The Comedians in the Coal Mine

"Comedians and Editorial Cartoonists are from the same family- We are all satirists."

Good morning, friend.

I know I can sound like a broken record sometimes— or perhaps even like Chicken Little when it comes to the topics of both creeping authoritarianism and AI, but yesterday really sent a chill down my spine.

I was at the bar with my comedy writing partner, before we were due to sit down and record a podcast. He’s usually the more stoic and optimistic of the two of us, but I’ll never forget this moment. He looked up over his Guinness with a grim expression and said, “Kimmel just got fired for talking the wrong way about Charlie Kirk. The whole show has been cancelled indefinitely.” Trump called the dismissal “Great news for America.”

My face dropped. For a second, I thought it might have been a sketch, or a parody— a Howard Stern-style joke to prove a point. But, no. The headlines were everywhere, and it wasn’t a joke.

I remember having the same incredulous look on my face the night Trump blocked me on Twitter for making a joke about him. “Surely, this isn’t what actually just happened.”

But yes, this too actually just happened: During his Monday, Sept. 15 episode, Kimmel said the following: "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."

Let’s be clear: None of these words are false. That is precisely what has happened since the assassination. It’s unfortunate, and it’s repulsive and uncomfortable, but it’s the truth. It certainly isn’t a dismissible offence.

As my friend

Ann Telnaes

wrote this morning:

Hearing about Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension made me both angry and fearful.

It is an attack on all our free speech rights.

Comedians and editorial cartoonists are from the same family- we are all satirists.

Trump has been quoted as saying, “We’re coming for Fallon and Kimmel next” after Colbert was cancelled on CBS earlier this year. If I were a Late Night Jimmy, I’d be eyeing real estate in New Zealand right now.

To anyone saying, “Yeah, but the Far Left was just as bad— they were ‘cancelling’ people for making bad jokes and saying the wrong words for years!” Yes. True. Can’t argue with that. However, they aren’t “just as bad”. I can’t remember the leader of the free world cheering them on, then backing them up with executive orders and suing anyone who disagreed with him. This is different, and it’s worse. It is also profoundly dangerous.

This isn’t an accident. It is not an isolated incident: Trump is running the Authoritarian 101 Playbook faster than he changes the topic any time someone mentions the name Epstein. He’s riding roughshod over every political norm (and some laws) that the founders of the United States insisted were the pillars of a functioning free democracy. And he’s doing it faster than Putin can open a window.

Yes, that sounds like a totally rational and not at all unhinged thing to do as a leader in a healthy, functioning democracy.

I’ve written about this ad nauseam, and I won’t stop. When I said earlier this year that:

When the frog slowly boils to the day when we look around the room to find no more people speaking truth to power, holding the hypocrites accountable, we have lost something very precious. Wielding any power as a weapon against those who question it is an act of supreme cowardice.
Read more.

Silencing the Court Jesters.

There is a real concern here that when things go past a certain point, there’s no turning back. When the comedians in the coal mine go quiet, there’s no future where they come back to life and start chirping.

A comedian friend of mine who did stand-up in China was talking recently about the fact that before he and every comedian went on stage, they were given a very strict direction not to talk ill of the CCP in any way, lest they be sent home or arrested, and the club closed permanently. Unfortunately, the comedians never got to test out whether that would happen, because before they could even dare to make a joke about the authoritarian regime in China, a competing club sent a false report of ‘dissenting content’ to the CCP and the club was promptly closed down permanently.

This is the heading on our compass right now.

For the record, Freedom House rates China “Not Free” with a 9/100 score in its 2025 report. (The US usually hovers around 83. I’ll be interested to see where it is in 2026.)

Ann is right— This is an attack on all our free speech rights. When there is nobody left to speak truth to power, they can do whatever they want with impunity. I’d encourage you to go back and read her essay from 2019 on this topic.

The canaries aren't doing well

We won’t stop writing about this. I hope you won’t stop reading and sharing it.

‘til next time,
Your pal,