CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings called out the current crop of late night hosts for using their platforms to tell unfunny, one-sided jokes against Republicans. He did, however, point out Bill Maher as someone who “gets it.”
“The rest of these people have become pathetic. I mean, they stopped being comedians and they started becoming political activists. I mean, Jimmy Kimmel out here crying? I mean, it’s pathetic,” Jennings said during a panel discussion on Monday’s “News Night With Abby Phillip.”
He continued: “So my question is, if you’re going to have a late night comedy show, at some point people might expect it to be funny and not just a constant political screed against one party. I don’t know that this activism for four more years is sustainable if you’re going to market something as comedy, but the actual product is nothing more than sort of a low-brow political activism.”
Jennings’ dig at Kimmel comes after the late night host fought back tears during his “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” opening monologue on Wednesday (the day after the 2024 Presidential Election). The ABC host called the results of the race “terrible.”
“Let’s be honest, it was a terrible night last night,” Kimmel said at the time. “It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go, for health care, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech.”
While Jennings shared that he’s not in favor of entertainment figures stressing their political ideologies, his co-panelist, writer and podcaster Touré, expressed that some Americans may share the same sentiments as late night personalities.
“These people represent the way a lot of people feel, so it’d actually be interesting if the Trump folks could actually make us feel like, ‘We’re not going to take away your rights,’ and that doesn’t make sense — you think it doesn’t make sense, a lot of people actually think that makes sense. That’s the way a lot of people feel,” Touré explained.
“That is their audience,” Phillip chimed in, to which Jennings questioned, “Is that their mission? To be activists and not comedians?”
Coming back in, Touré answered: “Well, sometimes the comedian does stop telling jokes and says serious things.”
Jennings maintained his stance, adding that he felt President Joe Biden wasn’t a huge subject of shade. But the panel disagreed. Ultimately, Phillip concluded the conversation by sharing that people may merely want to “escape” from the political drama through comedy. However, she did flag how joke-averse some Trump loyalists, like Elon Musk, may be going forward.
“And also, given that Elon Musk kind of lost it about Dana Carvey’s impression of him this weekend, it’s not going to over too well,” Phillip said.
On Sunday, Musk went after “Saturday Night Live” comedian Dana Carvey for portraying him in a skit on the sketch series on Saturday night. In a couple of tweets, he wrote: “Dana Carvey just sounds like Dana Carvey.”
In another, Musk said, “‘SNL’ has been dying slowly for years, as they become increasingly out of touch with reality. Their last ditch effort to cheat the equal airtime requirements and prop up Kamala before the election only helped sink her campaign further.”
