{"id":242199,"date":"2025-09-20T20:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T20:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242199\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T20:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T20:01:09","slug":"in-battles-over-free-speech-comedians-are-often-center-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242199\/","title":{"rendered":"In battles over free speech, comedians are often center stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian satirist whose \u201cDaily Show\u201d-like program was canceled<\/a> after the military seized the once pro-democracy government, watched the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel with an immediate sense of familiarity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Fellow American Citizens,\u201d Youssef wrote on X. \u201cWelcome to my world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youssef\u2019s show skewering public figures led to a criminal investigation in 2013 after complaints that he had insulted then-President Mohammed Morsi. When a military coup followed, pressure on Youssef intensified. He announced that the climate in Egypt was \u201cnot suitable for a political satire program.\u201d Youssef fled the country and resettled in the United States.<\/p>\n

In all the stunning things about ABC\u2019s swift removal of Kimmel<\/a>, its longtime late-night host and Oscars-hosting face of the network<\/a>, perhaps the least surprising was that a comedian was at the center of a battle over free speech.<\/p>\n

As long as jokes have been told, comedians have drawn the ire of the powerful. That has often put comedians on the front lines of free-speech battles, from George Carlin violating obscenity laws to a satirical puppet show trying to exist in Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia<\/a>. In authoritarian regimes, crackdowns on speech usually make comedy a target.<\/p>\n

\u201cComedy doesn\u2019t change the world, but it\u2019s a bellwether. We\u2019re the banana peel in the coal mine,\u201d Jon Stewart said in 2022<\/a> at the Kennedy Center, with Kimmel looking on from the audience. \u201cWhen a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel\u2019s indefinite suspension followed comments he made about the Republican response to Charlie Kirk\u2019s killing<\/a>. Conservatives said Kimmel misrepresented the political beliefs of Tyler Robinson, who is accused of assassinating Kirk.<\/p>\n

Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr<\/a> responded to Kimmel\u2019s comments with the threat: \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way.\u201d After a group of ABC-affiliated stations said they wouldn\u2019t air \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d The Walt Disney Co. pulled the show Wednesday just before air, prompting a firestorm of debate over free speech<\/a>. Comedians have been among the passionate protesters. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the Constitution and free speech, this is it,\u201d said the stand-up comedian and podcaster Marc Maron. \u201cThis is the deciding moment. This is what authoritarianism looks like right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late-night hosts, current and former, rushed to Kimmel\u2019s defense. Jay Leno, the longtime host of \u201cThe Tonight Show,\u201d shrugged to reporters Thursday: \u201cIt\u2019s a comedian talking.\u201d On Thursday night\u2019s \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d Stephen Colbert \u2014 whose own show will end in May<\/a> over what CBS called financial reasons but Colbert has called \u201ca big fat bribe\u201d to Trump \u2014 mocked Carr, the FCC chairman, for declaring that programming should represent \u201ccommunity values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you know what my community values are, buster?\u201d Colbert said. \u201cFreedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Punch lines with power <\/p>\n

Since before Charlie Chaplin mocked Adolf Hitler in the 1940s film, \u201cThe Great Dictator,\u201d comedy has served as one of the most unfiltered expressions of free speech and a reliable metric of a democratic republic\u2019s health. On Wednesday, MSNBC\u2019s Chris Hayes noted: \u201cThe countries where comedians can\u2019t mock the leader on late-night TV are not really ones you want to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the U.S., media control has often meant policing comedy. Thin-skinned leaders and autocrats have taken punch lines as genuine threats.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Putin became president of Russia in 2000, armed operatives raided the offices of NTV, the network that aired \u201cKukly,\u201d a satirical puppet show that often lampooned Putin<\/a>. NTV owner Vladimir Gusinsky was jailed on embezzlement charges and \u201cKukly\u201d disappeared in 2002.<\/p>\n

Zeinab Mousavi, one of the first Iranian women to do stand-up comedy in her country, was charged last month<\/a> with making statements that were \u201ccontrary to public morality.\u201d<\/p>\n

In India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, political comedy has grown increasingly off-limits. In March, a performance by the popular comedian Kunal Kamra included a Bollywood song parody that indirectly made apparent reference to a local politician. Government employees ransacked the comedy club.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kamra pledged to cooperate with police and then added: \u201cBut will the law be fairly and equally deployed against those who have decided that vandalism is the appropriate response to being offended by a joke?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A massive shift\u2019 <\/p>\n

The Kimmel situation isn\u2019t as extreme as those international examples, let alone countries like China and Hungary, where curbs on expression<\/a> have all but extinguished comedy. But it bears similarities. Trump, who has long chafed at late-night hosts\u2019 jokes at his expense, warned broadcasters on Thursday that run negative commentary of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think maybe their license should be taken away,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Carr has said Kimmel is just the beginning. \u201cThis is a massive shift that\u2019s taking place in the media ecosystem,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the consequences are going to continue to flow.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some, a so-called \u201cconsequence culture\u201d has replaced \u201ccancel culture.\u201d <\/p>\n

Roseanne Barr reacted with irony after Kimmel\u2019s suspension. In 2018, ABC pulled the plug on her sitcom<\/a>, \u201cRoseanne,\u201d after Barr made a racist barb on Twitter about Valerie Jarrett, a former aide to former President Barack Obama, referring to her as the child of the Muslim Brotherhood and the \u201cPlanet of the Apes\u201d movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah imagine an administration putting pressure on a television channel to fire a comedian they didn\u2019t like,\u201d Barr said Wednesday on X.<\/p>\n

Conservatives have long railed against so-called \u201ccancel culture\u201d ruining comedy. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Elon Musk lamented: \u201cThey wanted to make comedy illegal. You couldn\u2019t make fun of anything so comedy sucked. Legalize comedy!\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of those same \u201canti-woke\u201d comedians, though, have come out in support of Kimmel. Tim Dillon, the comedian and podcaster, wrote on Instagram: \u201cI am against Kimmel being taken off the air and against people being shot for their opinions. See how easy it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Others took a more ironic approach. <\/p>\n

The Onion republished an editorial<\/a> from several years ago. It read: \u201cToday, the path forward could not be clearer. Simply put, we need mass censorship now.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press Writer Joseph Krauss contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian satirist whose \u201cDaily Show\u201d-like program was canceled after the military…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":242200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[38907,3881,119587,11744,129262,51396,64,411,90178,19719,129257,413,69,29994,66,171,18320,57,111611,118,63619,11171,36809,59952,129259,19720,80,10063,257,13895,129261,120674,61,67,132,68,129258,129260,274],"class_list":{"0":"post-242199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-adolf-hitler","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-assassination-of-charlie-kirk","11":"tag-barack-obama","12":"tag-bassem-youssef","13":"tag-brendan-carr","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-censorship","16":"tag-charlie-chaplin","17":"tag-charlie-kirk","18":"tag-chris-hayes","19":"tag-civil-rights","20":"tag-donald-trump","21":"tag-egypt-government","22":"tag-elon-musk","23":"tag-entertainment","24":"tag-federal-communications-commission","25":"tag-general-news","26":"tag-george-carlin","27":"tag-human-rights","28":"tag-jay-leno","29":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","30":"tag-jon-stewart","31":"tag-marc-maron","32":"tag-mohamed-morsi","33":"tag-narendra-modi","34":"tag-politics","35":"tag-roseanne-barr","36":"tag-russia","37":"tag-stephen-colbert","38":"tag-tim-dillon","39":"tag-tyler-robinson","40":"tag-u-s-news","41":"tag-united-states","42":"tag-unitedstates","43":"tag-us","44":"tag-valerie-jarrett","45":"tag-vladimir-gusinsky","46":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}