Posted on 10/16/2017 10:23:47 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
Jimmy Kimmel deserves credit for frankness, if nothing else. In an interview over the weekend, the ABC late-night host said he doesn’t care about losing Republican viewers.
We’re a long way from Johnny Carson, whose “Tonight Show” was a national institution that enjoyed a broad audience — and was conducted like one. Carson steered clear of politics and kept his views to himself because delving into divisive politics would “hurt me as an entertainer, which is what I am.”
Kimmel may be an entertainer, but he has no such inhibitions. He is willing to say “not good riddance, but riddance,” as he put it in the “CBS Sunday Morning” interview, to Republicans put off by his headline-generating editorials in recent weeks.
Once a down-the-middle comedic voice who co-hosted the unapologetically vulgar “Man Show” on Comedy Central, Kimmel uttered what could be the epigraph for our times, saying of viewers who strongly disagree with his political views, “I probably won’t want to have a conversation with them, anyway.”
From Carson to Kimmel is the story of the fracturing of a media environment that has made niche audiences the coin of the realm. Add on top of this an inflamed anti-Trump resistance cheered on by the elite media, and Kimmel kissing off Republicans is probably a good career move.
His impassioned monologues on health care — originally occasioned by the illness of his little son, Billy — and gun control have won media accolades. A CNN piece even deemed him “America’s conscience.” The press is nice puffery, but what matters to his employer is the ratings, which are notably up.
Stephen Colbert of CBS blazed this particular trail with increasingly over-the-top denunciations of President Trump that vaulted him to the top of the late-night ratings.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Even Jay Leno, clearly fairly liberal, kept his politics fairly neutral in an attempt to hang on to both sides of his audience. A conservative wouldn’t normally be offended by his show.
Carson was very funny. Leno was funnier when he was Carson’s substitute host, he was never as funny afterwards.
Now my only entertainment is watching a Trump press conference.
I see Congress as a work-release program for people who haven't been caught yet. -- Jay Leno
I think Carson could have picked up five or six newspapers everyday and found dozens of page-two stories that would have made you laugh.
Kimmel? I don’t see him as a comedian...he’s just some political provocateur-type. The show is designed for anti-GOP viewers in the age group of 21 to 35. That’s it. I would imagine that he’s got half the audience that Carson had in his last five years.
If all conservatives would stop consuming popular culture, Hollywood and the media elite would collapse. Maybe not overnight, but within a year or two.
“But I like to watch...” OK, fine. As long as you say that, others will say the same thing about the stuff you and I find detestable. We all must stop. There are plenty of good things to do that don’t involve TV. You like to watch sports? Go to a high school or jr. high game. Cutting cable will easily pay for tickets to 2 games a week. You like music or acting? Find a symphony or theater group.
Kimmel doesn’t want to engage Republicans...because he can’t win on ideas. Socialized medicine? Relinquishing your firearms to the government? Let’s have that debate.
TV was and is a wasteland. Some of it is just more toxic.
About the only one I watch anyway is Daniel Tosh. I’m pretty sure he leans pretty left too but at least he takes shots at Hillary and Bernie and the left occasionally. I used to watch Kimmel but he got to sounding like a DNC infomercial.
Still laughing at that 6+ minute conversation about Thanksgiving between Carson and Doc (who was filling in for McMahon) right after Carson's monologue right before Thanksgiving 1979.
If you meet or beat Rachael Madcows nightly viewing numbers and that is considered a success you have serious problems and should probably be looking for another job.
Whatever Carson’s personal beliefs were, he made fun of whoever the president was, etc.
“Still laughing at that 6+ minute conversation about Thanksgiving between Carson and Doc”
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Yup -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d55S9EYtHbw
Johnny was a pleasure to watch before bedtime. Good memories.
Politician Lie Detector Test-Johnny Carson
who even watches TV anymore?
Entertainers and sports figures used to think of themselves as giving entertainment and delight to their audiences and fans who were their customers. Now it seems they think of themselves as engaged in an activity in order to express themselves. In other words it is now about them and about their needs. The customers are there merely to idolize them and feed their greedy egos. Just another example of rampant narcissism in our culture.
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