Good Riddance, Stephen Colbert

It couldn't have happened to a bigger jerk.

The bubble of Hollywood has never been more pronounced than it is right now. That is especially true in the exhausting media coverage over Stephen Colbert’s exit from CBS’s The Late Show. Their endless funeral, their caterwauling, their mourning for what was but can never be again is embarrassing by now.

It would be one thing if Colbert’s version of late-night comedy were a show we all watched every night and laughed together about our shared problems, celebrated the culture we shared, and joked about the politics we more or less agreed on, even if we didn’t vote the same way. After all, our late-night hosts like Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, and David Letterman (in the early years) did not take sides.

But once Donald Trump won in 2016, American culture did take a side. They locked themselves away in their own little bubble and decided the rest of us just didn’t matter anymore. This is a story still mostly untold in mainstream media.

No joke, this is Dana Taylor in USA Today:

If the Peak Woke film One Battle After Another, which cost upwards of $170-200 million and pulled in only $70 million in the US, could still sweep the awards and win Best Picture, no one is going to sweat the late-night ratings slump. Maybe 3 million a night, the rest made up with viral clips on YouTube and social media. It all drives the same message - help the Democrats defeat Trump and MAGA. Whatever. It ain’t comedy.

Late-night “comedy” is not for all of America like it used to be. It serves only one leader — Barack Obama and his Royal Court. Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and John Oliver sneer at half the country every night and pat themselves on the back because the Rosie O’Donnell demographic falls at their feet.

Even when Stephen Colbert was funny, he was never really funny. He always took himself too seriously, even when he was playing the fake Conservative. He wasn’t mocking himself. He was mocking those people over there, the ones he dehumanizes on his now-canceled show night after night. The only sad part about any of it is that Kimmel wasn’t also canceled. In a perfect world, he’d be off the air, too.

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a glaring failure if the Obama class hadn’t also been the ruling class. You can’t be on the side with all the power and wealth and then sneer at the side with less power and wealth.

But if somehow it wasn’t the ruling class, the wealthy sophisticates who decided to use nearly all of American culture to push one ideology, maybe Colbert and Kimmel would have seemed more like heroes to the rest of us, instead of puny tyrants abusing what little power they had to keep America divided and hating each other.

The media, of course, has turned this into yet another grand battle against Trump. CBS and Paramount are the ones who sold the otherwise pristine network out to the “fascists.” Bari Weiss, they insist, has sold out 60 Minutes to Trump and/or Israel. The Paramount/Warner merger is yet another sign that Hitler is on the march.

And Bill Carter at the New York Times:

But it’s no secret what transpired in between that eager pitch to extend his run and that sudden closing notice: CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was on the verge of a merger. President Trump, who had been wounded by Mr. Colbert’s political satire, and who on many occasions had publicly called for him to be canceled (or “put to sleep” in one memorable social media message), had returned to office and was in a position to interfere with any deal.

Paramount had already taken steps widely seen as currying favor with the administration, most notably when it signed off on a $16 million payment to settle a lawsuit Mr. Trump brought against CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” even though legal experts said Mr. Trump had very little chance of prevailing in court.

The truth is that Paramount and David Ellison are trying to crash the Left’s chokehold on culture. This is obvious from the television shows on Paramount Plus, like Landman. They are at least attempting to reach the millions of Americans people like Colbert have thrown away like human garbage.

Wouldn’t it have been great if one of these court jesters of late-night had been able to see the truth? If they’d have been able to joke about the reality of what they’d become under Trump, how they’ve lost their minds for ten long years and destroyed themselves? What if Colbert’s last night was an apology to the rest of us for his repulsive, one-sided propaganda delivery device otherwise known as The Late Show?

That would have been something. As with Kimmel, he’ll be treated like a martyr without ever having to confront who and what he has become. Standing ovations, interviews, lavish praise, gold statues — all headed his way. As with everyone who worships the right people, he’ll fail upwards.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Colbert will never have to face himself in the mirror, not really. He’ll always get the reach-around by the mainstream outlets he cares about. But some of us know the truth. And knowing Colbert will be off the smells feels like … victory.

Good riddance, Stephen Colbert, you snide, smug, sanctimonious, intolerable partisan hack. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.