In the famous words of Ed O’Neill from Wayne’s World 2, “people need to be entertained.” Unfortunately, today’s late night comics didn’t embrace this motto and broke hard left in favor of partisan politics, with one of the worst offenders being Stephen Colbert.
If Colbert had simply stuck to the formula followed by the late great Johnny Carson of “Tonight Show” fame, it might have saved him. The simple trick was as follows: Don’t get political.
Carson was the master. Beloved by all. Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike tuned in with gratitude. Because he had only one goal in mind: To make us laugh.
A Newsweek article from last year cited an interview that Carson gave to Barbara Walters in 1984, where he said, “I think one of the dangers if you are a comedian, which basically I am, is that if you start to take yourself too seriously and start to comment on social issues, your sense of humor suffers somewhere.”
He continued, “Some critics have said that our show doesn’t have great sociological value, it’s not controversial, it’s not deep. But The Tonight Show basically is designed to amuse people. To make them laugh.”
The story’s title was: “What Our Current Late-Night Hosts Can Learn From the King.”
“You never knew Johnny’s politics,” Jay Leno said of Carson. “Johnny would come out and equally make fun of everybody.”
Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find even one voice in late night comedy who doesn’t express constant disdain for President Donald Trump or his supporters.
Comedians all across the country revered Carson as the gold standard for decades. If you were a standup comic performing on his show, and he invited you over to sit down next to him after your set, you’d been given his blessing. The sky was the limit.
Are late night comedy shows finally dead?
His successors — which include the likes of Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers — disrespect his memory each time the camera starts to roll, and they deliver a state-sponsored monologue filled with political propaganda.
Could this politicization have played a part in Colbert’s cancellation? It isn’t some great mystery. When you alienate half your audience, your ratings will suffer.
Liberal politicians and online personalities are screaming that Colbert was cancelled as part of a conspiracy for revenge, or that his firing was fueled by Trump’s recent settlement with CBS’ “60 Minutes” for deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris.
Yet the public knows the truth.
Colbert sold out his own ability to uplift the country and unite us through humor. He and his fellow hosts sold their likenesses to the highest bidder and, like puppets, said whatever words were shoved into their mouths.
Shame on them.
The condescending monologues, the emotional outbursts, the interviews with Hollywood elites agreeing with every point — it was insufferable. More importantly, it wasn’t funny!
In an age when the internet can pull up almost anything on command, do they even make the top 50 anymore? Top 100?
Colbert committed the cardinal sin of comedy: He preached radicalized political sermons when all Americans wanted was a few laughs.
“The reason I don’t go back or do interviews is because I just let the work speak for itself,” Carson told Esquire back in 2002.
Well, Colbert let his work speak for itself, too. And the result was his cancellation.
He took the greatest gift he’d ever been given and corrupted it. For what? Admiration of far-left Democrats and talking heads?
Carson was beloved by the common man. The real Americans. He was welcomed into millions of homes as a friend.
Colbert, on the other hand, will become a cautionary tale. His biggest contribution to comedy will be that he hastened the death of late-night network television.
In truth, he should have been cancelled much sooner, but better late than never.
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