The Day The Laughter Died

September 18, 2025 Michael Olesker

Jimmy Kimmel

With its customary cold-bloodedness, the Trump administration is now teaching America to be afraid of its own laughter.

Stephen Colbert gets his notice of cancellation, and now Jimmy Kimmel gets the comic death sentence.

Makes sense to the Trumpers: Charlie Kirk is assassinated, so let’s silence all the late-night comics.

And they’re just the beginning, folks.

Displaying all the insight of a freshman law student who just flunked out, our attorney general Pam Bondi reveals to us that she has no idea what freedom of speech means.

She announces she will “absolutely target” those who engage in “hate speech.”

And never mind that the First Amendment provides sweeping protection for free speech and neither defines nor makes mention of what Bondi means by this term “hate speech.”

In fact, critics have noted, it was Charlie Kirk himself who pointed out in a May 2024 social media post that while “ugly speech,” “gross speech” and “evil speech” existed, there was no such thing as “hate speech” under the U.S. Constitution.

Thus, as she absorbed verbal blasts from every corner of the political spectrum, Bondi amended her remarks, writing on social media that she meant “hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence.”

Oh, you mean like Colbert and Kimmel?

Does anybody think they were leading Americans into violence?

Lacking any further insight into what Trump and Bondi are getting at, we have a few questions.

Like, who’s going to determine what constitutes “hate speech” — Trump himself? Bondi herself? The FCC flunky or terrified TV network executives who went after Colbert and Kimmel?

And since Colbert and Kimmel clearly were not inciting violence, exactly where do we draw the line on what Bondi calls “hate speech”?

Would these examples suffice?

“[Jews control] not just the colleges. It’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it.”

“America has freedom of religion, of course. But we should be frank. Large dedicated Islamic areas are a threat to America.”

“The American Democrat Party hates this country. They want to see it collapse. They love it when America becomes less white.”

“Islam is not acceptable in Western civilization.”

“We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor.”

OK, enough. We could go on. And on and on and on.

But you get the spirit of the vitriol. And by now, you’ve probably figured out the voice behind the bile was the late Charlie Kirk himself, who’s now being memorialized as a nobleman worthy of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

If none of those remarks constitute “hate speech,” they’re the next worst thing: an attempt to divide people by race or religious belief, and profit by that division.

And guess what?

The Constitution says it’s OK. It’s objectionable, yes. But the American belief is that we come from every corner of the earth and we contain multitudes of beliefs, and it’s healthiest for us to express our beliefs and learn to accept our differences, and maybe even learn from them.

Or laugh at them and find healing in the laughter.

With Colbert and Kimmel, there has never been an instance when their jokes approached the dead-serious divisiveness of Charlie Kirk.

Or that other “comedian” from the Trump administration, the sneering deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller.

“The power of law enforcement under President Trump’s leadership will be used to find you,” Miller warned the left, “will be used to take away your money, take away your power and, if you’ve broken the law, to take away your freedom …”

Don’t think of this as an idle warning.

In America, think of this as the day the laughter died.

A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, including “Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore” (Johns Hopkins University Press) and “Michael Olesker’s Baltimore: If You Live Here, You’re Home” (Johns Hopkins University).