Americans don’t want the government to decide what TV comics can and can’t say
A few days before the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump last weekend, one comic’s joke on his late-night show sounded routine enough, if a little edgy.
Taking a jab at the hefty age gap between Donald and Melania Trump, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel – playing the role of guest comic at a mock White House correspondents’ dinner – described the first lady as having “a glow like an expectant widow”.
His routine was, in part, a sendup of the reality that the annual Washington event no longer takes the chance of having a comedian offend the Washington Hilton audience. Comic Michelle Wolf did just that in 2018 when she mocked everyone from Trump spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders to click-hungry journalists.
But in the hours after the real-life dinner was disrupted by a man who entered the Washington Hilton with weapons, Kimmel’s throwaway line about seemed darker.
