The War on Comedy - Thoughts from the Trenches
Max Goldstein -
On 9/17/25, it was announced that Jimmy Kimmel was “indefinitely suspended” from his late-night show on ABC after 22 years on-air. The decision was made in direct response to the comments below following the unaliving of right-wing figurehead, Charlie Kirk - a decision was promptly reversed due to overwhelming backlash from consumers canceling their Disney+/Hulu subscriptions in protest.
“Thank you for joining us from Los Angeles, the second-largest city in our bitterly divided nation, where, like the rest of the country, we’re still trying to wrap our heads around the senseless murder of the popular podcaster and conservative activist Charlie Kirk yesterday, whose death has amplified our anger, our differences,” Kimmel said. “I’ve seen a lot of extraordinarily vile responses to this from both sides of the political spectrum. Some people are cheering this, which is something I won’t ever understand… 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.”
I’ve never been a huge comedy fan myself. Most stand-up makes me more uncomfortable than anything else. However, seeing what happened recently with Jimmy Kimmel prompted me to reflect on the importance of its existence, regardless of my personal feelings towards it.
There are some valuable things I think we can learn from this whole situation:
1 - There’s a war on comedy - It’s been attacked before & it will happen again
This isn’t the first time Trump has wielded his executive power to make an example of comedians who criticized him.
In 2017, a photo of comedian Kathy Griffin holding up a ketchup splattered Trump mask made waves throughout US Media Outlets. The photo was first posted by TMZ without her knowledge or approval. Both Donald and Melania Trump made public statements reprimanding Griffin. In response, the comedian was swiftly removed from her longstanding gigs, was blacklisted from all mainstream media outlets, and was formally investigated by the DOJ. She talked about this in her most recent comedy special “My Life on the PTSD List.”
“I am the first person in history to have the entire DOJ come down on me, and they were seriously trying to charge me with the crime of conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States, which holds a lifetime sentence. They put me on the no-fly list, then I was put on the Interpol list, which is the international version of the no-fly list, then I was put on something called the Five Eyes List which is the terror watch list, so I was detained everywhere, and I knew I couldn’t tour here yet, so I had to tour overseas first. And let me tell you, when you’re on the terror watch list, and you’re stopped, and they take your passport in Singapore or Reykjavik, you’re just hoping for the best, because they had some narrative that I was the Queen of ISIS. I just have to say, I don’t know how many times I’ve been in an airport trying to talk my way out of detention going ‘C'mon, I look like Reba, how am I in ISIS?”
Immediately following the events Griffin said, “If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”
She wasn’t just talking about comedians when she said this.
2 - Political satire is an American time-honored tradition…until now
I happen to prefer Griffin's comedic stylings to Kimmel’s. I’m sure many will disagree with that statement, but that’s part of the point. We’re allowed to have differing opinions from one another - about comedy and about politics. Furthermore, we should be allowed to voice those opinions without fear of government intervention or impacts to our livelihood. Political satire in the US pre-dates the country itself. We quite literally have the right to joke, and the right to laugh, and we also have the right to not find comedians funny.
From satirical cartoons to SNL’s cold open to late night talk shows, comedy has always played an active role in modern political discourse.
Trump is the first sitting President to decline an invitation to The White House correspondents’ dinner since its inception in 1921. He’s also the first sitting president to use tax-payer money to target comedians. His actions are unprecedented.
Kimmel and Griffin have very different stories, but also share many commonalities. In Kathy Griffin’s latest feature-length comedy special, “My Life of the PTSD List” she made a point to give kudos to Kimmel for supporting her through hard times. “I got a call from my good friend Jimmy Kimmel, who let me say, never cancelled me. I just have to say that. When the others wouldn’t book me, he would and I appreciate that very much”
Trump was more successful in his attempts to destroy Griffin’s career than Kimmel’s, but both were aggressively targeted by the government for simply doing their job.
3 - Comedy gets us through dark times & we have the power (and duty) to safeguard it
When things feel scary, it’s easy to forget the POWER we have. To stand up for what we believe in. To vote with our dollar. To fight against inequity. To laugh. To love. To continue speaking up no matter how hard they try to silence us. They want us to feel powerless, but we’re not.
Not everyone can be on the frontlines of enacting change. It’s easy to feel fatigued by the atrocities taking place both domestically and around the globe. It’s important to speak up against inequity and injustice, but it’s equally important to be realistic about the bandwidth you have as an individual to make an impact.
Comedy in its purest form is meant to make people laugh, to entertain, and to bring levity and joy to otherwise dark situations, and can also serve as a vehicle for criticism. When the alternative is wallowing in the world’s horrors or living life in fear, comedy, laughter, and joy all become important forms of resistance. If we can try to find moments to laugh in the darkness, we can survive long enough to rejoice when things feel light again.
"If I’m not laughing, I’m crying, so please laugh with me.” - Kathy Griffin