Jimmy Kimmel’s politically charged monologues on healthcare and gun control have garnered many millions of viewers according to YouTube. He presents quite emotional cases for why we need the government to take action. It is not uncommon to hear of late night comedians going viral for their political monologues, proving there is a certain level of demand for this content. However, these comedians are dividing America, and fail to contribute to the political discussion in a meaningful way.
The word ‘kneeling’ itself is now powerful enough to remind everyone of the political explosion of the tattered NFL. It is impossible to watch football without thinking about the topic of racism, singlehandedly decimating the politically neutral entertainment brought to millions across the US. As a result, ratings for the NFL have seen unprecedented drops.
Football was a great water cooler topic for people who disagree politically, and these rating drops prove people want their entertainment to stand far from the political aisle. Politically neutral entertainment is culturally unifying.
By the same logic, late night hosts going on political rants corrode cultural unity in the US. Jimmy Kimmel, in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, said that he used to be liked by Republicans and Democrats equally, but now, Republican viewership has dropped about 30%. Though this is not ideal, he says, he “would do it again in a heartbeat.”
He added that if viewers are turned off by his political views, then he probably would not want to have a conversation with them anyway. While Kimmel is allowed to express his views as much as he wants, he and other comedians fail to understand that people watch their shows primarily to be entertained.
Conservative viewers especially flee from this kind of behavior from comedians, feeling the mainstream media lectures them enough on politics already. Amidst all the scandals coming out of Hollywood right now, many are less likely than before to trust a comedian’s opinion. The sentiment of Hollywood being out of touch with common American culture only expands when comedians cannot bear to keep non-comical political statements out of their shows.
Many have said before that political correctness will be the death of comedy. However, if comedy and other entertainment mediums do not stay out of politics, culture will die. It will be unfortunate when people who disagree politically cannot find any capacity to enjoy anything together. No one should be subject to thinking about government constantly, nor should anyone want to. Thinking about government constantly rejects the concept of freedom to be an individual, and when applied en masse, creates a widespread emotional state of slavery to the government, and no government should have that sort of power.
