger jokes around the water cooler. Thank God we got beyond the whole beating up on the crippled kid isn't funny thing. Hopefully all us lazy comedians can finally get back to doing the old stereotypical jokes whilst the majority nods along knowingly.
I am 74. That was never allowed ever as far as I can remember. I am not saying there wasn’t racism 50-60 years ago. But what you said hasn’t been true for three generations.
Can tell you first hand that this is still going on in red county North Carolina. In fact it has never stopped. My boss freely uses the N Word amongst the management and it gets an approving smirk every time.
Suppose it depends on where and with whom you interact. Working in a northern NJ retail location amongst lower middle class individuals the off handed remarks receiving nods of agreement mirror the language and attitudes of the time when America was great and Huckleberry Finn had his adventure.
This is the perspective I expected, thank you
100% screw racists, fascists, and inept idiots currently in control of the USA. If that makes me woke so be it!!
Saw the thumbnail and got scared before I remembered the genius that was his Comedy Central show 😅
Comedians are funny. Stephen Colbert is not funny.
Colbert Report was good. Now he is just a less good version of the other late night hosts, none of whom are actually good.
Suey Park created a monster 😂
I honestly do feel a sense of empathy for her. She didn't create the monster, she just exposed a lot of people to it for the first time and caught a very intense response in kind. She was pretty tame compared to what was to come.
Great post, thank you for this! I’m not sure political satire can even exist (much less be effectively comical) in this age when exaggeration, excessiveness, and extremism of absolutely everything is normalized. It just feels like exhausting the already exhausted.
Thank you for reading. The opening sketch on SNL is a great example of this. It’s just reciting what happened during the week. There’s no escalation point for them to take.
SNL came to my mind as well!
The first time I came across the concept of cancel culture—though not by that name—was on the old AOL discussion boards in the early 2000s. At the time, I couldn't help but wonder, "What happened to the brotherly love I experienced growing up in the late 60s and 70s?" That sentiment has been growing ever since
Cancellation is as old as the internet
Wasn’t McCarthyism “cancel culture”? The blacklists canceled the careers of many actors and writers!
So true!
What I remember about this is at the same time she was trying to get Colbert fired she was supporting Steve Salaita, whose job is a professor was rescinded because he cheered on the massacre of some Jewish teenagers in Israel and said that anti-Semitism was brave.
Not surprising.
Yes! I remember it this way too. I think this is indeed why "cancel" became the word to describe this behavior rather than "destroy" or something else.
Suey Park was certainly influential, I’ll give her that.
> The battle is over, and woke lost.
Around 1990 it seemed that the battle -- nay, the (cold) war -- was over & Marxism-Leninism lost. Yet that wasn't the case at all (see Allan Bloom's 1987 bestseller *The Closing of the American Mind*); & this became apparent in the mid-2010s (up to quite recently). I don't think triumphalism is the proper attitude at this point.
> We should be aiming for something higher. By aligning ourselves with timeless virtues
Sure, let's do that ... but the nature of such timeless virtues have to be taught to the young *unapologetically* -- something which isn't easy within the current educational *zeitgeist*.
Fair point. I think similar to the actual Cold War, wokeism as a central, authoritarian force is done, but it’ll continue to pop up in more amorphous, less powerful forms. It’ll be easier to deal with, but it won’t be gone entirely. Gotta keep an eye out for sure though.
Agreed on the second part. I don’t have kids in school yet, so I don’t have a concept of what it’s like in there. But I know what I’ll be teaching at home. I just hope it sticks hard enough to push back against whatever happens in school.
Great article. It had me after reading the first paragraph.
Thank you, that’s something any writer is happy to hear.
Saved. Great.
Thanks Peter I definitely got why journalist, political pundants,comedians & others in entertainment liked Twitter it just wasn't for me. Having watched a lot of standup over the years I can picture the old school guys/gals that disliked it because of the obligation it presented them of promoting themselves when they figured the clubs should be doing that.
What was your experience during this time with successful comedians, maybe not nationally known but good enough to make a living at it. Anyway these aforementioned comedians not bothering with social media even though they knew it was a good way to promote their act. I asked this because at the time I was a big fan of The Colbert report but I do not remember hearing anything about that one person wanting him canceled. I can only attribute this to me not liking or using Twitter. By then I was tired of Facebook and more likely to use YouTube and then later Instagram sparingly. I guess my point here is I do think that especially Twitter at the time really amplified events like this that for the most part even more than casual fans of Colbert wouldn't be aware of.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, a lot of those comics either adapted to the environment or didn't last. You could get away with avoiding the internet at the start of the decade, but by the end you pretty much didn't exist if you didn't have an online presence.
Also Twitter was/is a very specific echo chamber. Only around 10% of the population is on it, but nearly 100% of journalists are. So what happens on Twitter gets reported like the rest of the country is impacted/cares, when that's usually far from the truth.
Good article.
Let’s declare victory and move on.
Thanks! Yes indeed.