It’s not just Jimmy Kimmel making late-night radioactive.
The comedian&#8217;s recent Trump assassination line drew plenty of heat, and rightly so, given that a third gunman just tried to kill the president days after that ABC broadcast.
There’s another, even more disturbing factor in play. Kimmel’s studio audience howled at the crack, part of an alarming trend with far-Left audiences. And, perhaps most troubling of all, Kimmel’s throng is about to expand.
Maybe by a lot. None of that bodes well for the national conversation.
Kimmel saying First Lady Melania Trump had the “glow like an expectant widow” didn’t happen in a vacuum. A few weeks earlier, “Saturday Night Live” uncorked a similarly themed gag that drew a hearty response.
“Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che noted that President Donald Trump took time away from the Oval Office to take in a Broadway show.
&#8220;I think that&#8217;s cool that the president is going to the theater. I mean, what&#8217;s the worst that could happen?&#8221; Once again, the crowd roared at the John Wilkes Booth insinuation.
Modern late-night audiences can’t stop laughing at real or imagined violence. Late in 2024, “The Daily Show’s” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XB2gjykF3M">Jon Stewart looked stunned</a> as the show’s audience greeted news of Luigi Mangione’s capture following the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson with boos.
“Look, I’m sorry guys,” Stewart meekly said.
Kimmel even did a bit showcasing how his <a href="https://decider.com/2024/12/11/jimmy-kimmel-live-staffers-texts-thirsting-unitedhealthcare-suspect-luigi-mangione-jailhouse-bride/">left-leaning female staffers had crushes on Mangione</a> following his alleged attack on a husband and father in cold blood.
Months later, Democrats began attacking Tesla dealerships to show their disgust with Elon Musk’s DOGE policies. Part-time “Daily Show” host Jordan Klepper seemingly justified the serial attacks.
“Maybe people are mad at you because you don’t seem to know what the [bleep] you’re doing!”
Once again, the crowd roared, and the message couldn’t be clearer. Violence is acceptable if directed toward one’s political foes.
Kimmel had previously jumped on the Left’s anti-Tesla bandwagon, marinating in his audience’s lust for violence. Here’s OutKick describing one <a href="https://www.outkick.com/culture/jimmy-kimmel-jokes-about-encouraging-people-burn-more-teslas-during-elon-musk-rant">particular monologue segment on the subject.</a>
&#8220;People have been vandalizing Tesla vehicles — new Tesla vehicles. Please don’t vandalize, don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles,&#8221; Kimmel said before taking a long pause while the audience laughed.
Left-wing violence is worthy of laughs and encouragement to the average Kimmel fan…and the host himself, apparently.
Here’s betting the hard-working Americans who own and operate Tesla dealerships weren’t amused. Nor should anyone be chuckling over political violence.
These aren’t just a few random X users leaning on their worst instincts. It’s people in a public venue showcasing vile sentiments. And, of course, cheering on comic ringleaders who have little interest in defusing that rage.
Just the opposite. 
Mere months ago, Kimmel held up a T-shirt on camera that read, “Donald J. Trump Is Gonna Kill You.” That was neither funny nor subtle, much like Kimmel’s brand.
And, through it all, the Legacy Media has circled the wagons. You won’t read a bracing op-ed column castigating Kimmel, Colbert, Stewart, or other late-night voices for finding real-world violence hysterical.
The Hollywood Reporter quickly <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/trumps-demand-jimmy-kimmel-fired-white-house-correspondents-dinner-1236577999/">rushed to defend Kimmel</a> following the “expectant widow” crack, downplaying any attempt to fire him. The following day, the same site noted how actress Gina Carano <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/gina-carano-ronda-rousey-mandalorian-grogu-1236579219/">took years to claw back her career</a> after being fired by Disney, which owns ABC, for a social media plea for tolerance.
The hypocrisy was lost on the venerable outfit.
Kimmel’s recent headlines find him the unofficial king of the far-Left resistance, and his fiefdom could get bigger soon. Colbert’s “Late Show” ends its 11-year run May 21, following publicized reports that the show loses CBS a jaw-dropping $40 million a year.
Colbert will pop up elsewhere, either on a YouTube channel or a streamer eager to recreate his late-night shtick.
His viewers, weaned on a steady diet of far-Left rage, will have to go somewhere. Chances are, they’ll give Kimmel a long, hard look. Late-night shows no longer grab the audiences that Johnny Carson did in his glory days. The media is far too splintered for that kind of unified audience.
Still, if you take Kimmel’s ratings — the most <a href="https://latenighter.com/news/ratings/stephen-colbert-late-night-weekly-ratings-1135-lead/">recent numbers</a> are 2.02 million viewers — and add some of that Colbert crowd (2.54 million), that’s a sizable bump. For what it’s worth, <a href="https://latenighter.com/news/ratings/june-2025-late-night-ratings-kimmel-colbert-fallon-meyers/">Kimmel’s ratings were smaller</a> before he misled viewers about Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin.
That, plus a Legacy Media arm that only encourages Kimmel to get meaner, suggests that Kimmel’s Resistance shtick will have a much broader platform going into the midterm elections and beyond.
The only chance that Kimmel’s late-night screeds go the way of Samantha Bee, Magic Johnson, and other late-night victims comes down to simple economics.
CBS claimed “The Late Show” under Colbert’s reign was losing the network $40 million a year. That show regularly beats Kimmel’s program in the ratings. So does anyone think “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is actually making a profit? At some point, will an ABC executive crunch the numbers and ask why a major corporation finds losing money acceptable?
Until then, the hateful show will go on. The scariest part? “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon is left-leaning but far less callous than his late-night peers. And he’s getting clobbered by both Kimmel and Colbert in the ratings.
Apparently, a large portion of the country craves hate and violence on their late-night TV.
More troubling news? Some of President Trump’s would-be assassins’ manifestos sound achingly similar to a standard Kimmel screed.
And just like “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” there’s nothing funny about that.

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