Jimmy Kimmel’s Sad Transformation Is Complete
The former 'Man Show' host is now angry partisan with less time for laughs
Remember Jimmy Kimmel?
Most of us don’t. Not anymore. He’s unrecognizable in his current form, a hard-left comic with little empathy for those who lean to the right. That’s roughly half the country.
What a shame.
The jocular comic shot to fame by hosting “Win Ben Stein’s Money” and palling around with Adam Carolla. The duo created “The Man Show,” a gleefully macho series that wouldn’t be allowed on Comedy Central today.
Gorgeous women jumping on trampolines? Skits mocking the women’s suffrage movement? The online petitions by outraged progressives to shut the show down would break records. Comedy Central would quickly take a knee.
Those were less “woke” times, though.
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He parlayed that Everyman persona into late night fame. His “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” now in its 14th season, never threatened “The Late Show” or “The Tonight Show” in the ratings wars. The ABC show still draws a sizable crowd and occasionally inspires viral gags that crush YouTube.
That was then. Before the rise of Donald Trump and a media landscape that threw away the remaining shreds of its integrity.
Kimmel wants in, apparently. And if his aw, shucks brand has to hit the circular file, so be it. The transformation began with a heartfelt tale tied to his ailing newborn.
FAST FACT: Jimmy Kimmel’s first Oscars hosting gig last year scored a nine-year ratings low. He’s slated to host the gala again March 4.
Last May the comedian shared an update on his young son’s health. The lad required significant medical attention to fix a heart birth defect. A teary-eyed Kimmel shared the latest updates on his son’s condition, slipping in a plea for better health care options for all.
Weeks later, Kimmel got more pointed, and partisan, in his defense of ObamaCare. A quick note: Kimmel never shed a tear, or weighed in in a similar fashion, when we learned President Barack Obama’s pitch for his health care overhaul was riddled with lies.
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro deftly explained the flaws in Kimmel’s baby strategy.
“But the invocation of personal experience in political debate is generally obtuse because it is a soft form of identity politics. It puts those arguing in the position of supposedly rejecting your personal experience, thus impugning your integrity or the veracity of your feelings … The whole point of determining policy is that empathy shouldn’t outweigh reason.”
Shapiro runs a conservative web site where lucid, right-leaning arguments are encouraged. Good luck finding that sensibility across mainstream outlets.
The old Kimmel was fading fast. In recent months he’s cranked up the partisan rhetoric. The Daily Beast reported that he sought out the counsel of Sen. Chuck Schumer, a hard-left Democrat, before one energized monologue.
Kimmel even called out Rep. Paul Ryan in a way the “old” Kimmel never would.
Search all you want, you won’t ever find it https://t.co/jy2fhtoIMT
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) December 14, 2017
He waded into the gun control debate following the Las Vegas shooting massacre. Naturally he demonized those with whom he disagrees.
“They should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country,” Kimmel said of the GOP.
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Over the weekend Kimmel spoke to the folks at Pod Save America, a liberal chat show. Here’s a tweet sharing one of the comedian’s comments.
“It just so happens that almost every talk show host is a liberal and that’s because it requires a level of intelligence” – @jimmykimmel @PodSaveAmerica live pic.twitter.com/yNKbpzVNUp
— Emily Black Favreau (@ebfavs) February 4, 2018
Fellow late nighter Stephen Colbert once said, “reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Even Colbert wouldn’t push the comment as far as Kimmel did.
Kimmel’s hard-left opinions can be seen in many of ABC monologues. Here’s a sample rant from his Feb. 1 telecast. See if you can spot any gut busters in the following:
To call Devin Nunes Donald Trump’s lap dog would be an insult to dogs. And laps …”
He then targeted President Trump and his Fake News assault.
“When a newspaper digs whatever you did up, and publishes a story about it, you don’t just attack the facts, you don’t just attack the story, you attack the newspaper. The newspaper is biased. Even if the newspaper clearly isn’t biased.
“That’s Step 1. Step 2 is when multiple newspapers, and news organizations, and reporters, further an investigation, whatever it is, when they report something you don’t like. If you’re the President now, you don’t just attack the newspapers or the news networks, you attack the media. You say the media is biased. You call them the elite media. They’re all in league together. Everyone except Fox and Friends is plotting to get you. Because they don’t want America to be great again!”
“And then, once the media is playing defense, you climb another rung…When the FBI steps in and starts sniffing around and handing out subpoenas…what do you do? Same thing you always do…You discredit the FBI, you discredit the special counsel, you discredit anybody who might possibly come up with information you don’t like.”
Is anyone laughing? What you just read sounds like a Daily Kos diarist, not one of the country’s notable late night comics. Fact checking his comments, an easy effort, is besides the point.
So why the Kimmel transformation? He’s no longer the bratty young comic trying to cut his teeth in comedy. He’s 50. He’s also aware how the media treats comics who lean left.
Hero worship hardly describes it.
RELATED: Kimmel Beclowns Self Defending ObamaCare
Today’s media outlets regularly share Kimmel’s liberal rants … just like they do any “Saturday Night Live” skit attacking the GOP.
What you’re not seeing in the media love fest for Kimmel? Anyone digging into Kimmel’s Comedy Central past. Shouldn’t a woke reporter or two remind us how he ogled bikini women jumping on trampolines? What about Kimmel, in blackface, imitating basketball legend Karl Malone for the same show?
Kimmel is hardly the only late night show leaning to the left. They all do, save Jimmy Fallon. There’s still a big distinction between the “new” Kimmel and his competition.
Colbert has always been politically progressive. His shift from Comedy Central to CBS didn’t change that. HBO’s Bill Maher has been acerbic his entire career. Samantha Bee broke out of the late night gate by calling Sen. Ted Cruz a “fish-faced horsesh** sandwich.” She was never a lovable progressive.
It’s what makes Kimmel’s transformation so jarring.
Arrogant. Self-satisfied. Finger wagging. This isn’t the Jimmy Kimmel we got to know over time. Sadly, Kimmel 2.0 is likely here to stay.
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Aww, too bad. Cry some more snowflake. Intelligent people won’t support bigotry, misogyny, or willful ignorance, hence we will not support a game show host that rubes voted for to become president.
I hope he doesn’t mind selling his soul for ratings.
As Jesus said: “Jimmy, depart from me you worker of iniquity. I never knew you.”.
There is an internet buzz challenging Kimmel to debate Shapiro and raise $500,000 for a children’s charity, St. Jude.
Turn up the heat on Kimmel folks, Shapiro tweeted game on and it is now in Jimmy’s court. Shapiro will eat his lunch and that little tidbit about progressive comedians being so much more intelligent than others will get thrown right out the door in the first 2 minutes.
JK makes his income by trying to be comedic about politics he does not agree with. Great, that his job. I hope he keeps it funny. Not funny is targeting religious groups. His writers have produced a bigoted intolerant segment mocking Jesus and those who choose to believe in that. I think the writers need more imagination.
Kimmel will do whatever gets him a paycheck. Right now it is being a liberal progressive. Since his show runs third to Colbert and Fallon, Kimmel should be worrying about his job, but when you are a hard left liberal then you can keep your job as long as you keep spewing the correct politics. And Kimmel does want to keep his job despite the ratings and if that means being a shill for the progressives. then so be it.
Not a fair representation. Trump is just so ridiculous that just by describing his policies, one comes across as being hard left. I don’t agree with joking about grabbing women by the genitals, throwing people off health care, ending DACA with nothing in place, just to force through a stupid wall. That’s not left wing. That’s just calling out a fool.
I no longer waste a single moment on late night talk shows. They are all garbage in my eyes. I have no respect for anyone who continually bashes, not only our president, but anyone who leans the slightest bit right of center. Most of their rants are lies and they won’t look at or hear anything that might be proof that what they say is a lie.
Were you ever okay with the talking heads on the right bashing our last president?
I stopped watching/listening to late night talk when they stopped being entertaining in favor of being political and bashing anyone. The real late night talk show hosts were Johnny Carson and Joey Bishop. They knew how to entertain without being rude, crude and disgusting.
Too many modern “comedians” are rude, crude and disgusting without even being funny. You make a good point.
Exactly, why I have avoided comedians for more than 40 years. The last time I heard a truly funny comedian was at a Y’s Men’s Club Steak Dinner, with my husband. The speaker was a local comedian and could have everyone practically rolling on the floor without ever being rude or crude. That was in 1968.
I did have the pleasure of calling that man friend for many years after. He was “always” telling a joke. Comedy was not his 1st job, just a side job he loved. Occasionally, he would open for other comedians passing through town and did a few openings in Las Vegas for the “rich and famous” comedians. One day, he told me a joke that I am certain he wrote. Several years later, I heard that joke again delivered by Rosie O’Donnell in a new movie. Sadly, since then Rose became one of the truly crude ones.
If it is rude, crude or insulting to anyone, it is NOT funny.
He lost his soul when he left his first wife to dally with the vile Sarah Silverman.
Kimmel can go fvck himself. Now *that’s* funny!
No, it’s really not funny at all. It just proves my point that right-wingers are not capable of good humor because they do not get sarcasm and they lack self-awareness.
Blanket statements reveal your deep intellect. Super duper smart.
Whatever, it’s the truth.
Absolutes=truth?
The defense rests.
‘Reality’ is a HATE word to the Left.
Jimmy Kimmel and his junk ideology is a front. Jimmy Kimmel is 50. We all know what that means. He’s now eligible to be sht canned overnight for a younger, more hip, and funny guy. So, he’s looking for his being sht canned excuse: “They fired me because of my politics.” In reality, no one under the age of 40 identifies with this guy anymore. He’s become a relic.
All the thoughtful and intelligent white men like Kimmel have had enough of the freakish extremism of Trump’s Republican party. To anyone who is not a complete moron, the Democrats are the only responsible choice.
Jimmy Kimmel is more suited to fart jokes than political analysis…..
So is the current “president.”
If you took the blinders off, you’d realize the current potus is dragging the Republican party left on DACA, on spending, and family leave, etc… stop investing in the shallow politics of partisan warfare.
This “president” has maybe three defining features: the first is narcissistic personality disorder; the second is pathological dishonesty; and the third is a complete lack of both wisdom and knowledge. Trusting him on anything is foolish.
what happened to ” shut up and salute”….we heard a lot of that in 2008.
I’m not sure what you’re referencing, exactly.
You know exactly what I’m referencing….Like it or not……its President Trump….no quotations marks needed.
LOL
That’s funny. Real presidents win the actual national vote and do so without the help of the Russian government 🙂
Kimmel is what is known as a “putz.” What happens when an ignoramus pretends to be the smartest guy in the room.
Kimmel is actually very moderate. He only seems liberal when compared with Trump and the GOP going off the (hard right) deep end.
He’s hard left. Moderate is a meaningless word.