In Election Aftermath, Hollywood Smashes Records for Lack of Self-Awareness

by Matt Taibbi | Nov 7, 2024

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel’s “tearful” monologue from last night went viral. In thirty seconds he summed up both why Donald Trump won and why The Hollywood Reporter just six weeks ago asked, “Do late night talk shows have a future?”

Those of you who are hate-watching this show right now, wanting to watch me suffer, you’ll be happy to know that there was no joy in Mudville last night… One minute I’m watching these long lines in every city, and I think, “Oh, that’s beautiful! Democracy in action.” Next minute, there’s a reporter chatting with some bro at Arizona State who said he voted for Trump because Kamala didn’t go on Joe Rogan’s podcast. (Laughs) And I’m like, where did I leave my passport?

Kimmel went on to say many more things that were celebrated in the giant circle-jerk of self-pity that is mass media this week, as did other Hollywood stars, but let’s start here:

Joe Rogan is the most influential media figure in America, and it’s not close. The current tally for his interview of Trump 12 days ago is 46,696,792 views. When he interviewed Edward Snowden, 38 million people turned in. Five years ago, 18.3 million listened to then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. JD Vance this year reached 15.3 million. No one in conventional media sniffs these numbers. For comparison’s sake, Anderson Cooper was CNN’s top performer in October, with an average primetime viewership of 890,000.

Although Rogan eventually endorsed Trump, he’s been extremely critical of him in the past, and importantly, he didn’t endorse until after a three-hour conversation. Despite preposterous mis-characterizations as an “anti-trans, anti-gay bigot” who traffics in “conspiracy theories,” Rogan is as middle-of-the-road as a media figure can be. In fact, I’d argue this is the key reason he signed a deal worth $250 million, because the show is built on listening, to all points of view. His audience breakdown: 27% of his listeners are Democrats, 32% are Republicans, and 35% are “Something else.”

Everyone who’s done Rogan’s show travels to his studio in Texas and does three hours. It’s the deal. Harris didn’t decline, she just insisted Rogan travel to Washington and limit discussion to an hour. He passed. Remember, he didn’t need her. She needed him. Desperate to persuade men and independents, the Democratic candidate passed on reaching 45 or 50 million people outside the party bubble. That’s no trifle. It’s sending a powerful message that you don’t want those votes, especially when the same candidate didn’t hesitate to travel to be ritually tongue-bathed by Reichskomödiant Stephen Colbert or the weird sisters of The View, visited eight times.

It was a crucial moment for another reason, relevant to the most quoted portion of Kimmel’s routine:

Let’s be honest. It was a terrible night last night. It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hardworking immigrants who make this country go… [chokes up]… for healthcare, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech. It was a terrible night for poor people, for the middle class, for seniors who rely on social security for our allies in Ukraine [chokes up again], for NATO, for the truth and democracy and decency…

“For free speech.” Free speech! Forget the appalling record of the Harris/Biden administration on censorship, the White House emails to Facebook demanding a tweet by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. be removed “ASAP,” the inquiries about the possibility of tweaking algorithms “so that people were more likely to see NYT, WSJ, any authoritative news source over Daily Wire, Tomi Lahren, polarizing people.” Forget even that this ostensible comedian is brought to tears because America didn’t re-elect the administration that demanded the suppressed of a joke, a meme comparing the Covid-19 vaccine to asbestos and late-night mesothelioma commercials:

Hollywood

We can guess why Kimmel wouldn’t shed tears, because he spent years doing routine after routine hyping the vaccine and viciously ridiculing anyone who didn’t believe in its absolute necessity/efficacy. Racket readers are familiar with his AntiVax Barbie gag where Barbie “does her own research” to learn, “Moderna turns yer teeth Jewish!” He made a mock children’s book, Dot Got the Shot, about a poor girl raised by parents who keep a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag on the wall and listen to Joe Rogan [!], who just wants to go outside and play but can’t because her “irrational parents” won’t give her the shot. In the end she’s rescued by good old Dr. Fauci, who convinces Dot’s “crazy parents” to “turn off Fox News and stop eating horse goo.” Next up? “Convince them the earth is not flat.”

We now know the vaccine didn’t really work, and when White House officials demanded Twitter remove New York Times writer Alex Berenson for writing, “It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission,” Berenson was right and the White House was wrong. We also have confirmation of what was obvious to virtually anyone from the earliest months of the pandemic, that the disease posed almost no risk to healthy children, rendering the shot a bad decision if there’s even the tiniest risk of complication. The WHO last year finally “revised” its vaccine advice, saying “The public health impact of vaccinating healthy children and adolescents is comparatively much lower than the established benefits of traditional essential vaccines.

Kimmel, who claims now to be mourning “journalism,” was actually one of America’s biggest spreaders of misinformation through the pandemic period. He ridiculed parents for trusting their own judgment over an official, Anthony Fauci, who repeatedly admitted he told “noble lies” to get people to mask, or not mask, or get the shot, or whatever goal he thought was appropriate. Kimmel somehow doesn’t realize his constant cracks about hicks and horse goo and happily denying ICU beds to unvaccinated people (“Rest in peace, wheezy”) and comparing people parents were right about the vaccine to “flat-earthers” probably played a major role in electing Donald Trump.

So while he sniffles and makes videos about leaving the country, he might want to remember, his smug superiority and authority-worship while repeatedly bricking informational layups did as much to put Trump in office as anything, no matter how much he consoles himself the mysteriously growing segment of “irrational” and “crazy” people are to blame.

One last note. Again, it’s an unforced error when a candidate like Kamala Harris blows off Joe Rogan because it suggests she doesn’t want those icky votes. This is no fanciful observation. Long before this election a list of celebrities from Neil Young and David Crosby to Nils Lofgren to Joni Mitchell boycotted Spotify over Rogan because of his “language around race” and because he interviewed Bad People like Jordan Peterson. MoveOn urged Bernie Sanders to “apologize” and renounce Rogan, among other things because he suggested trans athetes shouldn’t “fight chicks.” Essentially, MoveOn was asking Sanders to apologize for trying to get elected, and to renounce someone who’s probably to the left of at least half the country, if not more.

The concept of only wanting the right audience, which is shrinking rather rapidly, is what’s killing Hollywood. The drag performer and podcaster Trinity just posted after the election, to those who voted for Trump, “I don’t want your dollar. No, I don’t want your support. I don’t care if you are family or we were friends for 20 years. You are not the type of person I want in my life.”

This is what comedians like Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers are saying every time they do long routines mocking the dipshit hayseeds who support the evil one. Fallon just had to announce the Tonight Show — the Tonight Show — would only air four nights a week instead of five. Kimmel’s show is down 11% from five years ago, while the Tonight Show lost 41% of its audience, and Myers, who had to fire his band, was down 32% versus 2019.

But it’s not their fault. It’s not because they stopped being funny a decade ago, or that every single laugh they get is pre-won according to political affiliation, or because every one of their monologues is an interminable tirade about the Same Goddamned Thing. No, it’s because their audiences suck. It’s their fault. Amazing, isn’t it, what this election has exposed?