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ALPERN AT LARGE - I’ve not thought too highly of the sanctimonious, hypocritical jerk who is Jimmy Kimmel for many years, now. Trash-talking 40-50% or more of America, in particular the segment who first supported his meteoric rise to the entertainment elites decades ago, he’s earned his karma of being fired a long time ago.
But despite Kimmel, Steven Colbert, and the snarky, snide, and nasty Seth Meyers doing a GREAT job getting a brash-talking, trash-talking, overly-impulsive, and too-often-boorish Donald Trump re-elected by pissing off the conservative segments of our nation (and a whole lotta centrist and even moderate/liberal segments)…
…his sudden departure from his late-night show after his statements regarding blame for the Charlie Kirk assassination (which too many of still do not believe is BAD) is cause for concern.
Donald Trump’s revenge? Maybe—but Kimmel and Colbert and Meyers were sticking their collective finger in the eyes of many if not most of America for many years now, and they were hemorrhaging viewers (and potential advertising revenue) and costing the major networks a whole lotta money for so long no one appeared to care.
--Disney losing money on children’s movies and other shows with themes that many families felt inappropriate?
--ABC, CBS, and NBC letting moderate to conservative viewers they weren’t “real” enough to merit consideration as human beings with wallets and spending preferences?
--Saturday Night Live long ago tilting so far to the Left that humor and consideration (if not just making people laugh) made it virtually unwatchable in so many who used to regularly watch it?
--Even the iconoclastic South Park of Comedy Central, which normally blasts everyone, trashing and thrashing Trump and MAGA America (fair game) but gave Biden and Harris a pass when that show once shredded Hillary and Bill Clinton on a regular basis (whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?).
Lots of strange questions, and maybe it was former President Biden pushing for censorship and propaganda in one direction, with current President Trump (who’s made it clear “revenge” is part of his agenda) pushing for censorship and propaganda in the opposite direction.
But while I’ve lost any and all respect for Jimmy Kimmel, former co-host of the Man Show, and politically-incorrect comedian who got his start making self-deprecating gay jokes as a very charismatic sidekick on the conservative “Win Ben Stein’s Money”, and then featured his “Juggie” girls jumping on trampolines in the Man Show…
…after lurching so far to the Left to become a male-counterpart to “The View” on late-night television (to the extent I began to wonder if he wasn’t in a new venue that should have been called “The Woman Show”)…he suddenly gets FIRED now.
I mean, declaring Charlie Kirk’s assassin as part of the MAGA movement, and blaming MAGA’s ranks for training and radicalizing this assassin, is a gross and horrible spin we’ve had to deal with for the last decade or more (conservatives are Nazis, we’re deplorable, we trash everything, we’re all that’s wrong with America, etc.) WAS a LIE:
When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, there were no fires or mobs in the streets, no destruction and chaos and loss of life, and still the conservatives of America held it together. (January 6th, 2020 is an important issue to raise, but even that’s too complicated for the purposes of this piece).
So to effectively blame Kirk and his allies for Kirk’s assassination WAS cause for action against Kimmel…but why NOW?
--Is it because Trump is President?
--Is it because Kimmel was—like Colbert and Meyers—losing so much money that they wanted an excuse at Disney/ABC to drop Kimmel?
--Did Disney/ABC lose money before but GET more money to make up for it, from political and economic connections to allow the Kimmel money loss…but that’s no longer the case?
--Did Disney/ABC execs privately seethe over the Kimmel trash-talking of so much of America (or even the privately-held opinions of these execs)…but now are OK with being done with Kimmel in our current climate?
I don’t know. I’m guessing none of us will really know, and I am also guessing it’s so multifactorial that it’s inappropriately simplistic to declare Kimmel’s suspension (firing?) due to any given cause.
But I do know this:
--America’s division over Kimmel getting dropped is reflective of the division (David Letterman, Kamala Harris react to Jimmy Kimmel's suspension ) throughout our society, and merits peaceful if not passionate debate. Get mad, get angry, but don’t ball your fists too tonight, or scream too threateningly.
--I couldn’t care less if Kimmel is “absolutely livid” about ABC cutting his show indefinitely (Jimmy Kimmel 'Absolutely Livid' Over ABC Cutting His Late-Night Show 'Indefinitely': 'Never Seen Him This Angry' ), and after what I saw happen to Tim Allen and Roseanne Barr, I could even argue Kimmel outstayed his welcome way longer than other comedians much more funny and beloved by American audiences.
--I am not about to make Kimmel into a martyr, and to put him and Colbert at the same level of Charlie Kirk as “victims” of our national/cultural divide is just inaccurate, self-defeating, distracting and WRONG.
Good-bye, and get lost, Jimmy Kimmel…but I am seriously wondering if Charlie Kirk would have ever supported the kind of action we saw taken against the Jimmy Kimmel Live! Show by entertainment execs who have very curious, and maybe very alarming, agendas of their own for us all to ponder.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at[email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
