A comedian’s job is to observe the absurdities of life, tell jokes and make people laugh. They may have different interests, routines, senses of humour and focus on a variety of individuals and situations, but that’s what they largely do.
When a comedian deviates from this particular criteria, the line between humour and commentary can sometimes begin to blur. What’s funny to some could be offensive to others. That’s part of the nature of this profession, of course. Always has been, always will be.
But what if the intentions of certain remarks cloaked in comedy are clearly the opposite? That’s what Jimmy Kimmel is going to have to answer for – and it’s not the first time, either.
Kimmel started off as a radio host, and shifted to television on Comedy Central shows like Win Ben Stein’s Money and The Man Show. He was signed by ABC in 2003 to host his own late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which is still on today. He’s hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards and Academy Awards on multiple occasions. He’s also written a children’s book, hosted a podcast, was a prognosticator on Fox NFL Sunday, won several awards – and more.
He’s had a good career, all things considered. Maybe not the funniest comedian of his generation, but one who had a popular following and good reputation for several years.
That’s not the case any longer.
Kimmel has long been regarded as a liberal Democrat. He had largely kept his partisan views under control, but that ended when Donald Trump became U.S. President. It showed up at times, including during his 2017 Oscars opening monologue, “Some of you will get to come up here on this stage tonight and give a speech that the president of the United States will tweet about in all caps during his 5 a.m. bowel movement tomorrow.” There was also a 2017 monologue on his own show about Billy, his newborn son who was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and required emergency surgery, which ultimately led to supportive comments about former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act.
These comments paled in comparison to what the progressive comedian said last year.
Kimmel had two monologues that touched upon the horrific assassination of U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk. On Sept. 11, 2025, he described it as a “senseless murder” and noted “some people are cheering this, which is something I won’t ever understand.” That was fine, but he then argued “with all these terrible things happening, you would think that our president would at least make an attempt to bring us together, but he didn’t. President Obama did. President Biden did. Presidents Bush and Clinton did. President Trump did not. Instead, he blamed Democrats for their rhetoric.” His monologue on Sept. 15, 2025 was even worse and contained this disgusting remark, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr was furious at the latter remark and threatened to take on ABC, Disney and independent ABC-affiliated networks over it. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group immediately announced their ABC affiliates would pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! This was followed by ABC suspending the show in a decision reportedly made by the corporate parent composed of Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger and and Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was off the air from Sept. 17-22, 2025. The show returned the next day, with the host never specifically apologizing but noting “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.” The public took their sides on this issue and moved on.
Did Kimmel learn his lesson? No, and he’s in hot water once more.
The liberal late-night TV host’s April 25 monologue parodied the White House Correspondents’ Dinner where an assassination attempt of the President is suspected. He then mentioned First Lady Melania Trump in these terms, “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” This equally disgusting comment has led to significant pressure from Trump, his wife Melania and the White House to remove Kimmel from ABC once more.
What has Kimmel said about the widow comment? Nothing close to an apology, that’s for sure. “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.” (The controversy remains ongoing as of this writing.)
What an abhorrent series of remarks in just a few years’ time. Kimmel clearly has no shame, and lacks morals and an ethical code. Will Disney and ABC suspend him once more? It seems highly unlikely this time around. Will they cancel his show not on a temporary basis, but permanently? Don’t count on it.
None of this is particularly funny. Much like the liberal comedian’s routines these days, as it happens.
Michael Taube, a long-time newspaper columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.
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