Media Research Center comedy cop Alex Christy kept up his complaints about Jimmy Kimmel in an April 24 post:
Due to the fact that Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner will not feature a comedian, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel took it upon himself to do his own roast of Republicans on his Thursday show, which was like every other episode of his show, but with more quick one-liners. As he concluded, Kimmel went off the deep end as he appeared to make a gay rape joke about FCC Chairman Brenden Carr and Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Kimmel referenced his September suspension that also won him a Peabody on Thursday, “Alright, I’m almost out of time. Brendan Carr is giving me the light. Brendan Carr is the head of the FCC. Back in September he tried to get my affiliates to throw me off the air. He said, ‘We can do this the easy way or the hard way.’ Same thing he said to Lindsey Graham ten minutes ago in the all-gender restroom.”
[…]Kimmel concluded with a sarcastic ode to President Trump, “What a night. You guys have been so great. In all seriousness, I do want to thank the president. We are the hottest country in the world right now, and that’s all because of you, sir. You truly are the GOAT, and a monkey, and a pig. You made America great again, and you made comedy great again, and that is why I am—I’m very proud to announce the winner of the inaugural Burger King of Comedy Gold Award goes to none other than our president, Donald J. Leno Trump. Congratulations, sir. And thank you. Thank you all.”
If you did not find a casual reference to rape funny and think he should be better, Kimmel would advise you to shut up and stop telling him how to do his job.
Christy did not explain the context in which Kimmel and others are supposed to take Carr’s remark. But after an attempted shooting at the WHCD, Jorge Bonilla launched a new attack on that address in an April 26 post:
Many are calling for a re-examination of political rhetoric in the wake of yet another attempted assassination attempt against President Donald Trump (and, for the first time, members of his Cabinet). But will this call for self-examination trickle down to the darkest corners of the Elitist Media? That remains to be seen.
As you now know, late night Resistance Comic Jimmy Kimmel did a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologue- in a manner similar to Jen Psaki’s bit where she does fake news conferences on MS NOW. Our own Alex Christy took a look at one of Kimmel’s gags- a crass gay rape joke directed targeting FCC Chair Brendan Carr. Here’s another “joke” that needs to be examined in the wake of the shooting:
JIMMY KIMMEL: Our First Lady Melania is here. Look at Mel- so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.
So edgy. So Resistancey. Yet another low for a blackface-wearing bigot reading unfunny “jokes” written by his wife.
As Bonilla well knows, that joke did not foreshadow any act of violence, given that Kimmel could not have possibly known what would happen at the WHCD. Still, he huffed: “Kimmel’s corny bit begs the question: at what point does The Walt Disney Corporation address its role in fomenting the current climate of political violence?” He added: “The Elitist Media SAY that they are concerned about political discourse and the promotion of political violence, but DO otherwise.”
Joining a CNSNews propaganda piece by Craig Bannister featuring Melania Trump denouncing that remark, Tim Graham went on a tirade in an April 27 post:
CNN host Jake Tapper is a repeat guest on the late-night comedy shows on all the broadcast networks. These fiercely anti-Trump comedians are his pals. Last year, Tapper became especially fierce in defending Jimmy Kimmel’s vicious lie that Charlie Kirk’s killer was a Trump fan.
Tapper hosted an hour-long CNN special titled No Laughing Matter: Free Speech Under Attack. Tapper falsely claimed in that special that Kimmel “wasn’t calling the shooter MAGA.” He told NBC’s Seth Meyers that Kimmel’s suspension was “pretty much the most direct infringement by the government on free speech that I’ve seen in my lifetime.” (That’s not counting the free speech of Charlie Kirk.)
On Monday’s The Lead, Tapper crusaded for Kimmel again after he was condemned by Melania Trump, followed by President Trump again calling on ABC to dump Kimmel after he created a fake Correspondents Dinner routine on Thursday night where he said to Melania: “So beautiful, Mrs. Trump. You have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Tapper lamented “what was perhaps inevitable that the Trump administration would try to use Saturday’s horrific act of violence to try to clamp down on criticism and free speech.” In other words, Tapper didn’t object to Kimmel’s joke half as much as to criticism from the Trumps.
When Tapper pointed out that Kimmel made his remark before the dinner and, thus, the alleged shooter could not have been inspired by it, Graham whined: “It’s somehow unfair to judge Kimmel after the fact. Wasn’t it easy to judge Kimmel as a crude jerk before Saturday night? Is Tapper incapable of imagining that he wouldn’t like a ‘joke’ about Dead Jake Tapper and his beautiful widow?” He continued to rant:
Ultimately, Tapper thinks the attempted censorship is worse than the crude talk of Trump being murdered: “It is a big problem of calls for violence and dehumanization, and it’s getting worse. But it is not a problem to be wielded like a cudgel to try to stop journalism or jokes. Journalism and jokes are not calls for violence, calls for violence are calls for violence, and far too many Americans in positions of power and influence are too blasé and too glib about those who make them.”
If there is ANYONE who is too blase and glib right now about violent talk like Trump being killed, it’s Jimmy Kimmel. Journalism and jokes CAN be dehumanizing. Just because the “establishment” does it doesn’t make it right.
Graham refused to mention that, as even right-wing comedian Adam Carolla pointed out, Kimmel’s joke was taken out of context, given that it was made before the WHCD. And he didn’t mention that his own comedy cop didn’t even mention the joke during his writeup of the speech.
When Kimmel himself made that same point, Christy played comedy cop again in an April 28 post:
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel tried to defend himself on Monday after receiving “another Twitter vomit storm” over the weekend after his Friday joke about First Lady glowing like an expectant widow aged like unrefrigerated cheese after a California man tried to assassinate President Trump at Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner. Kimmel tried to say the joke was merely about Donald and Melania’s age differences, but that would be hard to square with Kimmel’s history of Melania jokes.
Kimmel began by recapping how, since the WHCD would not feature a comedian, he did his own roast routine, “And there was no big reaction to it until this morning when I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm. And a call to fire me from our First Lady Melania Trump saying I should be fired because of a joke I made, again, five nights ago. It was a pretend roast. I said, ‘Our First Lady Melania’s here, look at her, so beautiful, Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.’”
He added, “Which obviously was a joke about their age difference. And the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular.”
The second sentence is Kimmel unwittingly telling on himself. A good amount of late night’s jokes about Melania—of which Kimmel is by far the leader—are based around the idea that Donald and Melania do not actually love each other and that she actually finds him repulsive. Even if one grants that Kimmel wasn’t talking about violence or assassination, it is not outrageous to say he was alluding to Trump’s death, especially given all the jokes Kimmel likes to tell about Trump’s diet. Even in that spoof WHCD routine, Kimmel gave Trump the Burger King award, a reference to both his like of fast food and alleged monarchial tendencies. From being a “very light roast,” that routine also featured gay rape jokes about FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Senator Lindsey Graham.
Yes, Christy managed to find Kimmel guilty through hindsight. He concluded with a (metaphorical) body count:
On an average night, Kimmel tells between 20 and 30 jokes about conservatives. On Friday, his fake WHCD routine led him to tell 57 total jokes—the second most in any single show since NewsBusters started keeping track—and not a single one was about a Democrat because poking fun at the “people in power” really means “Republicans in power.”
Yes, Christy is counting jokes Kimmel makes at the expense of his side. Sad, isn’t it?