America woke up this week to news that ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night program off the air, a move made after a string of inflammatory remarks that finally crossed a line for broadcasters and affiliates. The network’s decision to halt broadcasts came amid mounting pressure from major station groups and the FCC, and it signals that even Hollywood’s loudest voices aren’t immune from consequences when they stoke division.
What’s now resurfacing makes the suspension look less like a sudden overreaction and more like overdue accountability. Clips from earlier this year show Kimmel deadpanning about Tesla dealerships being vandalized and even joking about arson against vehicles — a studio audience laughing as he pauses for dramatic effect while telling them “don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles,” clearly trading on sarcasm that thinly veils approval. Those moments weren’t harmless comedy; they normalized violence against private citizens and American businesses.
If you think that’s new, think again — Kimmel has a track record of celebrating cruelty masked as comedy. In 2021 he famously joked that unvaccinated people who took ivermectin should be left to die, telling viewers that an “unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo” should get a “rest in peace.” That wasn’t political theater; it was contempt for fellow Americans made into punchlines, and it revealed an elitist moral hierarchy from someone who benefited from public compassion when his own family needed it.
Conservative commentators and independent journalists have been digging up these clips and sharing them with the public, and Dave Rubin has been one of the people amplifying the resurfaced footage in a direct-message segment on his show. Rubin’s work reminding viewers of Kimmel’s past remarks is exactly the kind of watchdog journalism the mainstream refuses to do, forcing a long-overdue public conversation about what passes for “comedy” on network television.
This isn’t just about one comic’s bad taste — it’s about a culture industry that rewards cruelty and then pretends to be shocked when the consequences arrive. If late-night hosts can wink at property damage and cheer the suffering of the unvaccinated, we’re left to ask who’s protecting ordinary Americans and the rule of law. Broadcasters and advertisers should stop treating this as partisan theater and start treating it as a public-safety issue; encouraging or normalizing violence can’t be shrugged off as “edgy” anymore.
Patriots who care about decency and safety should be grateful these clips are back in the light. Let this be a lesson: no celebrity gets a permanent pass to dehumanize neighbors or incite chaos under the cover of jokes. Hold networks accountable, demand advertisers stop bankrolling rage-for-ratings, and don’t let the elites rewrite the moral ledger — America deserves better than late-night hosts who applaud vandalism and scorn their fellow citizens.
