Unlike his reaction when he was similarly excoriated for his remarks about Charlie Kirk after the conservative activist’s assassination, Kimmel’s on-air comments following the attempt to take Trump’s life were genuinely thoughtful:
“Can those of us who constantly put out anger really say we haven’t contributed to an atmosphere that demonizes the other side? I’m not sure of the answer. But I do know this: I won’t pretend and say I’ll never joke again just to cleanse my image. What truly deserves reflection is not comedy itself but the line where mocking politicians slips into mocking people’s very humanity. I will keep speaking but I will do it more intelligently and more carefully.”
I also think it is foolish and incompetent for Republicans, conservatives and media critics to make Kimmel the symbol of what is otherwise an ethical outrage as well as a long-running ethics train wreck. The Axis of Unethical Conduct is deliberately trying to provoke violence against this President, his party, his followers, his supporters and his administration, and has been doing it for many years. The villains here are the Democrats and their lackeys in the news media. Jimmy Kimmel is, as the saying goes, “small potatoes”—in this case, an innocent small potato.
Ethics Alarms 
I’m not sure I agree. If this is a standard issue joke, does it really apply here? Does Donald Trump look like Jay Howard Marshall II in that photograph? In the joke’s scenario, how was Mrs. Trump to become widowed? Certainly not from natural causes. I was not aware of this being a standard issue joke. It didn’t make sense to me. In Kimmel’s satire, if he was roasting the president, wouldn’t he be there in the room? Wouldn’t he be alive? Maybe it’s just incompetent writing by the ABC writers.
Well sure it does. Trump is almost 80 (his birthday is in June). Melania is 56. My dad called 80 “the Red Zone,” meaning once you hit that age, waking up each morning is far from assured. She was a model, married Trump when she was 39 (and he was 60): she’s a textbook trophy wife. And she stands to inherit a fortune when he predeceases her, which is extremely likely.
But given they guy’s been shot at a couple of times and the constant “kill the bum” drumbeat from the left, isn’t assassination more top of mind than death from old age? I mean, the lefties are saying he’s senile, not in a wheelchair. In any event, he presents a remarkably vigorous persona.
The joke isn’t violent, so I agree on that. He isn’t responsible for any assassinations, but he isn’t funny, and he has no class. Those are good grounds to fire him. He’s too old to have any hope he will change.
No, Kimmel could not have known there would be another attempt in the wake of his joke, but there is still a big ick factor here. Kimmel is one of the so-called Resistance members who have spewed hate against Trump for years and, with the guise of the Jester’s Excuse, tries to avoid any consequences for contributing to the toxicity of civic discourse in this country. There have already been attempts made against Trump’s life. Joking about him dying soon is a little to close for comfort.
Second. Better said than my attempt.
Technically Jack is correct here. My question is why we should care. Given all the censorship and cancel culture from the left in the last decades, I am a bit jaded about Jimmy Kimmel’s fortunes, and I think the burden of defending him should be carried by himself and his leftwing friends as long as the left is trying to cancel conservatives.
By the way, he is not funny, and that is the deadliest thing you can say about a comedian.
The sophistry of Kimmel’s first statement undermines his last. Especially for a comedian who’s job is to “read the room” (“I’m not sure” my arse).
And given the state of the left today and mass media (as Steve Hayward would often write, “but I repeat myself”), how do we know he wasn’t aware of at least the possibility? A mass media event at a hotel that was likely booked solid weeks in advance? Someone shady checks in and the desk clerks don’t know a reporter?
Yes, conspiratorial, surely, and reeks of Network, but in the modern age I’m not sure that’s far off. And on that side, there are no William Holden types that get a conscience at the end.
This is the kind of thing the left foments and hopes for all while feigning “horror” when it takes place. Renee Good didn’t deserve to get shot. Alex Pretti had a right to carry, he didn’t deserve to get shot. Look at how evil the administration is! The organizers of those events absolutely hoped somebody would be injured or killed, it’s very sexy media to spout off about while we on the right are stuck trotting out the boring old law as a (right and just) explanation.
Kimmel’s joke and apology is just another part in their grand play.
Useful idiots.
Jack wrote:
On his show last week, Kimmel was riffing on what he might say if he were the MC at the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said.
The joke, like so much of what Kimmel does now that he has completely surrendered his immortal soul to TDS, was in poor taste, but it certainly wasn’t anything else. It is pure bad moral luck that it wound up sounding so much worse in hindsight, and he doesn’t deserve opprobrium for that.
There’s plenty to heap on him for legitimate trespass on the bounds of comedic insults, past and likely future, without completely ignoring the context of his joke.
But you can count on partisans on both sides to happily ignore the totality of the facts if they can get in shots against their enemies, however unethical their efforts. You are right to call it out, but I see it as conservatives playing the game by the new rules — rules that, by and large, they did not make.
The only defense I would make for attacking Kimmel is, admittedly, a rationalization: if the left is going to make stupid attacks, the right can make stupid attacks.
What was the left’s stupid attack? Interpreting Karoline Leavitt’s statement that shots will be fired at the dinner to mean that the whole assassination attempt was staged.
https://hollywoodunlocked.com/karoline-leavitt-jokes-about-shots-fired-ahead-of-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-erika-kirk-later-seen-in-tears-exiting-event-i-just-want-to-go-home/
-Jut
There is a danger in having different rules for different sides. Sarah Palin was viciously criticized for have a ‘crosshairs’ map targeting Democratic elections. That is now the standard. Those are now the rules. It is biased to allow the left to have such irresponsible ‘rules’ and when they no longer favor the left, to claim the rule is unfair and criticize people for following the rule. You can claim it is unfair, but this is how it works now. If Donald Trump had made that joke about Jill Biden during the campaign and Biden was assassinated by a diehard Trump supporter 2 days later, what would have happened to Trump? Sorry, this is the rule now. Kimmel and his friends lived by the rule, they can die by the rule. Only if people like Kimmel have to get cancelled like they cancelled others can this nonsense stop.
Die by the rule? What are you implying?? (Just kidding)
At first I disagreed. Then I agreed, but gave it an ick.
Now I’ve taken a step back and remembered the old adage that you get what you bring into it.
We know what the “conservative” mind brings to this – “Kimmel is suggesting that Trump will be assassinated and Melania is giddy (glowing) at the prospect of her husband dying.”
But what does the “liberal” mind bring to it? Is it possibly “Kimmel is suggesting that psychotic liberals hate Trump enough that they will continue with assassination attempts…and Melania is giddy (glowing) at the prospect of her husband dying.”
I think you could reasonably apply a viewpoint bias that changes that first part – hopeful that he’ll be assassinated vs calling out the violent left for their assassination attempts.
What you really can’t put aside is the second part of the joke that suggests Melania would be happy / relieved / eagerly anticipating the death of her husband, father of her child.
Kimmel knows this family is in serious danger and have been confronted with what can only be considered divine intervention to have survived prior attempts on his life. It’s a very serious matter for this family and his best joke is to suggest she wishes and would be happy to have her husband dead and gone?
Tasteless. Muddies the waters and adds to the divide.
Finally – he wasn’t invited to the correspondent’s dinner. So he staged his own “roast”. By definition, a roast is done face-to-face and everyone who takes a shot is subject to having to take return fire. By definition, he’s violating the spirit of such comedy events by having his own self-pity-party-roast.
I don’t care for this douche or the people that prop him up to keep their jobs. If they make it through this unscathed, fine. If they don’t, fine. The only time I know he exists is events like this that I see for free on the internet.
Calling an insult a joke doesn’t make it a joke.
Kimmel has a right to insult people if he wants, but it’s silly to pretend it’s anything other than an insult.
Can’t stand him. He’s tasteless and crass. As I’m in solidly in my 70’s, I’m not so much a fan of jokes about death, timely or not, but many have made tasteless, crass jokes about Joe Biden’s apparent dementia, and I don’t love that, either. Watching my Mother’s slow decline was painful, and I pity Joe while thinking his wife and administration were guilty of elder abuse.
Though I detest Kimmel, he may be truthful in his self-defense of age difference mockery. The timing was horrible, but he couldn’t have known that.
Ben Stiller, another vocal Leftist, is also a victim of bad timing. “Got it done” sparked backlash, but was about the Knicks game.
Perhaps it’s time for all of us to count to ten before reacting to every utterance. It is exhausting to be outraged 24/7.