As a genre, think democracy noir.
This Jimmy Kimmel sketch has few laughs in it – the one about the TV host taken off-air after talking politics is the one we’ve heard before.
Kimmel follows Stephen Colbert out of the stage door and the fate of two TV icons has catapulted the issue of free speech into America’s front rooms.
Trump latest – president flies out
Both are leaving the stage after comments critical of Donald Trump, his administration and its politics.
Sure, they are casualties of business decisions based on self-interest and that’s always been the case – making money has always been at the heart of popular entertainment.
But business has changed. Like never before, pleasing an audience means pleasing an audience of one.
Follow the trail behind the Colbert and Kimmel announcements and you’ll find the power and influence of Donald Trump over the TV boardroom.
He has a creeping control over what gets said on the airwaves and it screams censorship.
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Kimmel was ‘fired for bad ratings’, says US president
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What did Jimmy Kimmel say?
On social media, the president celebrated the Jimmy Kimmel announcement as “great news for America” and, in the same post, called for “Jimmy and Seth” (Fallon and Myers – also late-night fixtures) to be given the push.
Who would bet against it?
People protesting outside the centre where Kimmel’s show is filmed. Pic: Reuters
The notion of a US president having a direct input into who and what Americans watch on TV and consume via the wider media would have seemed bizarre until recently.
Not now – now that it has the appearance of a slow-rolling operation to seize popular culture.
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
Trump is currently suing the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and he pocketed millions in settlements after suing the owners of ABC News and CBS News.
On leaving for London this week, he told an Australian journalist he’d tell that country’s prime minister about him after he asked a question regarding business deals whilst in office.
He is the president who craves control and his critics say the threat extends beyond popular culture to the First Amendment, the right to free speech without interference from the government.
Those same critics point to Trump’s “radical left” rhetoric in the wake of the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk last week and see an effort to channel the reaction towards a clampdown on political opponents.
The US president and his allies have floated the suggestion of classifying some groups as domestic terrorists, loosely defined, and revoking tax-exempt status for non-profit organisations of a different political persuasion.
Vice-president JD Vance has led an online campaign to have people “celebrating Charlie’s murder” exposed and sacked from their jobs (people have been).
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It is America’s civil liberties show and Jimmy Kimmel is headlining the current run.
He’s the comedian playing it straight, as there are few laughs in this one.
Think dark humour – more dark than humour.
