JImmy Kimmel – the art of offending at least half of your potential audience
One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was this one in January of 2005, entitled, “The fine art of insulting half your audience.” Here’s an excerpt:
It happens nearly every time. I’ll be reading a short story, let’s say, enjoying myself, lost in the experience—when suddenly, there it is: the gratuitous and mean-spirited and out-of-context slap at Bush, or at those who support him. It’s not as though the story is even tangentially about politics, either; it can be about anything at all, it doesn’t really matter.
The Bush-dissing will be thrown in when you least expect it, just to let the reader know—well, to let the reader know what, exactly? To let the reader know that the author is hip, kindly, intelligent, moral—oh, just about everything a person ought to be. And that the reader must of course be a member of the club, too—not one of those Others, the warmongers, the selfish and stupid and demonized people who happen to have voted for Bush.
Back when I was one of the gang, too, back when I was in with the in crowd (“if it’s square, we ain’t there”), did I notice when authors dragged in their political credentials from left field? Or perhaps it wasn’t quite as commonplace back then for them to do so?
At any rate, now it seems positively obligatory. I’m reading along, sunk deep within the story, bonding with the characters—and then, suddenly, it’s as though the author has reached a hand out of the pages of the magazine (OK, I’ll confess, sometimes it’s the New Yorker—yes, I still read it for the fiction, just as some people claim they read Playboy for the interviews) and slapped me across the face.
Authors, do you really want to do this? Because, with a single sentence, you’ve managed to alienate and offend (not to mention insult) up to half your audience.
Well, it’s only gotten worse since then. Sometimes it works out for the artist; after all, one-half of the population of the US is still a lot of people. Plus, if the person is offering something of value – is a good singer or actor or writer – people on the opposite side of the political divide may decide to still buy their product rather than boycott them. But what of someone like Jimmy Kimball? Unfunny, unentertaining; all he’s got is dissing Trump and even the way he does that isn’t the least bit clever. Plus, he seems to consider himself some sort of hero.
Therefore, should anyone be surprised at his perhaps-pending cancellation? Of course not. But Jimmy seems to think he’s being persecuted, poor thing:
The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host opened up in a new interview with Vulture about the future of the genre following the cancellation of Stephen Colbert‘s “Late Show” on CBS and his own run-ins with Trump, including his suspension following comments made about the death of Charlie Kirk.
“I feel a little bit defeated about it,” Kimmel told Vulture after Colbert’s final episode aired on May 21. “In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future.”
Kimmel went on to say he was assured by the network that his show is still profitable, and yet they only renewed him for a year. Plus:
Asked if he has thought about retirement, Kimmel said he’s still unsure when his time will come. “It’s important to me to be responsible,” he said. “I know I could go out in a blaze of glory and get a lot of applause for it, but it would be a very selfish thing to do.”
That is, if he isn’t ousted first. Trump has repeatedly called for Kimmel to be fired, most recently when he made a joke about Melania Trump having a “glow like an expectant widow.” In that case and that of Kirk, Kimmel said he “had the truth on my side as a defense. What if I actually do do something wrong? I mean, that’s inevitable.”
Of the president, Kimmel said: “I don’t love him. I don’t hate him, either. I feel sorry for him. He obviously didn’t get hugged a lot.”
Sure thing, Jimmy; you don’t hate Trump at all. And that remark about not being hugged is about the typical level of Kimmel’s wit.
Makes one yearn – positively yearn – for the days of Johnny Carson, who must have had his political preferences but kept them to himself while being genuinely entertaining. But that was a long long time ago.
It’s going to take comedy a while to recover from the The Great Awokening.
Sitcoms don’t seem to be doing well either.
Carson’s Tonight Show was the pinnacle, and never reached again.
In the same vein I’ve been watching a lot of What’s My Line. That show had real class and wonderful laugh out loud moments. Bennet and John slyly dissing on each other. Arlene with her ribald, yet very funny one liners. And Dorothy high intelligence that would find the answer way before the other panelists. Made me start wondering about her death a week before she was going to release her research on the Kennedy assassination.
I know Neo, sorry to bring up more Kennedy conspiracy stuff
As gags go, this topic could easily be a daily running gag. [The Message]
Heck, it’s the first day of Pride month the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, etc. insist we know and join in celebrating. [The Message]
Scott Pelley goes off on his unqualified ignorant-assed bosses. [The Message]
and on and on, world without end, amen
Asked if he has thought about retirement, Kimmel said… “I know I could go out in a blaze of glory and get a lot of applause for it, but it would be a very selfish thing to do.”
“blaze of glory”? a failing talk show host? “blaze of glory”?
A fine example of hubris, in this case characterized by a highly inflated sense of his own significance.
Kimball -> Kimmel about half way into article
More like Jimmy Oddball.
Who are all these nitwits posing as moral arbiters?
(Actually, that should be “posing as wits”…)
Jimmy Kimmel was funny, and politically incorrect, when he was on The Man Show with Adam Carolla back in the day. And he was funny when he was the sidekick on Win Ben Stein’s Money.
And then he apparently decided that he wanted to be part of the ‘In Crowd’ in Hollywood, and thus could only do one kind of humor.
“I’ll be reading a short story, let’s say, enjoying myself, lost in the experience—when suddenly, there it is: the gratuitous and mean-spirited and out-of-context slap at Bush, or at those who support him.”
This! THIS! so much of this happens all the time now.
A few years back I was reading a rather interesting book about the author and his brother taking a mule team along the Oregon Trail. And then out of no where there is was – as you called it a slap – just bashing the Tea Party.
The book was “The Oregon Trail: a New American Journey” by Rinker Buck. I reluctantly finished the book and have never picked up another by that author. I thought he might have a lot of other interesting books; but, just didn’t want to be let down again by the stupid slap that so many on the left enjoy doing.
And, sadly, I find it isn’t just in entertainment either. Before I retired I noticed some higher up managers in various corporations thought it was okay as well to make stupid political jokes that would slap anyone who didn’t share their political beliefs. And don’t even get me started on how bad it has become in the academic world – they are the worst!
As for Kimmel making that joke about not being hugged enough – might I suggest that Kimmel was simply projecting his own insecurities?
@ sdferr > “Heck, it’s the first day of Pride month the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, etc. insist we know and join in celebrating.”
They are behind the curve.
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/7-deadly-sins-tuesday-june-2-2026
Read it and laugh.
Pride truly goeth before a fall.
Made me start wondering about her death a week before she was going to release her research on the Kennedy assassination.
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She was working on a book about murder trials she’d covered, not the Kennedy assassination. She did score an interview with Jack Ruby, but that’s all.
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Her movements that evening into the wee hours are known, who discovered her body the next morning is known, and when and how he discovered it are known. If the coroner’s work was sloppy and the pathologist who examined her body failed to discover she’d been poisoned (say with OTC drugs or prescription drugs), it’s a reasonable inference that the perpetrator was someone in her home. She had an 11 year old son, a couple of live in servants (who, IIRC, had their children living in their quarters), and a husband in residence. The Kilgalens have been awkwardly silent since 1965. Dominick Dunne, a personal friend of her sister Eleanor, once asked what she thought had happened. Her reply was noncommittal, annoyed that he would put her on the spot by bringing the subject up. In 2009, her son Kerry offered a memoir of what he’d seen and heard that day. Among other things, he was pulled out of school at midday and escorted home by the family housekeeper, who told him on the way that his father was a mess. He found his father in a sitting room on one of the upstairs floors of their townhouse; the man was seated, in his pyjamas, accompanies by a scrum of empty beer bottles, and catatonically silent.
His time came when The Man Show ended.
Carson’s Tonight Show was the pinnacle, and never reached again.
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The pinnacle was Dick Cavett.