Jimmy Kimmel Vs. The White House

Image Credit: The Australian

Trump went after a late night comedian for telling a joke. Then the Justice Department went after someone else entirely — on the same day. SG CEO Lesley Gold writes on what's happening to free speech, why it matters, and a phrase she's known her whole life that suddenly hits differently.

Who's Afraid of Jimmy Kimmel?

When I was a kid, "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" was practically a proverb. So universal that when I asked Gemini to trace its origins, it came up empty. Bette Midler, Henry Kissinger, the Grateful Dead, John Landis — a buffet of cultural icons with almost nothing in common except a shared allegiance to that line. It felt etched in stone.

Apparently someone forgot to tell Trump.

Because somewhere along the way the phrase got flipped. It's no longer fuck 'em if they can't take a joke. It's let's fuck them for making one.

In the wake of a third assassination attempt — and a brief, performative nod to free speech that floated above his head like a cartoon thought bubble — it took less than 48 hours for the president to go after it. On Tuesday, he declared Jimmy Kimmel an enemy of the state for a joke made on late night TV. This is the second time he's tried to take down a comedian for doing exactly what comedians do. The best way to protect free speech is to protect it — not spend your weekends trying to extinguish it. Classic Trump: do as I say, not as I do.

And on that same day? The Justice Department indicted James Comey — again — over an Instagram photo of seashells on a beach. Seashells. I only wish we were tilting at windmills.

I was going to write about the slow death of morning news and late night TV — how shows that once stitched us together with shared laughter and shared grief now feel like relics from a world that had a common cultural compass. But I couldn't get there. Because the real question isn't what media will survive. It's whether we'll still be free to talk about the moments that make us human — the ones that make us laugh, grieve, celebrate, rage. Will we be able to say what we actually feel? Or will we be muzzled for the punchline?

I don't find Jimmy Kimmel that threatening. I'm not even sure I find him that funny.

But this was never really about Jimmy Kimmel. In a country where we disagree on almost everything right now, one truth should still be sacred:

Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.