Jimmy Kimmel is clueless. And not funny anymore.

Former 'Man Show' standout reads Democratic playbook and guess what? It isn't funny because state sponsored art never is.

Christian Toto — entertainment reporter, film critic and podcaster — asked me to write something for his website Hollywood in Toto about the recent Rolling Stone interview with Jimmy Kimmel. In the interview, Kimmel goes on about how the Republicans and Trump perseverate over issues that impact no one, like men in women’s sports.

The article I wrote appears on his website. I’m re-publishing here as well.

(Note: You all should follow Christian on X for popular culture and social commentary.)

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Jimmy Kimmel used to be funny when he hosted The Man Show with Adam Carolla.

The series aired on Comedy Central from 1999 to 2004, and it simultaneously celebrated things men enjoy — women, boobs and beer — while mocking grown men for being such frat-boy louts.

It always ended with women in skimpy clothes jumping on a trampoline. It showcased this thing men like, and at the same time, how juvenile men are for liking it.

Even as a self-avowed feminist, I watched the show. I can take a joke, and it made me laugh. And let’s be honest, it mostly mocked men, not the women they were ogling.

Now, as a much more famous and richer late-night host, Kimmel ceases to be funny at all. He seems to exist primarily as a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party.

Back in September 2021 he famously “joked” on his ABC late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, that patients not vaccinated for covid who take Ivermectin as treatment should be turned away by hospitals.

In his opening monologue, Kimmel referenced a statement from Dr. Anthony Fauci, then head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the face of covid policy, about needing to make “tough choices” about who gets healthcare and who doesn’t. Fauci said/fear-mongered that since hospitals were running out of space in intensive care units, care would need to be rationed.

Kimmel said, in response:

“That choice doesn’t seem so tough to me. Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right in. We’ll take care of you. Unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo? Rest in peace, wheezy.”

Hilarious!

Sure, hospitals treat drunk drivers who kill innocent victims and bank robbers and school shooters and murderers of all varieties, but choose not to get vaccinated for covid? No treatment for you!

Even though it was entirely clear at that point in time that the covid vaccine did not stop infection or transmission, Kimmel felt that if you refused it, it was an act of defiance so egregious you deserved to be refused medical treatment.

This is, in short, the view of the Democratic Party these days — veer one iota from its progressive platform, get cancelled and ousted from polite society.

In Kimmel’s latest bout with un-funniness, he is featured in a long-form Rolling Stone interview where he describes his show as follows:

“A year ago, I would’ve said I’m hoping to show people who aren’t paying attention to the news what’s actually going on, and hoping to change things that way. Obviously, that didn’t have enough impact before the election, so now I see myself more as a place to scream.”

That doesn’t sound like a breeding ground for comedy. And it isn’t.

While Kimmel says he is against “cancel culture,” he proceeds to call Trump supporters “animals” which feels pretty cancel-y to me. It’s literally the definition of dehumanizing to call people animals. We raise animals in captivity and slaughter them so that we can eat them.

Is this the analogy Kimmel wants to make? Apparently, yes.

He also says that that Republicans under Trump’s leadership just focus on niche issues that really don’t affect anyone.

“I just don’t understand how Americans can support what [Trump] is doing and the stupid stuff that he gets hung up on, like transgender sports and the stuff that affects almost no one.”

Ok Jimmy, let me explain it to you.

As a former elite gymnast and current feminist, I am invested in protecting biological reality and female athletes.

You can say it affects no one but that isn’t the case. According to hecheated.org:

“Males participating in women’s sports, including male athletes who call themselves “women,” “transwomen,” “intersex women,” and “nonbinary,” have won over 3,820 female athletic competitions (excluding non-tournament team victories.) Including all team sport matches, they have won over 7,952 “women’s” athletic events. This is a severe undercount as many athletes on the list have yet to be researched, information for many competitions and teams is missing, and many athletes remain yet undiscovered.”

These male athletes have stolen more than $2 million in prize money from deserving female athletes.

Every woman competing against a male in their category is impacted. For each individual male athlete, hundreds if not thousands of female athletes are affected.

Furthermore, when girls and women are told to sit down, be quiet and just accept males dominating their sports, they learn that the feelings of men matter more than safety and fairness for themselves.

If that isn’t misogyny, I don’t know what is.

The haters of Kimmel’s The Man Show claimed it was sexist — though I’d argue mocking the men who act like drooling idiots at the sight of a scantily-clad woman is the opposite. But this movement to allow males to compete in women’s sports and invade their private spaces is the most sexist movement imaginable.

It’s misogyny in a dress. And it’s still misogyny.

Kimmel might do well to mock the men who are forcing themselves into women’s spaces and stealing their opportunities. It would be edgier, and funnier and frankly, the jokes kind of write themselves. I mean, remember Jim Carrey as Vero De Milo on In Living Color, another comedy sketch show that ran before “The Man Show,” from 1990-1994?

It was funny because it was grounded in an absurd truth: female athletes in the 1980s were taking performance-enhancing drugs and steroids and they appeared, quite obviously, enhanced. Carrey’s De Milo was a steroid-abusing female bodybuilder with a conspicuously flat chest and an unnaturally deep voice.

State-produced art is bad because its goal is to support a regime’s ideology and policies, not to make us laugh or think or feel something. Look no further than Russian-backed films post-1917 revolution and Nazi-sponsored “art” in the 1930s and 1940s.

Kimmel, as a frontman for the Democrats, is no longer funny. He might do well to take a cue from those old Carrey skits. Because Will/Lia Thomas looks a whole lot like De Milo and the absurdity of Thomas competing in the women’s category is easily mocked.

And while he’s at it, he might consider jeering at the folks who have bought into the “trans women are women” cult hook, line and sinker. But that would be him, so it seems an unlikely path.