The great comedy tradition of Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and even David Letterman was ruined by a few arrogant heirs and woke CBS and ABC/Disney executives. They slowly and “woke-ly” suffocated late-night comedy.
Late-night hosts became angry progressives. Like the legacy media which had become just a propaganda wing of the Democrat Party, they lost their way. We need an honest fourth estate (media). I would argue that political satire is the fifth estate. Giving one party a monopoly on either is bad.
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The difference in what I do, in which I state up front that I am a libertarian op-ed humorist, and what Kimmel and Colbert did is that they pretend to be independent arbiters of truth. Their networks are given free airways via the FCC (essentially, a monopoly for three channels) to go into almost every household in America.
Political satire, done well, can make people think and speak truth to power. When the Taliban took back Afghanistan when our ill-planned debacle there ended, the first person they killed was a comedian known for making fun of them. It is why I have a pistol by my bed.
Elon Musk opened up social media to a broad range of uncensored views when he bought Twitter, and the stranglehold died. Back then, if you questioned the Russia Hoax, election integrity and forced COVID vaccines, you were deplatformed.
When Obama ushered in the woke agenda, comedy died, slowly suffocated by its own left-leaning fear of offending anyone and then by small, inorganic mobs of radical leftists who tried to cancel any voice with which they disagreed. Then, the autopen leftists of the “Weekend at Bernie’s” White House of Biden kept Obama’s cancel culture going.
Colbert had his own special brand of self-righteous performative “virtue.” Pretending to be a show host for everyone, he called the country “idiots” for electing Trump.
“The Late Show” spent $100 million (a year) and lost $40 million (a year). Colbert, who pretends to hate the rich, took home a reported $20 million of that — not exactly “sharing the wealth” with his staff. His guests (almost all left-wing, B-level entertainers or politicians promoting something) appeared for free.
The jokes and skits might have been written by the DNC or Big Pharma. In other words, money spent on union writers was wasted.
I am a free speech absolutist. It was not censorship that ended Colbert, it was clearly economics.
Having written this humor column for 25 years now, I have found the Right to be far more tolerant of humor; the Left is perpetually offended and meddlesome. The woke Left would be rich if pretending to be offended paid better.
My only joke that upset a few religious right folks was: In this Christmas season, with wars over the Holy Land and Jesus’s birthplace festering, let’s remember that with science today we are learning more about biblical events. For example, Mary and Joseph were supposed to name their baby Joseph Jr., not Jesus Christ — until Mary stubbed her toe.
And while they were slightly offended, a few religious right types did not try to cancel me. They just voiced their objection to that joke. Weekly, I would get small groups of woke mobs, loud hyenas and leftist loons trying to cancel me.
Selective outrage defines the Left. Green Bay Packer Josh Jacobs was arrested for strangling and suffocating a woman. He came back to the Packers camp, and the NFL said it was “business as usual.”
The media and late night were silent. Jacobs just beats up women; it is not like he introduced Trump at a rally.
Late-night entertainers consider those who harm ICE agents to be heroes. I remind the violent New Jersey ICE detention center protesters to look toward Lady Liberty in the New York harbor. That lady came here from France 150 years ago and still hasn’t been allowed on the mainland.
There is no appetite for humorless DNC talking points lectured waspishly to a dwindling audience. Thus, humor stopped working, and the free markets started. We should celebrate.
Contact Ron Hart at Ron@RonaldHart.com or on X @RonaldHart.