Jimmy Kimmel Ran Right at His Critics
The late-night host returned from his week-long suspension with a wry, emotional defense of free speech.
Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night yesterday after nearly a week off the air with a monologue that largely dispensed with laughs. Instead, over the course of almost 20 minutes, he ran right at his critics, and stated plainly what many commentators have argued since production of Jimmy Kimmel Live was suspended this past Wednesday: “Our government cannot be allowed to control what we do and do not say on television.”
It was a forceful beginning to the episode, but also a fairly sober one—a speech that underlined the surreality of recent events, during which an irreverent talk-show comedian became a government target and a chilling, public example of the erosion of constitutional rights under President Donald Trump. Kimmel, who has spent most of his late-night career as a flippant but not particularly scandalous figure, acknowledged just how scary things had become that the White House might take aim at him. “This show is not important,” he said. “What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
