Where would we be without Jimmy Kimmel?
We’d never know when the walls are closing in, our democracy was hanging by a thread or an East Wing renovation threatened world peace.
Thankfully, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is there when we need it most. Or, so Kimmel thinks.
The far-Left comic defended his comedy-free shtick during an appearance on “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” podcast. His explanation? These are challenging times, and President Donald Trump’s second term is no laughing matter.
It would be “embarrassing” not to discuss such threats to the American experiment, in his estimation. Anyone who suggests he simply tell jokes has it all wrong.
“These are things that I take very seriously,” he said. “And, of course, I like to, I love telling jokes, I love being funny, I love when the audience laughs. There’s nothing that’s more exciting to me than that. But well-rounded human beings don’t behave that way.”
In fact, it’s exactly how late-night legend Johnny Carson would handle current events, in Kimmel’s estimation.
Except the “Tonight Show” legend would do no such thing. How do we know? He said it himself.
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Denver’s “Ryan Schuiling Live,” heard on 630 KHOW weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., played a critical clip from Carson’s past today. The snippet finds “60 Minutes” star Mike Wallace quizzing Carson about the political gags heard on his legendary “Tonight Show.”
Audiences never knew whether Carson was on the Left, Right or Middle. He hit both sides, and he did so with equal glee. No malice, just smiles.
That approach made him an icon.
Carson’s successor, Jay Leno, kept that bipartisan, upbeat spirit alive. Now, it’s a relic of the past trashed by the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Kimmel and the soon-to-be-unemployed Stephen Colbert.
Wallace pressed Carson on that decision, and the talker had a ready, emphatic answer.
It’s not my job, he insisted.
“Tell me the last time a Jack Benny, a Red Skelton or any comedian used his show to do serious issues. That’s not what I’m there for. Can’t they see that?” Carson asked at the time. “Just because you have a ‘Tonight Show’ you must deal in serious issues. That’s a danger. It’s a real danger. Once you start that, you start to get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import, and you know, strangely enough, you can use that show as a forum. You could sway people, and I don’t think you should as an entertainer.”
Why, you might repeatedly cry on the air and treat your showcase like a one-sided political screed.
Jimmy Failla on “FOX Across America” has played that clip before. He’s no fan of the Kimmel brand of late-night TV.
He should know. Failla hosts “Fox News Saturday Night,” which recently enjoyed its highest ratings to date.
Failla noted earlier this week that Carson was at his late-night desk for decades. And, during that time, he watched as America splintered over the Vietnam War, suffered a presidential scandal that chased a world leader out of the Oval Office and other consequential events.
Carson never went near the current Kimmel model.
Kimmel will drop the laughs to push his propaganda content. Not Carson. That’s a key reason why one is a TV legend, and the other had to be suspended for a week after lying about a major U.S. assassination.
