Jon Stewart is showing the way.
How to fight back against threats of censorship and the squashing of free speech? Being funny isn’t a bad way to go. And Stewart, making a rare Thursday-night hosting appearance on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, was plenty funny while mocking those very attacks. Not so much ha-ha funny as smart funny, which is probably for the best. Good for him. We need something, that’s for sure.
Because on Thursday, Sept. 18, Donald Trump dropped the facade.
“I have read someplace that the networks were 97% against me, again, 97% negative, and yet I won and easily, all seven swing states,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “They give me only bad publicity, press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
It’s a remarkable threat from an administration that specializes in them.
ABC caved to Trump and suspended Jimmy Kimmel
On Wednesday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, Disney and network affiliates, complaining about a Kimmel monologue that included comments about the suspected killer of Charlie Kirk. Carr went full goon, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Within hours, Kimmel was off the air, a shocking development ― and a cowardly move by ABC, which has caved to Trump twice now. With Trump all but telling networks they better say nice things about him or else, and his FCC toady acting like a wannabe Mafioso, how can shows even try to fight back?
Stephen Colbert, whose own late-night show was canceled in fishy circumstances, spoke in support of Kimmel in his monologue on Thursday, and brought back his faux-conservative “Colbert Report” character. “Give up, America,” he said. “Just give up and stop saying anything that might upset the president,” Colbert concluded. “If you think that’s a terrible idea, no you don’t.”
Stewart, meanwhile, took a different route.
After an introduction calling him a “patriotically obedient host,” he came on the air looking nervous. He fidgeted in front of a new backdrop ― gilded and tacky, like Trump’s redecoration of the Oval Office. He began, haltingly.
What did Jon Stewart say about Kimmel?
“We have another fun, hilarious, Administration-compliant show,” he said. “We’re coming to you tonight from a real (expletive), the crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no one’s ever seen before. Some of the National Guard should invade this place, am I right?”
He addressed Kimmel in only glancing or roundabout ways, although clearly Kimmel was front of mind the entire time, the inspiration for the whole thing.
“Our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech,” Stewart said. “Now, some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse. A smoke screen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitarian intimidation and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance.
“Some people would say that. Not me, though. I think it’s great.”
If the audience laughed or cheered, Stewart desperately tried to quiet them, playing as if afraid Trump might find out.
Stewart mocked Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom
He mocked Trump’s trip to the United Kingdom with faint praise, correcting himself to mispronounce countries in the manner of Trump and showing a clip of a reporter there asking about Kimmel’s suspension.
“HOW DARE YOU, SIR! HOW DARE YOU, SIR!” Stewart screamed, demanding to know what outlet the reporter was with. “The Antifa Herald Tribune?”
The best part, though, was the most obvious, so obvious it’s amazing more outlets don’t do it. Stewart said that even before the “Jason Kringle situation” at ABC (he never spoke Kimmel’s name properly), “there were plenty of other people in America exercising their free speech incorrectly.”
He then showed clips of MAGA types saying you can’t call a political rival a Nazi or a fascist, you can’t call them an enemy of the state, you can’t call them less than human.
He then proceeded to show clips of Trump doing exactly that ― exactly that ― several times.
Stewart also showed a clip from Vice President JD Vance hosting Kirk’s podcast, claiming that those on the left “are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence. This is not a both-sides problem.”
“Only a bad person would celebrate violence, or make crass jokes about it,” Stewart said.
Kari Lake showed up in a classless video clip on ‘The Daily Show’
You can guess what came next: several clips of Republican politicians and commentators. They all made fun of Nancy Pelosi’s husband, who was assaulted with a hammer at his home in 2022. First up: Arizona’s own disagreeable Kari Lake, saying during a campaign event, “Nancy Pelosi, well, she’s got protection when she’s in D.C. Apparently her house doesn’t have a lot of protection.”
Class act.
Also shown laughing about the attack on Pelosi: Pete Hegseth, then a Fox News host, now secretary of War. “There were consequences,” Stewart said. “This gentleman had to leave television. I’m not sure where he went, but I’m sure it’s not some prestigious, consequential position he’s not remotely qualified for.”
It was all the same joke, really, but it was still pretty funny. Trump, however, has not exactly proved to be good at taking a joke. And Carr is going to do whatever Trump wants him to.
This is the state we’re in. Even a couple of days ago, such bald-faced threats would have been nearly unthinkable.
No longer. Now they’re expected. Which is exactly what the MAGA crowd wants.
And exactly why standing up like Stewart did is essential.
FCC threatens Jimmy Kimmel: ABC shamefully caves. This is a disgrace
Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Media commentary with a side of snark? Sign up for The Watchlist newsletter with Bill Goodykoontz.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump mocked with his own sound bites on ‘Daily Show’ | Opinion
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