John Oliver used the main segment of his HBO show Sunday night addressing the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
Last week, Disney suspended the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! following the ABC late-night host’s remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The dramatic move followed Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatening to take action against ABC affiliates in the wake of a Kimmel comment that many took as suggesting the shooting suspect, Tyler Robinson, was a MAGA Republican during his Monday monologue.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
After station owners Nexstar and Sinclair said they would not be airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the wake of those comments, Disney made the decision to suspend Kimmel indefinitely. The company has faced backlash from Hollywood A-listers, current and veteran late-night hosts, politicians and the public for its decision, with many accusing Disney of bowing to pressure from the Trump administration.
On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, Oliver started off his main segment by noting Kirk’s tragic death.
“A person getting shot is tragic and a person getting shot for their ideas is horrifying,” he said. “That is true no matter what those ideas are, and I also recognize that for many, especially those who are the targets of some of Kirk’s ideas, it has been hard to stay quiet as they see flags lowered to half staff, and claims that he debated things the right way. But setting all of that aside, it does seem like some are now willing to weaponize Kirk’s death to do things they’ve been wanting to do for years, whether it’s going after liberal groups, trans people, or their remaining critics in the media, and under some shamelessly flimsy pretext, all of which brings us back to Jimmy Kimmel.”
Oliver noted he appeared on Kimmel’s show the very night Kimmel made this comments. He defended Kimmel and said he was unclear about what was offensive about Kimmel’s remarks.
“While you may have seen headlines saying he got in trouble for remarks about Charlie Kirk himself, or even remarks about his death, that’s not strictly accurate,” Oliver noted. “The comments that got him in trouble weren’t about Kirk. In fact, Kimmel’s first comments after his murder were a post reading, ‘Can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents, and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence,’ ” Oliver added, quoting a social media post by Kimmel.
“What got Kimmel in trouble was a passing reference on Monday night. Now at the time there were still rumors flying around regarding the killer’s motivations, including that he was on the far right, something that Kimmel alluded to like this,” he said, showing a clip of Kimmel’s aforementioned remark.
“Yeah, that was it,” Oliver said. “Weirdly, I was actually a guest on his show that night and I didn’t even register that comment and that’s only partly because I wasn’t really paying attention,” he quipped. “And I’m not alone in that. After Kimmel’s suspension, many struggle to pick the offensive line out of his monologue, as YouTube is filled with comments under the video like, ‘I’m still waiting for the offensive part.’ And, ‘What did he say that got him fired? I’m rewatching the last week of episodes and have’et heard it yet.””
Oliver continued: “The point is, Kimmel didn’t denigrate Charlie Kirk or make light of his killing. The worst thing you could say is that he appears to have been wrong about the shooter’s ideology, which, OK. But he was also pointing out that many on the right seem desperate to weaponize Kirk’s death, an argument that’s aged pretty well, given, you know, everything that’s happened to Kimmel since. Because that one line set off a firestorm in some corners of conservative media.”
More to come…