4 minutes to read<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/header>\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian satirist whose \u201cDaily Show\u201d-like program was canceled after the military seized the once pro-democracy government, watched the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel with an immediate sense of familiarity.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Fellow American Citizens,\u201d Youssef wrote on X. \u201cWelcome to my world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Youssef\u2019s show skewering public figures led to a criminal investigation in 2013 after complaints that he had insulted then-President Mohammed Morsi. When a military coup followed, pressure on Youssef intensified. He announced that the climate in Egypt was \u201cnot suitable for a political satire program.\u201d Youssef fled the country and resettled in the United States.<\/p>\n
In all the stunning things about ABC\u2019s swift removal of Kimmel, its longtime late-night host and Oscars-hosting face of the network, perhaps the least surprising was that a comedian was at the center of a battle over free speech.<\/p>\n
As long as jokes have been told, comedians have drawn the ire of the powerful. That has often put comedians on the front lines of free-speech battles, from George Carlin violating obscenity laws to a satirical puppet show trying to exist in Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia. In authoritarian regimes, crackdowns on speech usually make comedy a target.<\/p>\n
\u201cComedy doesn\u2019t change the world, but it\u2019s a bellwether. We\u2019re the banana peel in the coal mine,\u201d Jon Stewart said in 2022 at the Kennedy Center, with Kimmel looking on from the audience. \u201cWhen a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimmel\u2019s indefinite suspension followed comments he made about the Republican response to Charlie Kirk\u2019s killing. Conservatives said Kimmel misrepresented the political beliefs of Tyler Robinson, who is accused of assassinating Kirk.<\/p>\n
Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr responded to Kimmel\u2019s comments with the threat: \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way.\u201d After a group of ABC-affiliated stations said they wouldn\u2019t air \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d The Walt Disney Co. pulled the show Wednesday just before air, prompting a firestorm of debate over free speech. Comedians have been among the passionate protesters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the Constitution and free speech, this is it,\u201d said the stand-up comedian and podcaster Marc Maron. \u201cThis is the deciding moment. This is what authoritarianism looks like right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late-night hosts, current and former, rushed to Kimmel\u2019s defense. Jay Leno, the longtime host of \u201cThe Tonight Show,\u201d shrugged to reporters Thursday: \u201cIt\u2019s a comedian talking.\u201d On Thursday night\u2019s \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d Stephen Colbert \u2014 whose own show will end in May over what CBS called financial reasons but Colbert has called \u201ca big fat bribe\u201d to Trump \u2014 mocked Carr, the FCC chairman, for declaring that programming should represent \u201ccommunity values.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you know what my community values are, buster?\u201d Colbert said. \u201cFreedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since before Charlie Chaplin mocked Adolf Hitler in the 1940s film, \u201cThe Great Dictator,\u201d comedy has served as one of the most unfiltered expressions of free speech and a reliable metric of a democratic republic\u2019s health. On Wednesday, MSNBC\u2019s Chris Hayes noted: \u201cThe countries where comedians can\u2019t mock the leader on late night TV are not really ones you want to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside the U.S., media control has often meant policing comedy. Thin-skinned leaders and autocrats have taken punch lines as genuine threats.<\/p>\n
Shortly after Putin became president of Russia in 2000, armed operatives raided the offices of NTV, the network that aired \u201cKukly,\u201d a satirical puppet show that often lampooned Putin. NTV owner Vladimir Gusinsky was jailed on embezzlement charges and \u201cKukly\u201d disappeared in 2002.<\/p>\n
Zeinab Mousavi, one of the first Iranian women to do stand-up comedy in her country, was charged last month with making statements that were \u201ccontrary to public morality.\u201d<\/p>\n
In India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, political comedy has grown increasingly off-limits. In March, a performance by the popular comedian Kunal Kamra included a Bollywood song parody that indirectly made apparent reference to a local politician. Government employees ransacked the comedy club.<\/p>\n
Kamra pledged to cooperate with police and then added: \u201cBut will the law be fairly and equally deployed against those who have decided that vandalism is the appropriate response to being offended by a joke?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kimmel situation isn\u2019t as extreme as those international examples, let alone countries like China and Hungary, where curbs on expression have all but extinguished comedy. But it bears similarities. Trump, who has long chafed at late-night hosts\u2019 jokes at his expense, warned broadcasters on Thursday that run negative commentary of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would think maybe their license should be taken away,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Carr has said Kimmel is just the beginning. \u201cThis is a massive shift that\u2019s taking place in the media ecosystem,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the consequences are going to continue to flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some, a so-called \u201cconsequence culture\u201d has replaced \u201ccancel culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roseanne Barr reacted with irony after Kimmel\u2019s suspension. In 2018, ABC pulled the plug on her sitcom, \u201cRoseanne,\u201d after Barr made a racist barb on Twitter about Valerie Jarrett, a former aide to former President Barack Obama, referring to her as the child of the Muslim Brotherhood and the \u201cPlanet of the Apes\u201d movies.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah imagine an administration putting pressure on a television channel to fire a comedian they didn\u2019t like,\u201d Barr said Wednesday on X.<\/p>\n
Conservatives have long railed against so-called \u201ccancel culture\u201d ruining comedy. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Elon Musk lamented: \u201cThey wanted to make comedy illegal. You couldn\u2019t make fun of anything so comedy sucked. Legalize comedy!\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of those same \u201canti-woke\u201d comedians, though, have come out in support of Kimmel. Tim Dillon, the comedian and podcaster, wrote on Instagram: \u201cI am against Kimmel being taken off the air and against people being shot for their opinions. See how easy it is?\u201d<\/p>\n
Others took a more ironic approach.<\/p>\n
The Onion<\/em> republished an editorial from several years ago. It read: \u201cToday, the path forward could not be clearer. Simply put, we need mass censorship now.\u201d<\/p>\nAssociated Press Writer Joseph Krauss contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n