Graham Linehan Appears In Court Charged With Harassment

A Comedian Was Jailed In The UK For Jokes. Is Britain Now North Korea?

Comedy

Free Speech

Great Britain

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Social Media Censorship

Irish comedian Graham Linehan trolled a British court on Thursday when he arrived outside the Westminster courthouse wearing a sandwich board proclaiming, &#8220;There is no such thing as a transgender child.&#8221;
Standing outside the court, Linehan turned the sign around after several moments to reveal another that read, &#8220;Keep men out of women&#8217;s sports.&#8221; The underside of one of the signs was also briefly visible: &#8220;Gender ideology does not belong in schools.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan arrives for trial over alleged harassment of a transgender woman <a href="https://t.co/dOTDtXoDK9">pic.twitter.com/dOTDtXoDK9</a>
— Irish Daily Mirror (@IrishMirror) <a href="https://twitter.com/IrishMirror/status/1963528987658874997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/irish-comedian-recounts-shocking-arrest-over-anti-trans-social-media-posts">Linehan</a> was approached by armed officers upon his arrival at London&#8217;s Heathrow airport, some of whom apparently were unable to even explain to him what he&#8217;d done to warrant being &#8220;arrested at an airport like a terrorist.&#8221;
&#8220;The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three posts on X,&#8221; Linehan wrote in an op-ed for <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/i-posted-on-x-the-british-police-arrested-me-free-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Free Press</a>. “In a country where pedophiles escape prison, where knife crime is out of control, the state had mobilized five armed officers to arrest a comedy writer for these three posts.&#8221;
The posts that prompted the arrest, as The Daily Wire previously reported, include one that says, &#8220;If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.&#8221;
Another has a photo of a trans activist gathering and includes the caption, &#8220;A photo you can smell.&#8221;
The third one says, &#8220;I hate them all. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.&#8221;
Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines commented on the video of Linehan outside the court, cheering him on.
&#8220;This is how Graham Linehan shows up for trial in the UK just days after being arrested in the London airport for posting &#8216;offensive tweets.&#8217; This is how you deal with the trans mob. Double down. We&#8217;re cheering you on, @glinner.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is how Graham Linehan shows up for trial in the UK just days after being arrested in the London airport for posting &#8220;offensive tweets&#8221;
This is how you deal with the trans mob. Double down. We&#8217;re cheering you on, <a href="https://twitter.com/Glinner?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Glinner</a> 👏🏼🔥<a href="https://t.co/vWVItcwUGK">pic.twitter.com/vWVItcwUGK</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1963571669571612847?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Nigel Farage flew across the Atlantic to discuss British censorship. Graham Linehan came the other way to head to court, and was arrested by armed police over a set of posts. Politicians who pretend Britain doesn&#8217;t have a free speech problem are only fooling themselves,&#8221; Sam Ashworth-Hayes of The Telegraph added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Nigel Farage flew across the Atlantic to discuss British censorship. Graham Linehan came the other way to head to court, and was arrested by armed police over a set of posts.
Politicians who pretend Britain doesn&#8217;t have a free speech problem are only fooling themselves: <a href="https://t.co/MlOX5SK50m">pic.twitter.com/MlOX5SK50m</a>
— Sam Ashworth-Hayes (@SAshworthHayes) <a href="https://twitter.com/SAshworthHayes/status/1962950250961740138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The more I think about the #GrahamLinehan case, the more disgusted I feel. An Irish citizen, living in the USA, is arrested by 5 ARMED cops when he arrives in the UK, because of some tweets he wrote on a website that&#8217;s owned by an American &amp; based in the USA. Total clownery!&#8221; another posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The more I think about the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GrahamLinehan?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GrahamLinehan</a> case, the more disgusted I feel. An Irish citizen, living in the USA, is arrested by 5 ARMED cops when he arrives in the UK, because of some tweets he wrote on a website that&#8217;s owned by an American &amp; based in the USA. Total clownery!
— Simon Fox (@SimonFoxWriter) <a href="https://twitter.com/SimonFoxWriter/status/1963134862522519914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Graham Linehan court case

Comedian Trolls Court, Doubles Down After Arrest For ‘Anti-Trans’ Posts

Irish Comedian Trolls British Court, Doubles Down After Arrest For 'Anti-Trans' Posts

comedian

Courts

Politics

Transgender

Thank God we fought a revolution in this country so that we are not ruled by the idiotic rules of the modern United Kingdom.
Graham Linehan is a comedian and comedy writer who was just arrested in the UK — for his tweets.
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in the UK. In mid-August, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/19/world-news/uk-free-speech-struggle-30-arrests-a-day-censorship/">titled an article</a>, “UK free speech crackdown sees up to 30 people a day arrested for petty offenses such as retweets and cartoons.” The Post wrote:
<blockquote>Bernadette Spofforth lay in jail on a blue gym mattress in a daze, finding it difficult to move, even breathe. “I just closed down. But the other half of my brain went into Jack Reacher mode,” she said, referring to the fictional action hero. “Every single detail was in this very vivid, bright, sharp focus.”
She remembers noticing that you can’t drown yourself in the toilet, because there’s no standing water in it and the flush button is too far to reach if your head were in the bowl. She’d end up being detained for 36 hours in July 2024. Three girls had just been <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/20/world-news/uk-teen-pleads-guilty-to-murder-of-three-girls-at-taylor-swift-themed-dance-party/">murdered in Southport</a>, England, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party. But Spofforth was not under suspicion for the crime.
Instead, horrified, and in the fog of a developing tragedy, she’d reposted on X another user’s content blaming newly arrived migrants for the ghastly crime — clarifying in her retweet, “If this is true.” Hours later she realized she may have received bad information and deleted the post — but it had already been seen thousands of times. &#8230;
Her story is one repeated almost hourly in the UK, where data suggests <a href="https://freespeechunion.org/police-make-30-arrests-a-day-for-offensive-online-messages/">over 30 people a day are arrested</a> for speech crimes, about 12,000 a year, under laws written well before the age of social media that make crimes of sending “grossly offensive” messages or sharing content of an “indecent, obscene or menacing character.”</blockquote>
Four police vehicles arrived at her home days later.
Linehan <a href="https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/i-just-got-arrested-again">wrote on</a> Substack:
<blockquote>The moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, five armed police officers were waiting. Not one, not two—five. They escorted me to a private area and told me I was under arrest for three tweets. In a country where paedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak, the state had mobilised five armed officers to arrest a comedy writer for this tweet (and no, I promise you, I am not making this up.)</blockquote>
The tweet read: “If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the ba**s.”
Linehan was arrested for that tweet. He was also arrested for another tweet in which there was a gigantic trans protest in London, of which he tweeted a photo, captioned, “A photo you can smell,” followed by a tweet in which he wrote, “I hate them. Misogynists and homophobes. F*** em.”
“At Heathrow police station, my belt, bag, and devices were confiscated,” he wrote. “Then I was shown into a small green-tiled cell with a bunk, a silver toilet in the corner and a message from Crimestoppers on the ceiling next to a concave mirror that was presumably there to make you reflect on your life choices. &#8230; At one point, I said ‘I bet I know who made this complaint. Lindsay Watson’ (demented ex-copper troon who was fired for his online conduct). Then, lo-and-behold, one of my lawyers sent me this reply to the ‘bollocks’ tweet.”
The reply stated, “That weird ex-copper claims he has reported this to police and is trying to get other troons to do so. Just FYI.”
Welcome to England, the birthplace of the Magna Carta, where they are tearing down the institutions that make a functional society.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2272-the-uk-s-free-speech-crackdown?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
It&#8217;s not just that these folks in the UK are interested in tearing away free speech and saying you’re not allowed to tweet a bad thing, that bad tweets might land you in jail: They are importing people from parts of the planet who hate and despise all of the centralizing Western principles, such as free speech.
I write in “Lions And Scavengers” about the coalition of scavengers, about the idea that you have barbarians — the people from outside who hate our civilization — who join forces with the lechers inside our civilization who believe that they are marginalized by our traditional institutions and values, and then they make common cause together. 
That&#8217;s the UK in a nutshell.
It is no coincidence that on Tuesday, the Home Secretary of the UK, Yvette Cooper, said that the UK is going to take in refugees from Gaza. She stated:
<blockquote>I confirm that the Home Office has put in place systems to issue expedited visas with biometric checks conducted prior to arrival for children and their immediate accompanying family members. We have done the same for all the Chevening scholars and are now in the process of doing so for the next group of students from Gaza who have been awarded fully funded scholarships and places at UK universities so that they can start their studies in autumn this year.
Later this year, we will set out plans to establish a permanent framework for refugee students to come and study in the UK so that we can help more talented young people fleeing war and persecution to find a better future, alongside capped and managed ways for refugees to work here in the UK.</blockquote>
Congrats to the people of Great Britain. They don&#8217;t just have to contend with the insanity inside their borders, but out of some sort of misplaced sympathy, they are going to be importing people who almost certainly do not share their values.
There are plenty of other countries on planet Earth that are more akin ideologically and culturally to the people of Gaza, but according to the wonderful folks in the UK, those countries don’t exist.
There&#8217;s been some opposition within Westminster to taking in refugees from Gaza.
Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick expressed apprehension at the idea of resettling Palestinians in the UK. He wrote in The Telegraph, “The truth is that Gaza&#8217;s Arab neighbors are prepared to offer humanitarian support, but consider the idea of inviting Gazans into the country at any scale a risk only a fool would take.”
Which, of course, is true.
This is a misapplied sense of guilt directed at the Third World by the Labor Party in the UK, a belief that in the oppressor/oppressed matrix, the UK is an oppressor; Israel is an oppressor; the people of Gaza are the oppressed, and therefore the people of the UK must accept people who believe that Western civilization is in and of itself wrong and terrible.
As a side note, we should point out at this point here that Qatar — which is essentially Hamas with nicer suits — owns much of London.
“A cursory look at Property Week shows that the Qatari Investment Authority, Qatari Holding and Qatari Diar own 23,253,699 square feet of London, making Qatar the largest owner of London property. Reports vary about the sum invested, alleged to be £35 billion. Qatar’s square footage is more than HM The Queen’s Crown Estate,” Sunday Guardian Live <a href="https://latest.sundayguardianlive.com/world/10394-qatar-largest-owner-london-property?utm_source=chatgpt.com">reported</a>.
If you ever wonder why Europe is so warm toward importing people who truly hate their civilization, a big part of the reason is this — money.

Demonstrations Held Outside Migrant Accommodations Across The UK

The UK’s Free Speech Crackdown

airport

Ben Shapiro

England

Jail

Howard Stern spent years complaining about the media’s coverage of him. And for good reason. Journalists loathed Stern’s shock jock shtick.
And then, slowly, the media began affording Stern a Strange New Respect around the same time he went woke and embraced the Democratic party.
Does that explain the stunning shift happening over at “South Park?”
The irreverent series debuted in 1997 and is still going strong, while kindred comic spirits like “The Simpsons” and “Bob’s Burgers” lack the snap of their early years. “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone just signed a <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/south-park-paramount-plus-billion-dollar-deal-1236466524/">$1.5 billion deal with Paramount+</a> to keep the misadventures of Cartman and co. going.
Not bad for a crudely animated show featuring a talking piece of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MSp-KFJXJVo">excrement</a>.
The show’s willingness to mock both sides of the aisle has been one of its selling points over its nearly 30-year run. The show has made fun of smug EV drivers, Catholicism, Mormons and more.
The series tweaked transgender athletes dominating biological women in sports years before Riley Gaines called foul on Lia Thomas’ “stunning and brave” swimming victories.
Fair? Balanced? Pretty darn close for most viewers, and a rare example of a comic institution unwilling to become yet another DNC platform. It was all about the funny, and Parker and Stone didn’t care whose toes they stepped on along the way.
That not only forged the show’s fame but also generated keen interest from the Right. We’ll take our lumps if our liberal friends share in the honor.
Until now, perhaps.
<div id="attachment_967213" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-967213" class="size-large wp-image-967213" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-30-Aug-2025-01-37-PM-9230-1024x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Trey Parker. Matt Stone. &quot;South Park, Members Only.&quot; IMDB. " width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-30-Aug-2025-01-37-PM-9230-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-30-Aug-2025-01-37-PM-9230-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-30-Aug-2025-01-37-PM-9230-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-30-Aug-2025-01-37-PM-9230-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-30-Aug-2025-01-37-PM-9230-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Trey Parker. Matt Stone. &#8220;South Park, Members Only.&#8221; IMDB.</div>
The first three episodes of “South Park’s” current season have hammered President Donald Trump, Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Vice President JD Vance and other GOP targets. It’s been crude and, gasp, atypically one-sided. 
Recent shows have also attacked ICE agents rounding up illegal immigrants and suggested Christians are trying to swarm public education with a cameo from Jesus himself.
While most animated shows take months, or even a year, to complete, the turnaround time for new “South Park” episodes is shockingly fast. That allows them to cover recent ICE raids, for example, even as the headlines were mere days old.
It’s been relentless. And, in many ways, less funny than usual. Showing a cartoon Trump threatening to sue everyone on sight is funny because he has been litigious, even if one agrees with his legal strategies.
Satire stings when it has a kernel of truth. Other bits, though, feel desperate and clapter-adjacent.
Even more curious? The show is missing so much comic material. What about prominent Democrats siding with accused wife beaters and gang bangers, a la Kilmar Abrego Garcia? Or progressive mayors insisting their crime-infested cities aren’t crime-infested cities?
What’s going on?
The Stern theory is in play, no doubt. The media has been moderately kind to “South Park” over the years, but the adulation shown to “South Park” in recent weeks has been eye-opening.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Why &#8216;South Park&#8217; Hurt Trump When No One Else Could: <a href="https://consequence.net/2025/08/south-park-hurt-trump-no-one-else-could/">Consequence of Sound</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Satire at its finest: &#8216;South Park&#8217; takes on Trump’s martial takeover, AI and tech bros: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/aug/21/south-park-takes-on-trumps-martial-takeover-ai-and-tech-bros">The Guardian</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">‘South Park’ mocks Trump all the way to the bank: <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5453169-trump-south-park-ratings/">The Hill</a></li>
</ul>
Even the Associated Press has begun chronicling the new episodes as if they were suddenly newsworthy. That’s how reporters have treated anti-Trump “Saturday Night Live” sketches over the years and many late-night monologues.
It’s Strange New Respect, The Sequel. Here’s betting liberal Hollywood, Inc. is warming up to Parker and Stone in ways they haven’t felt for some time, too. After all, they can’t keep “South Park” going forever, and they’ll need to pivot to new projects soon.
<div id="attachment_967215" style="width: 842px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-967215" class="size-large wp-image-967215" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2226061249-832x576.jpg" alt="US animators Matt Stone (L) and Trey Parker attend the Comedy Central Adult Animation: &quot;South Park&quot;, &quot;Beavis &amp; Butt-Head&quot;, and &quot;Digman&quot; panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic Con International in San Diego, California on July 24, 2025. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP) (Photo by CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)" width="832" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2226061249-832x576.jpg 832w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2226061249-300x208.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2226061249-768x532.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2226061249.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px" />CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images</div>
The recent shift also runs counter to the show’s original take on Trump. “South Park” hasn’t hammered the real estate mogul as consistently as other pop culture institutions over the past decade.
“Saturday Night Live” trolls Trump on a weekly basis.
Parker and Stone are self-described Libertarians, which has helped explain their equal opportunity skewerings up until now. Have their political leanings shifted of late? Note that they left President Joe Biden alone for four years despite enough comic material to flesh out an entire season. Maybe two.
Another possibility, one in line with the duo’s brand, is the Trump attacks are making a larger point. The Left and the Media insist, without evidence, that President Trump helped get Stephen Colbert fired from “The Late Show.”
He’s silencing dissent, the Left collectively cries, citing Colbert’s cancellation. This could be the duo’s attempt to mock that fear-mongering. Just try to censor us! We’re willing to mock Trump, but not eager to cost our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/officialbenshapiro/videos/stephen-colberts-show-loses-40-million-per-year/2218688955237636/">employers’ $40 million a year</a>.
“South Park” is no stranger to censorship, so any real sign of it from Team Trump would draw its ire. The show’s willingness to show a comic likeness of Muhammad <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/apr/22/south-park-censored-fatwa-muhammad">caused a kerfuffle</a> earlier in the show’s run. Comedy Central ended up censoring the visuals, not Parker or Stone.
If the “South Park” pranksters do a heel turn and start smiting the Left again, expect a vastly different media reaction to future episodes. The disappointment will be palpable.
Even the best shows run out of fresh ideas. That may happen to “South Park” sooner or later. Abandoning the show’s bipartisan spirit could be the quickest path to just that fate.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-30-Aug-2025-12-58-PM-2393

Strange New Respect: Why The Media Suddenly Love ‘South Park’

Strange New Respect: Why The Media Suddenly Love 'South Park'

Cartoon

Democrats

Entertainment

Humor

Legacy Media

South Park

Trump Administration

U.S. Politics

Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher predicted a 2028 presidential victory for Republicans in general — and perhaps for Vice President JD Vance specifically — if New York City elects Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor.
Maher argued on his podcast that Mamdani, who garnered national attention when he bested disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) in the June Democratic primary, was essentially a walking, talking advertisement for the Republican Party as he pushed for radical changes in New York.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨Bill Maher says Zohran Mamdani will help &#8220;ELECT JD VANCE&#8221; — or another GOP nominee — in 2028 if he becomes NYC mayor🚨
&#8220;Don’t tell me that who the mayor of New York is doesn’t matter.&#8221;
&#8220;He definitely has the power and influence to elect JD Vance — or whoever is the Republican… <a href="https://t.co/0zBTxMs5QF">pic.twitter.com/0zBTxMs5QF</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1951634166153359619?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;New York is New York!&#8221; Maher explained. &#8220;It&#8217;s the media capital, it&#8217;s the financial capital. It is a bellwether like no other city is in this country. So don’t tell me that who the mayor of New York is doesn’t matter.&#8221;
Maher&#8217;s guest, progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, asked Maher whether he actually believed that Mamdani — who has advocated for a number of radical socialist changes with regard to taxation, housing, and other issues — could actually drive the kind of change as the Mayor of New York City.
&#8220;He definitely has the power and influence to elect JD Vance — or whoever is the Republican candidate next time,&#8221; Maher pushed back, arguing that everything Mamdani did would likely create opposition. &#8220;It is a walking commercial for the Republican Party nationally. When you let the Democrat socialists, and now they&#8217;re actually calling themselves social — let them take over a major American city, this is what you get: the state-run grocery stores, which worked so well in Cuba and the Soviet Union and Venezuela. Just bad ideas, and again, this ugly streak, ugly streak of antisemitism.&#8221;
&#8220;Who&#8217;s the most popular politician on the Left?&#8221; Cohen challenged Maher.
&#8220;AOC?&#8221; Maher guessed.
&#8220;One of, but who&#8217;s — Bernie, you know Bernie is — he&#8217;s not a capitalist, you know,&#8221; Cohen said.
&#8220;No, he&#8217;s not, and he&#8217;s also not president,&#8221; Maher shot back.
&#8220;He&#8217;s no — but —&#8221; Cohen tried again.
&#8220;And never would be,&#8221; Maher insisted.
&#8220;Neither is Mamdani,&#8221; Cohen said.
&#8220;No, but trust me, he will be featured in the campaign commercials,&#8221; Maher predicted, arguing that Mamdani would be a net negative on whoever did run for president.
&#8220;They boogeyman everybody,&#8221; Cohen complained, arguing that the real problem was not Mamdani but the Republicans who would use his socialist policies to damage any Democrat running.
&#8220;You don’t have to boogeyman [Mamdani]!&#8221; was Maher&#8217;s reply. &#8220;He does it to himself!&#8221;

2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones – Arrivals

Bill Maher Predicts What Will Happen In 2028 If New York Elects Mamdani Now

Bill Maher

JD Vance

Media

Zohran Mamdani

The following article was originally posted on “<a href="https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New Jerusalem</a>” on Substack.
* * *
In October, 2015, Vanity Fair magazine ran a feature story about television’s late night comedy talk shows. It was headlined “Host-to-Host Sensation.” The accompanying fold-out photo of ten top talk show comics caused a sensation of its own. Much imaginary ink was as if spilled over the shocking fact that all the hosts were men. But, of course, there was nothing shocking about that. Women aren’t funny. Even the funny ones aren’t that funny. As many another foolishly honest man has pointed out, women don’t need to be funny, not at a professional level at least. Overlooked, unathletic, angry high school boys need to be funny. If they’re not funny, their genetic strain will likely die with them. That’s the kind of urgent motivation that’s required to create a grown man with the insane courage to make jokes onstage and risk being met with dead silence.
But there was something that really was shocking about the Vanity Fair picture, something very few people who were not me bothered to mention. Every single comedy talk show host depicted — all ten of them — had exactly the same political opinions. They were all Left-wingers, and they would all come to detest and despise Donald Trump.
Now, you might say that was to be expected. The Venn Diagram of overlooked, unathletic, angry little men and Left-wing men is basically a circle with a small crescent of Nazis bulging out of one side. But what was shocking — and really kind of despicable — was this: the corporations who platformed these angry little funny leftists apparently saw no reason, financial or otherwise, to hire anyone to entertain the half of the audience who held more conservative views. Their idea seemed to be that they could make all the profits they needed by amusing one half of the audience at the expense of the other. They must have thought that was good business. They must have thought it was morally acceptable. They must have thought: “Screw you, half of America. We hurl disdain in your general direction!”
Well, strange to say, this business model did not perform all that well over time.
Listen, I’m a Christian man. I try very hard not to take pleasure in the misfortunes of my philosophical opponents. But in this case, I just can’t help it. The smug entitlement of an elite monoculture that despised the common man and woman — the men and women who, in the words of George Bailey, “do most of the working and paying and living and dying” in this country — was just begging for a comeuppance. And that uppance has come.
Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show on CBS has been cancelled and will go off the air next May. The show was making 40 million fewer dollars a year than the 130 million dollars it cost to produce. And while Colbert’s paltry ratings were the highest among his Left-wing colleagues, he and they were regularly being beaten by Greg Gutfeld, the libertarian smart aleck on Fox News. That’s cable, where the shows reach around half of the network audience, and where production costs are considerably lower.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
Now, Colbert was not born talentless. His Jon Stewart spin-off show, The Colbert Report, in which he satirized conservative commentators like Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, was often amusing. But once he landed the CBS late night spot in 2015, the laughter died. Maybe it was the big money. Maybe it was the Trump Derangement-fueled rage. Maybe it was being flattered by hand-picked audiences cheering wildly for unfunny rants. But something went sour inside Colbert. Lines like “The only thing Trump’s mouth is good for is being Putin’s cock holster,” might have seemed hilarious to the kind of ten-year-olds who laugh through their noses. But to adults — especially adults weary of having self-satisfied show biz millionaires insult them with a wholly undeserved tone of moral superiority — they seemed a tad juvenile.
But Colbert’s abilities are beside the point. Stephen Colbert was bad for America. Not on his own, maybe. On his own, he was just another Hollywood putz who mistakenly thought he had something important to say. But as a brick in a solid wall of Left-wing entertainment, he did more damage than any laughter could rectify.
Networks broadcast on airwaves that are a public trust. Their stations are licensed by a federal agency, the FCC. If the monologues on network late night comedy shows can be said to have any kind of higher purpose, surely it has something to do with bringing us together, helping us laugh in the evening at the politics and passions that drive us apart during the day. If you ridicule Barack Obama, then I’ll be willing to see what’s ridiculous about Donald Trump. If you make jokes about Ted Cruz, then maybe leftists will be able to find something funny about AOC. Fair both-sides comedy has the power to soften our angry certainties with self-awareness and humility.
But if instead, you declare late night a one political party zone, what comity can your comedy produce? If you think a crafty Chicago machine pol like Obama is so perfect that there is “not a flaw or hook that you can caricature,” (as one Saturday Night Live writer put it), why should I be amused when you hammer Trump for his many peccadillos night after night after night?
During the monologue in which Colbert announced his cancellation, he turned to the camera and told President Trump, “Go f&#8212; yourself.” But hadn’t he been saying exactly that for these many years to all the tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump, who thought him, in their good will and wisdom, a better choice than the candidates Colbert supports?
What exactly did Colbert think he knew that allowed him to dismiss so many of his countrymen? Insult each night so many of his countrymen? Disparage and belittle so many of his countrymen by continually mocking their candidates while at the same time using his mouth as a cock holster for any lying, corrupt, incompetent, third rate Democrat lucky enough to come on his show?
What angel visited Stephen in the quiet of his cultural sequestration and told him it would be all right for him — and for every single one of his corporate comedy colleagues — to consider those tens of millions of Americans as nothing more than the butts of their jokes? If they had intended to convince those voters to change sides, wouldn’t it have been wiser to spread the jokes around even just a little? But that wasn’t their intention. They despised those voters. They hectored them out of the audience. They sent them a clear message: You are not worthy of being amused.
And, of course, it’s not just the comedians. It’s every morally flatulent entertainer who ever accepted his or her Oscar or Emmy or Grammy with a speech denouncing the politicians half the electorate prefers. As the writer tells the actress in the classic show biz film All About Eve: “I shall never understand the weird process by which a body with a voice suddenly fancies itself as a mind.”
For more than twenty years, I’ve been making speeches to conservatives, telling them they should pay more attention to the arts. To movies, to novels, to music and so on. I quote James Joyce to them: artists “forge the uncreated conscience” of a people. I quote Percy Shelley: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” I tell them that complaining about movies and music and publishing will get them nowhere. The arts can only be redeemed by those who love them.
But maybe I was talking to the wrong people. Maybe I should have gone to the artists themselves. The arts aren’t leftist by nature, but they are liberal by nature. They find worth and dignity even in the Other. In the West, they always have. The Greeks mourned for the Trojan women. The Crusaders sang the nobility of their Muslim foes. Shakespeare reinvented the stock Evil Jew of the medieval Easter Play by granting him his full humanity.
Is there nothing of that spirit left in Hollywood? Or in publishing? Where conservative actors and writers have to talk in whispers? Where even to be a white male is to risk being barred from your vocation? No. They will not even award the Pulitzer to an iconic photograph depicting Trump’s courage under fire. They will not even put our glamorous First Lady on the covers of their fashion magazines. Ideology has made our cultural gatekeepers petty and small and mean.
Well, forgive me if that meanness has made me mean as well. The backlash is coming and has come, and I am glad to see it. With all my striving toward good will, the best I can muster for Stephen Colbert is to repeat to him the immortal words of a man more relevant, more daringly counter-cultural and, yes, a whole lot funnier than he is: “You’re fired.”
* * *
The following article was originally posted on “<a href="https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New Jerusalem</a>” on Substack.
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fifth installment, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-That-Cameron-Winter-Mysteries/dp/1613166869/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EGZUC370LG46&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Y_NI0mDOKeowShheDQTVx5NH-fAeimJoCD56_T0Acpl8C0mup7uJf-nGGSRLEItaaekoDnvS2vWLMa4Zd2UBXQ8Y-g-P502jOWz-Y8IX3ZQsdlO7WMLrg1xIhNoKmjCorSWUR4C2l_RbiZ7apJ1MfPzGOrrEf7AdAXX6xwnJRVP_XqUfWuMuVthTWscaU3P4vgmS86-96n-721enHfX12CFQWTajqFbVnrsDkexfUf4.6_gTH6h1Bb9Pn375QdF_VAVZSayDvjQBBKGXE-MTiFo&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=klavan&amp;qid=1754049918&amp;sprefix=%2Caps%2C80&amp;sr=8-1">After That, The Dark,</a> is now available for Pre-Order. Follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/andrewklavan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@andrewklavan</a>
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert Was Bad For America

Andrew Klavan

Stephen Colbert

Woke Culture

Bill Burr, the comedian — or perhaps I should call him an ex-comedian —is still pretty angry at me.
That’s because all the way back in February, I said that he had gone rogue. He got really sad. That was after he suggested that the healthcare CEOs of America might deserve to be murdered.
On Thursday, Vulture — which still surprisingly exists — published an <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/bill-burr-woke-politics-billionaires-left-right.html">interview</a> with him.
“I want to ask about politics because it has been an interesting few months for you in this arena. You’ve had a few things happen, including Ben Shapiro talking about going to one of your shows and complaining that you’re becoming ‘woke,’” Vulture began. 
 
“He doesn’t even know what that word means,” Burr insisted. “His definition of woke is white liberals’ definition of woke, and they didn’t even know what it was; they just took the word from black people. That’s the worst thing about our people — not only do we take from other cultures, we don’t even take the time to understand the definition. He went there to be annoyed so he can then have something to talk about and then he can make money off dividing his own country. Those people, it’s treasonous what they do.”
“The fact is that it worked for what his goal was: for it became a thing online where a certain portion of the right complained about how you’re woke —” Vulture posited.
“Racists. They’re racists,” Burr complained. “They send pictures of monkeys to me and my wife. They’re f***ing horrible people. And they’re cowards, and they never say it to your face. &#8230; What I’m finding is that people keep trying to categorize what it is that you’re doing. Like that idiot Ben Shapiro: ‘He’s woke now!’ That f***ing guy. He was trying to bring me into his fold. At one point, the guy liked me. And then when I didn&#8217;t, all of a sudden I&#8217;m a, I mean, I&#8217;m supposed to look at that guy like he&#8217;s an adult?’
Vulture: “Do you feel misunderstood if people take your words one way or the other?”
“No, I&#8217;m not, mis — I’m deliberately misunderstood,” Burr moaned.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2251-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Okay, a couple of quick housekeeping notes there. First, I don&#8217;t need to pay to go to your comedy show to be annoyed. There&#8217;s a lot of stuff in the world that annoys me. And typically, I don&#8217;t shell out hundreds of bucks and then take my wife and my friends to a show in order to be annoyed. I&#8217;m sorry; you did a bad show, and a bunch of people didn&#8217;t laugh in Florida, and then you fussed like a child and then walked off the stage. It was really ridiculous.
That&#8217;s on you, dude. You probably should give the people refunds because they paid for Bill Burr at Red Rock. Instead, they got Joy Behar at some dive bar.
You used to do jokes like this. “Look at the WNBA. They&#8217;ve been playing in front of 3 to 400 people a night for a quarter of a century. Not to mention it&#8217;s a male-subsidized league. We gave you a league. Where are all the feminists? That place should be packed with feminists wearing jerseys, flashing it &#8230; going nuts like the guys do in the upper deck &#8230; ‘Me on the jumbotron. Am I doing it?’”
Or: “Women failed the WNBA. Ladies, ladies, name your top five all-time WNBA players. Name five WNBA teams. Name the WNBA team in your city. You can&#8217;t do it.”
Or: “You don&#8217;t give a f*** about them. They play night in and night out in front of nobody. It&#8217;s a f*** tragedy.”
That&#8217;s what you used to be. But now your latest material is like this: “Then they&#8217;re talking about looting, but CNN and Fox News are not going to bring up the insurance companies that are just going to keep everybody&#8217;s premiums and still give themselves a bonus. Free Luigi!”
Or: “For conservative people to act like they&#8217;re not the biggest babies also is hilarious. Have you seen this? My people? Whitey, we&#8217;re all upset. There&#8217;s enough of us to get it going, trending, anyway. (laughing) We&#8217;re upset about the new Cinderella movie. ‘The actress playing Cinderella isn’t white. There&#8217;s no prince. They changed the story. What am I gonna tell my kids?’ The things my people get upset about. ‘What am I going to tell my kids?’ Well, talk around it the way you do, the way we talk around the real history of this country.”
I&#8217;m glad he&#8217;s laughing at himself because nobody else is. Man, what a fall.
Not liking your show isn&#8217;t “treason,” you doof; you&#8217;re not the president. You&#8217;re the guy who came in second in the Billy Corgan lookalike contest because you showed up sloppy drunk and forgot to shave again.
Here&#8217;s what I mean by wokeness: There is a definition, and I&#8217;ve explained it over and over and over again on the show. It&#8217;s not my definition. It&#8217;s the definition that Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic — who literally wrote a book on Critical Race Theory — laid out in explaining the basic principles that match up with wokeness.
One: racism is ordinary, not aberrational.
Two: Our system of white over color-ascendancy serves important purposes, both psychic and material.
So you put those together for wokeness. What that means is that the system of America is designed to create racially disparate outcomes. Any proof of racially disparate outcomes is evidence of the malignancy of the system.
There&#8217;s another element of wokeness that is self-contradictory here, that there is a racial essentialism that stops you from criticizing as unfactual the viewpoints of others. “You don&#8217;t understand because you&#8217;re not black,” or ‘You can&#8217;t understand because you&#8217;re not gay.”
This ends conversations and contradicts the fundamental basis of wokeness, because the basis of wokeness is that everybody is basically the same, which means all group outcomes should be the same, which means any inequality of group outcome is evidence of systemic inequity.
But then wokeness will also posit that racial groups are so different that you can&#8217;t even talk to one another. You can&#8217;t even criticize the viewpoints of members of another racial group. It&#8217;s a bizarre defense mechanism.
I call Bill Burr woke because he is. He believes that America is a deeply racist place and that it&#8217;s embedded in all of our social systems, and the evidence of that is our economic inequality, and therefore, it&#8217;s probably okay to shoot healthcare CEOs.
And if you criticize him as woke, it&#8217;s because you don&#8217;t really understand the term “woke” because black people invented that term, and when white people use the term “woke” as a descriptor, it’s cultural appropriation.
Oh, how times have changed. 
Bill Burr used to tell this joke: “The black guy who brought up leg-shaking, saying, ‘Elvis took leg-shaking from us.’ It&#8217;s like, ‘Really? Leg-shaking? No, nobody thought to do this. Black people came up with that. You telling me that? I&#8217;ll even give you that. Let&#8217;s say you came up with that. Where did that black dude learn how to do it? Didn&#8217;t he watch some older black guy do it because he&#8217;s the same color? He&#8217;s not stealing. He&#8217;s just carrying on the tradition. But if Elvis does it. Oh, what the f***. Now he&#8217;s the biggest thief ever.’ That doesn&#8217;t make any sense to me.”
The current Bill Burr would presumably call that Bill Burr insensitive and unresponsive to the needs and definitions of black people, which is amazing, because Bill Burr is whiter than a painting of a polar bear in snow on a white canvas.
He&#8217;s the most annoying form of a woke person: a white lib, the kind he likes to criticize. The white person who apologizes for being white by pretending that he can speak on behalf of black people about the systemic privileges of being white.
While pulling down millions of dollars to be an angry thumb of a human.
So Bald Rumpelstiltskin over there — who gets mad when you call him by his real name — is still pissed off. I didn&#8217;t enjoy his comedy show last year, and he thinks that my wife and I and our friends paid to attend his show just so that I could criticize him.
Here&#8217;s the thing. On a random weekday night, if I&#8217;m going to a comedy show, I&#8217;m going because I want to laugh. We paid to attend your show because you used to be funny, and then you transed yourself and turned into a white, bald, allegedly male version of Sunny Hostin on The View screeching at me about income inequality and racism.
You&#8217;ve decided that you&#8217;re a victim and that everyone you know is a victim and that America is cruel and nasty, and you&#8217;re deliberately misunderstood just because you won&#8217;t put on a great show anymore.
I used to enjoy watching Bill Burr. But now watching him is like watching Robin D&#8217;Angelo, but even whiter and even faker and less funny and with a screechy Boston accent to boot.
You turned into Billy, the piss-drunk woke leprechaun. Good luck with that, dude.
Listen, I hope you turn it around. I really do, because the world needs better comedians, and I like a lot of comedians that disagree with me, including Louis C.K. and Dave Chappelle.
But we don’t need 57-year-old men trying to earn street cred with fellow kids by turning into a human embodiment of those stupid “In this house” lawn signs. That makes me sad. It does.
And yeah, you&#8217;re being a woke jackass.

Shaq’s Fun House

Bill Burr Went Woke. Now He’s Whining About It.

Bill Burr

If late night comedy on network television is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/late-night-collapse-colberts-fall-and-the-death-of-balanced-comedy">dying</a>, NBC host and comedian Seth Meyers may have inadvertently revealed one of the reasons for that — and admitted that he has played a part in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-host-breaks-ranks-offers-surprisingly-sane-reason-for-colberts-ouster">bringing that about</a>.
Meyers told host Dax Shepard on his &#8220;Armchair Expert&#8221; podcast that his goal — as the host of &#8220;Late Night with Seth Meyers&#8221; — is to make sure that his show is &#8220;cathartic&#8221; for him while he&#8217;s making it and for the audience as they&#8217;re watching it.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Seth Meyers goes on the Armchair Expert podcast and claims that he views his &#8216;Late Night&#8217; NBC job as wanting &#8220;to make a show that&#8217;s both cathartic to do and cathartic to watch.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/wqHq2AeTYG">pic.twitter.com/wqHq2AeTYG</a>
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) <a href="https://twitter.com/alexchristy17/status/1950235834671599859?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Shepard began by pointing to the obvious left-leaning nature of Meyers&#8217; show, asking whether he felt like people who agreed with him came to watch his show because they found it comforting in a way. What he didn&#8217;t say aloud was that having a show that leaned so far in one particular direction could potentially alienate half of the country.
&#8220;Have you felt over the years that it&#8217;s a bit of a dog whistle for people to come commiserate with you in a way that you&#8217;re like, ‘Ugh,’ I don&#8217;t, let&#8217;s put it this way. I have my own political opinions. I find one of the most boring things in the world is to hear someone else&#8217;s political opinions because there&#8217;s only two, but everyone&#8217;s saying it as if they thought of it themselves and it&#8217;s novel,&#8221; Shepard said. &#8220;No. You just declared you&#8217;re on that side. I get it. So, I would imagine people find you in restaurants and they want to bond over that with you.&#8221;
Meyers agreed, but went on to take the argument a bit further — saying that ultimately it didn&#8217;t matter if he was changing the minds of people who did not agree with him and suggesting that his show might inspire more of the people who do agree with him to get out and vote.
&#8220;Early on, people would say, ‘Do you really think you&#8217;re changing anyone&#8217;s mind?’ And it was ‘no.’  I would like to think that maybe we could, like, if someone&#8217;s like, ‘Should I vote or not?’ You would want to maybe if they watch our show, they think ‘You know what, I am going to get out and cast a ballot,'&#8221; he claimed.
&#8220;Yeah. Yeah. But I think you&#8217;d be hard-pressed to find someone in America that doesn&#8217;t know how they feel about Trump,&#8221; Shepard replied. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s one left.&#8221;
&#8220;I think that for us, we want to make a show that&#8217;s both cathartic to do and cathartic to watch,&#8221; Meyers continued, making it clear that he viewed his show as a place for liberal opinion first and comedy second — if at all.

Late Night with Seth Meyers – Season 11

Seth Meyers Helped Kill Late Night Comedy: Here’s How

Seth Meyers Helped Kill Late Night Comedy: Here's How

Seth Meyers

You can’t say Stephen Colbert didn’t try.
“The Late Show” host spent years spreading every anti-Trump narrative in the media. The “Very Fine People” speech. Russian Collusion. The Ballad of Stormy Daniels. Pee-Pee tapes. If it was critical of the president, Colbert pounced and seized.
True? False? Fake News? No matter. Colbert was on the case, weaponizing his nightly broadcast as an in-kind contribution to the DNC.
Except it didn’t work. Trump returned to the Oval Office earlier this year. And, now, Colbert won’t be around the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City to watch Trump complete his second term.
<div id="attachment_952651" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-952651" class="size-large wp-image-952651" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053-864x576.jpg" alt="People participate in a protest titled 'Colbert stays! Trump must go!' outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City on July 21, 2025. &quot;The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,&quot; a staple of late-night US television, will end in 2026, the CBS network said, days after the comedian blasted parent company Paramount's $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump as &quot;a big fat bribe.&quot; (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images</div>
“The Late Show’s” cancellation sent shock waves through Hollywood. Supporters decry the decision, ignoring the cold, hard math behind the move. Reports say the show loses CBS $40 million (or more) a year.
Why would any business keep a show on the air for that price?
“The Late Show” became free therapy sessions for those who still can’t believe the country elected the real estate mogul – twice. They tuned in to hear their beliefs reflected back at them, aided and abetted by Colbert’s smug delivery.
It must have felt empowering to hear him call Trump Vladimir Putin’s [bleep] holster at the height of the Russian collusion scandal. Did it matter that it was all built upon a lie?
Apparently not. And Colbert never felt compelled to apologize for misleading his audience.
The Colbert we see today isn’t the one we were first introduced to on, where else, “The Daily Show.” His shtick at the time, expanded via “The Colbert Report,” was mocking a Bill O’Reilly-style commentator.
He excelled at the role, earning some respect even among right-leaning viewers. He put the funny first, much like he did as part of the “Strangers with Candy” sitcom years earlier.
<div id="attachment_952649" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-952649" class="size-large wp-image-952649" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 8: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama (L) talks to television personality Stephen Colbert during a taping of Comedy Central's &quot;The Colbert Report&quot; in Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University on December 8, 2014 in Washington, DC. This is President Obama's third appearance on &quot;The Colbert Report&quot; that will broadcast its final show on Dec. 18. (Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images</div>
He seemed a smart choice to succeed David Letterman on “The Late Show” in 2015, but he initially struggled in the ratings against “The Tonight Show” juggernaut. Then, Colbert found his inner Bernie Sanders and turned the showcase into a hard-Left platform.
The move paid dividends. “The Late Show” soon became the ratings leader before the rise of Fox News’ “Gutfeld!”
The shift didn’t help the show’s longevity. The bill has come due. Why?
He neglected to heed the Ghost of Johnny Carson. The late-night king knew well enough to mock both sides of the aisle and have fun doing so.
The joy seeped from Colbert’s performance. So did any sense of balance. Now, you’re as likely to see a “Pod Save America” host on his show as a Tom Cruise or Sydney Sweeney.
Progressive viewers may vote for Sen. Adam Schiff, but on a charisma scale of 1 to 10 he’s a 3, at best.
What happens next? Colbert vows to go down fighting, slamming President Trump with every sketch and monologue in his waning days. Oh, like he’s done the past nine or so years? The Legacy Media will <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2025/07/24/trump-epstein-files-late-night-hosts/85356533007/">amplify them all</a>, hoping to sway the public against Trump beyond their cartoonishly biased reportage.
Reporters will miss crafting headlines like this as much as they miss Colbert: &#8220;Late-night guys are giddy with Trump and Epstein jokes after latest developments.&#8221;
How can Colbert possibly do more to attack the Trump administration at this point? He can’t, unless he takes a page from “The View” playbook.
Unhinged conspiracies. Fear-mongering on steroids. Undisciplined rants that cause the studio audience to clap like seals and sane viewers to watch their jaws go slack. That’s all Colbert has left, and he risks losing whatever cultural heft he has remaining if he goes down that road.
Does he really want to start sharing “Legal Notes” like “The View” does to protect himself from lawsuits?
<div id="attachment_952655" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-952655" class="size-large wp-image-952655" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799-864x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK CITY - JULY 21: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Monday's July 21, 2025 show. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images</div>
Plus, he’s only 61. Surely, he wants to keep working in comedy once “The Late Show” expires. He’s a natural fit for video podcasting, where the modest budgetary requirements all but guarantee his success.
Sane progressives will see right through any “View”-sized transition, meaning he’ll peel off some of his base along the way. Maybe the show will lose more than $40 million over the next 10 months.
The upside for Colbert’s late-night competitors? With “The Late Show” out of the way, they’ll be more progressive viewers for them to attract, at least on paper. No Colbert? Let’s see how Jimmy Kimmel is attacking President Trump today.
It’ll be a sugar high, at best.
Late-night TV is dying. Blame YouTube, the rise of funny social media accounts or comedians who actively chased away more than half the country with their polemics. Colbert is far from alone on that front. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel all lean to the Left. And they kissed conservative viewers goodbye some time ago.
“<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/5612703584001">Not good riddance but riddance,”</a> as Kimmel infamously said about his shift to the hard Left.
The format likely would perish with or without Colbert’s handiwork. We stopped collecting 8-track tapes some time ago, too. His Trump obsession, and fueling insults like “Clapter” to the lexicon, a term for jokes meant to spark applause, not laughter, made matters worse.
The biggest irony? While audiences no longer find Colbert’s shtick funny, a certain two-term president is having the last laugh.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Late Night Collapse: Colbert’s Fall And The Death Of Balanced Comedy

Late Night Collapse: Colbert’s Fall and the Death of Balanced Comedy

David Letterman

Jon Stewart

Leftists

President Trump

&#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; host Tony Dokoupil offered a different take than most of his colleagues — and even some at other legacy media networks — when he conceded on Tuesday that the decision to oust Stephen Colbert and cancel &#8220;The Late Show&#8221; might have been about politics, but not in the way they all thought.
Amid a virtual firestorm of complaints that Colbert&#8217;s cancellation was political — specifically, he&#8217;d been too <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-view-melts-down-over-colbert-king-trump-is-coming-for-the-court-jesters">vocally opposed to President Donald Trump</a> on a network that was staring down the barrel of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/big-and-important-win-trump-crows-over-settlement-in-cbs-paramount-lawsuit">multi-million dollar lawsuit</a> — Dokoupil argued that the &#8220;one-sided&#8221; nature of Colbert&#8217;s commentary may have put off more people than just Trump.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WATCH: ‘CBS Mornings’ co-host Tony Dokoupil brings a much-needed reality check to the table of liberal journalists fawning over ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’. His co-hosts dismissed all this, proving his point:
“I don’t have an MBA, but I don’t — [Jon Stewart] is not… <a href="https://t.co/qR5R74g2vY">pic.twitter.com/qR5R74g2vY</a>
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1947754373833977899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Co-host Vladimir Duthiers complained that, regardless of the expense to produce shows like Colbert&#8217;s, they were &#8220;part of the cultural zeitgeist and they have been part of television since the beginning of television. So that’s why people are reacting the way that they are.&#8221;
Over several objections from his co-hosts, Dokoupil laid out his point — and also argued that comedian Jon Stewart was wrong when he suggested that Paramount had felt threatened by Colbert&#8217;s show as the merger progressed: &#8220;No, I understand the emotional views. I don’t have an MBA, but [Stewart is] not right that the merger, the $8 billion, is based on reruns of a comedy show, no. People are buying the movies and the sitcoms, and the sports. They’re not based on reruns of us either, so I think it’s wrong.”
&#8220;And what no one seems to acknowledge is that the politics also changed,&#8221; Dokoupil continued. &#8220;The business changed, and so did the politics. And it got way more one-sided than anything Johnny Carson was ever doing. I think we should reflect on those changes as well. It’s been a big shift culturally in that regard, also for sure.&#8221;
&#8220;People will miss those shows when they&#8217;re gone, that&#8217;s the bottom line,&#8221; Duthiers insisted.

CBS Host Breaks Ranks, Offers Surprisingly Sane Reason For Colbert’s Ouster

CBS Host Breaks Ranks, Offers Surprisingly Sane Reason For Colbert's Ouster

CBS News

Donald Trump

The View

Many of us fondly remember the days when late-night talk show hosts like Johnny Carson and Jay Leno came into our living rooms every night with one goal in mind: to entertain as many people as possible through laughter.
But with the rise of Donald Trump, late-night comedy shows morphed into nightly attacks on the man over 77 million Americans sent to the White House. Every evening for years now, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel subjected their audiences to non-stop Trump bashing.
It’s vicious, relentless, and, worst of all, not funny.
These “comics” came to view their platforms not as vehicles to entertain a broad spectrum of the American public, but rather a podium from which to blast out their ultra-left politics and Stage 4 Trump Derangement, while cloaking themselves in obnoxiously self-righteous sanctimony along the way.
As anyone who suffered through their childishly acrimonious monologues could attest, if you hated Trump in particular, or anyone to the right of Che Guevara in general, you found comfort in the acid bath of antipathy that came spewing from your screen courtesy of hosts who we were told were comics.
But things might be changing.
Last week, Colbert announced that CBS had cancelled his show, and that they would not replace him. One imagines that Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers — none of whom are bringing in audiences — will be canned imminently.
Many have met the demise of Colbert — a man whose idea of comedy was dancing hypodermic needles to push a government narrative in a manner that would make Pravda blush — marks the end of late-night talk shows as a whole. But are they really dead? Or is it just the DNC propaganda machine version of these shows bound for extinction?
As I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-sad-politicization-of-late-night-television" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> a while back while lamenting the death of the genuine late-night comedy of Carson — whose last show in May 1992 was watched by an astounding 50 million Americans — several times over the years I did make a sincere effort to watch Colbert or Kimmel.
They were funny on The Daily Show and The Man Show respectively. And I’m willing to be entertained by a truly funny Trump joke. But the level of sheer vitriol and ugliness masquerading as humor on these shows made them impossible to watch. So did the monotony: late night hosts just kept coming at the guy, one Trump assault after another after another. On Colbert one night I literally counted five Trump “jokes” in a row in the opening monologue before I finally had to turn him off. Not because it offended my politics, or my feelings. But rather because it failed to make me laugh. Why else would anyone tune in?
For example, a recent Colbert monologue about Trump sending in the National Guard to quell anti-ICE street violence in California featured the following:
“What’s going on in LA reminds us that it is crucial to speak out against Trump’s fascist impulses, his rampant corruption, and his egregious violations of our norms and our laws…The last time a president bypassed a governor to send in the National Guard was 1965 when LBJ used troops to protect civil rights demonstrators in Alabama. So, we’ve come full circle. Troops were used to protect protesters by Lyndon B. Johnson. Now they’re being used to harass protesters by Donald B. D***.”
Crickets. Cough. Scraping chair leg.
Who needs to tune in to a DNC stump speech after a long day at work? What normal American wants to be subjected to an obsequious Colbert slobbering over guest Adam Schiff while the serial liar looks at the camera and says in his toughest beta male milquetoast persona: “Donald, piss off”? Hmmm. Maybe I’ll just read a few pages of a book before I turn in.
Hang on to your seat, because the laughs just kept on coming.
Consider such comedy gold as his declaring that the Iran strike didn’t take out all their centrifuges, whether true or not. Colbert said it was “less Operation Midnight Hammer and more Operation M.C. Hammer.” Huh? That barely makes sense, let alone makes people laugh. This is the best his team of 24 writers could come up with?
Despite the predictable howls from the usual suspects — for whom late-night hosts are the pharmacies for their daily dose of TDS — Colbert was not fired because he criticized Trump. It was really just a matter of dollars and cents.
Colbert attracts 2.2 million viewers on average; Kimmel 1.7 million; Fallon, just 1.19 million. Colbert and Kimmel average just over 200,000 in the key demographic of viewers 25-54.
Tellingly, these represent just 60% of numbers put up by the Fox Network’s late-night competitor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greg-gutfeld-the-new-undisputed-king-of-late-night" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Greg Gutfeld Show</a>.
And then there’s production budgets, really the heart of the matter. Colbert’s show costs more than $100 million a year to produce, including Colbert’s $15 million salary. The problem for Colbert is that his show only brings in roughly $60 million in annual ad revenue.
Megyn Kelly, a former Fox TV host herself, estimates that Gutfeld’s budget for his successful forum is around $10 million. This doesn’t include his salary; the last numbers I saw shows Fox pays their unsung late-night star $7 million annually.
So, even if the total cost of the Greg Gutfeld Show is around $20 million, that’s still a fraction of the cost of legacy media’s failing late-night offerings. Which means there is still a way to make the late night format profitable.
Like its rivals, The Greg Gutfeld Show is certainly political in nature. Gutfeld isn’t Carson, and conservatives will likely feel more at home with Gutfeld and his rotating panel of conservative hosts. But unlike the other shows, Gutfeld is also entertaining, light-hearted, self-effacing, and, most importantly, funny.
In a way, Colbert’s demise is an apt metaphor for the sinking fortunes of the Democrat Party itself. You cannot alienate so many in a market without someone else seeing the opportunity your disregard presents while you steadily lose viewers, and influence. Whether one loves or hates Fox, they have a winning late-night formula that the mainstream media has abandoned by prioritizing divisive politics over entertainment.
Mike Wallace once asked Johnny Carson why he never got into serious subjects. Carson’s response is worth remembering:
<blockquote>“That’s not what I’m there for. Can’t they see that? Why do they think that just because you have a Tonight Show that you must deal in serious issues? That’s a danger. That’s a real danger. Once you start that, you start to get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import. And, you know, strangely enough, you could use that show as a forum, you could sway people. And I don’t think you should, as an entertainer.”</blockquote>
The legacy media should take Johnny’s advice. If they choose to go down the self-destructive path forged by Colbert and his ilk, then good riddance.
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages of The Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K_WhJtiUZw7LF1PwSIHtH">books</a>. Follow him on <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/bschaeffer123&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0P6pRoAqcBhUQ1W0qwN5rH">X/Twitter</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Colbert’s Demise: When Politics Supersedes Comedy In Late Night

Democrat

Greg Gutfeld

The internet does not have high hopes for Larry David’s newly announced project, a sketch comedy show about American history produced by the Obamas.
Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/larry-david-american-history-sketch-comedy-series-hbo-1236451946/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that David will co-write the new HBO program with Jeff Schaffer, with whom he worked on the long-running comedy show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” David will star in and co-write the six-part series, the outlet noted.
Barack and Michelle Obama are set to executive produce the project through their Higher Ground Productions company.
The show’s description says, “President and Mrs. Obama wanted to honor America’s 250th anniversary and celebrate the unique history of our nation on this special occasion…But then Larry David called.”
Former President Obama commented on the pairing, saying, “I’ve sat across the table from some of the world’s most difficult leaders and wrestled with some of our most intractable problems. Nothing has prepared me for working with Larry David.”
Social media mainly had negative reactions to the news of David and the Obamas teaming up.
“It sounds like it’s gonna be one big lecture. I hope I’m wrong,” one account <a href="https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1943381813772325127">predicted</a>.
“Played out. Preaching to the choir. We don&#8217;t need more lectures from Hollywood,” another <a href="https://x.com/AwardsDaily/status/1943367269498917054">wrote</a>.
“This is going to be so awful,” a third commenter on X <a href="https://x.com/imjaredz/status/1943396360692097354">predicted</a>.
“Get ready for the most unfunny experience of your life,” another <a href="https://x.com/EliseMcCue/status/1943494127145955393">replied</a>.
“Trash propaganda I’m sure,” said another, while someone else just wrote, “Yikes.” 
David has been vocal about political issues and recently had a meltdown over Bill Maher having dinner with President Donald Trump. He was so incensed that the comedian penned an op-ed for The New York Times, repeating the tired trope that Trump was literally Hitler. 
CNN Republican Scott Jennings blasted David for publishing the op-ed, saying it was just another example of Democrats attacking anyone who tried to open the lines of communication between people with differing opinions.
“This is the modern Left,” Jennings <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-republican-torches-larry-davids-dinner-with-hitler-column-attacking-bill-maher">said</a>. “It’s an attempt always to intimidate people into not ever doing it again. It’s to silence yourselves, or we’ll do it for you. That’s the purpose of this op-ed, so that the next comedian, or the next person on the American left chooses not to speak to Donald Trump.&#8221;

Larry David

‘Yikes’: Larry David Teams Up With The Obamas For New American History Comedy Series

Barack Obama

Michelle Obama

Television

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