In a recent episode of the classic sitcom Arrested Development, dutiful son Michael Bluth corrects his mother Lucille that she has not actually been confronted by Michael Moore: 'That was a Michael Moore impersonator for a bit on Jimmy Kimmel Live.' Lucille remains undeterred: 'I don't know who that is and I don't care to find out.' This haughty response, withering in its lack of interest, accidentally attains a kind of dignity through ignorance that Donald Trump could only dream of.
Just imagine a world where Trump and his family—both blood and Maga—don't know or care what's going on with Jimmy Kimmel. Alas, we live in a world where Kimmel is repeatedly lambasted by the White House for a joke made before an assassination attempt on Trump. The joke, written and delivered well before the event, is the talk show monologue version of pre-crime.
The Non-Story
Two days before the White House correspondents' dinner, Kimmel joked on his show: 'Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.' It was a crack at the president's advanced age and rumors of his declining health. After a gunman attempted to enter the ballroom, the Trumps retconned the joke as a bloodthirsty call to violence. Perhaps the implication is that the more humane reaction would be to wait for Trump's eventual demise and then gloat, as Trump has done about figures like Robert Mueller and Rob Reiner.
Trump's Obsession with Kimmel
Kimmel is not the first victim of bad-faith readings from Trump. One of the strangest things about Kimmel is the outsized importance Trump places on him. In the Maga mind, leftwing activists cheer Kimmel's every move. In reality, few genuine leftwingers watch Kimmel because few people of any stripe watch him. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is routinely beaten by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which is being cancelled ostensibly for losing money, but likely at Trump's behest. Trump's meddling may send Kimmel to the number one spot by default, as his show has been doing better than The Tonight Show.
One reason CBS can cancel Colbert is that the late-night talk show business has been in decline for years. Saturday Night Live is higher rated than any network talk show; is it too popular for Trump to claim its shots at him are 'beyond the pale'?
Trump's Outdated Media Obsession
Kimmel's popularity shouldn't affect whether he is allowed to joke about Trump's age. But there is little better proof of Trump's age than his obsession with traditional broadcast television. Because he got his political career off an NBC series, Trump can think of no greater medium than linear TV. He is the ideal audience for a network talk show because he takes monologue jokes seriously and personally. He may be the last American standing who genuinely cares about their content.
Maybe talk show comedians owe Trump a perverse debt of gratitude for that attention; it allows Kimmel to attain a free-speech-hero status that would otherwise remain out of his grasp. But the Trumps' crocodile tears are taken too credulously because some feel an obligation to the office of the president that appears as outdated as an allegiance to cable news. The Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchik has whined that maybe Maga's pretend-hurt feelings have a point, singling out SNL's Michael Che for a joke that 'normalizes violence'. After all, what violent offender hasn't included a list of his favorite Weekend Update jokes in his manifesto?
Trump's charges of incitement against Kimmel are laughable but clarifying: there will always be people who insist on holding comedians to greater account than elected leaders.
