Image courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel FB
by Dr Rahim Said
Recently in the USA, television was quieter. Not because America suddenly found peace, but because another jester has been shown the door.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was temporarily “pre-empted indefinitely,” which was corporate doublespeak for: we’ve buried him alive and thrown away the shovel. But thank God, he is now back!
Kimmel’s return has been fiery, defiant, and deeply personal. He’s been using his return to roast some politicians he didn’t admire. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was temporarily shelved after Kimmel made controversial remarks about the suspected killer of Charlie Kirk, accusing some politicians of politicising the tragedy
Kimmel wasn’t perfect—no one mistook him for Johnny Carson—but he was one of the last remaining voices willing to jab at the absurdity of politics, culture, and yes, even tragedy.
He was smug, sometimes sloppy, occasionally unbearable—but he was real. And in late-night, real has become an endangered species.
ABC, ever the loyal servant of market research and political winds, folded faster than a cheap deck chair.
The bureaucrats carried the coffin, solemnly declaring that Jimmy’s jokes did not align with “community values.”
As though community values are better represented by The Bachelor and endless pharmaceutical commercials than by one man behind a desk, needling the powerful.
The FCC chair, in a performance worthy of theatre itself, declared Kimmel’s words “sick,” transforming satire into a public health emergency.
This is more than the silencing of one host—it is the slow, deliberate strangulation of late-night itself. If this continues, soon we’ll have nothing left but sanitised desk jokes about pumpkin spice and celebrity weddings, delivered by smiling mannequins who would never dare offend.
The truth is, comedy was the last candle in a darkening house. It mocked the pompous, skewered the hypocrites, and reminded us not to take ourselves—or our politics—too seriously.
With fewer late-night talk show hosts, the flame flickers smaller. America isn’t just cancelling comedians; it’s cancelling its own ability to laugh at itself.
A genre that once held up a mirror to power now finds its own reflection shattered.
A jester was temporarily silenced, the court applauded, and the kingdom grew darker.
(The views expressed here are entirely those of the author)
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