Ripping The Nazi Flag When It’s Easier To Leave It Up
Jimmy Fallon and the art of appeasement
Jimmy Fallon is a coward.
The current Tonight Show host told CNBC’s Squawk Box last month, “We hit both sides equally, and we try to make everybody laugh, and that’s really the way our show works. Our monologues are kind of the same that we’ve been doing since Johnny Carson was hosting The Tonight Show. So really, I just keep my head down and make sure the jokes are funny.”
You could charitably interpret Fallon’s remarks as merely his renewed commitment to churning out mediocre comedy that offends only those with taste. However, that ignores a very relevant context: His fellow late-night hosts are under direct assault from Donald Trump’s autocratic regime. CBS cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Trump raved on social media, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.” FCC Chair Brendan Carr delivered on that less-than-subtle threat when he pressured ABC into suspending Kimmel for remarks he made on his show about MAGA’s response to Charlie Kirk’s murder. Late Night host Seth Meyers, a vocal Trump critic, is also in the president’s crosshairs, and even Fallon himself is a potential target for Trump’s rage. The day Kimmel was suspended, Trump declared, “That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT”
Kimmel stood his ground and eventually returned to the air with his dignity intact. However, Fallon, whose own dignity was never especially prominent, seems to think appeasement can maintain his job security.
This reminds me of a key moment from The Sound Of Music movie that has always resonated with me. The fascist march seems unavoidable, and family friend Max Detweiler tells Captain von Trapp, “What’s going to happen is going to happen. Just don’t let it happen to you.” This is the song of opportunistic capitulation. It’s what Fallon sings tunelessly when he says he’ll just “keep my head down.”
Fallon claims The Tonight Show has “never really been political.” We’ve debunked this revisionist history when Jay Leno promoted it, and it’s true that Johnny Carson once told Mike Wallace that he preferred to avoid controversy.
“Tell me the last time Jack Benny, Red Skelton, any comedian used his show to do serious issues,” Carson said. “That’s not what I’m there for. Can’t they see that? Why do they think since you have a Tonight Show, you will deal with serious issues? That’s a real danger. Once you start that, you start to get that self important feeling … and you could use that show to sway people. And I don’t think you should as an entertainer.”
Yet, Carson was famous for political humor during his monologues. In September 1987, Carson mocked Joe Biden’s plagiarism scandal, which eventually ended his first White House run. (Watch below.)
“On the political scene, one of the Democratic candidates, a Senator Joseph Biden — — have you seen the problem he’s been having?” Carson asked the audience during his monologue. “He went around and made a speech and apparently he quoted a — I think it was a British politician, took his speech and kind of paraphrased it as his own. And then the press got on him. And then he was charged also with taking part of Bobby Kennedy’s speeches. And Biden says, ‘Not to worry.’ He reassured his staff, he said, ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’
Later, in January 1992, Carson joked at length about Bill Clinton’s reported affair with Gennifer Flowers. However, the biggest laugh came when Carson said, “Don’t worry about Gennifer Flowers … She got a new job today as a ‘Donald Trump Back-Up Mistress’. If for any reason Marla Maples is unable to fulfill her duties, Gennifer steps in.” (Watch below.)
Carson considered himself a comedian first and not a serious political commentator. The issue Fallon’s ignoring is that Trump has no tolerance for even Carson’s classic ribbings. He’d probably sic the FCC after a late night host who made the “back-up mistress” joke.
Fallon told Squawk Box, “I have great writers, and we’re just trying to make the best show we possibly can and entertain everybody.” He also insisted that “we hit both sides equally,” as if that would every satisfy MAGA. They aren’t interested in “fairness.”
What does it even mean to “hit both sides equally”? Trump is DMing Attorney General Pam Bondi and ordering her to prosecute his political enemies. Stephen Miller is an outright fascist. Sure, Chuck Schumer is a chump, and Hakeem Jeffries is an empty suit in search of a corporate boardroom. However, the only real humor they inspire is their fecklessness in the face of the very real threat MAGA poses. But maybe Fallon could try some broad ethnic humor or cheap fat jokes. Someone might argue that Fallon could simply take a less openly antagonistic approach to MAGA. He can poke fun at them but also invite Miller onto his show and playfully toussle his painted-on hair.
Fallon enjoyed a ratings boost last week when he had Taylor Swift a guest promoting her latest album, Life of a Showgirl. MAGA would consider this a political act, as well, considering that Trump has publicly declared, “I hate Taylor Swift!” (The self-identified “childless cat lady” endorsed Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.) Earlier this year, Fallon prominently featured on his show the latest MAGA public enemy Bad Bunny. (Watch below.)
MAGA is predictably incensed that Bad Bunny is performing at the Super Bowl halftime show. The right-wing Turning Point USA is even staging a separate but hardly equal halftime show that fits their own narrow definition of “all-American.” House Speaker Mike Johnson found time during the government shutdown to criticize Bunny’s selection and suggested the Super Bowl should replace him with country singer Lee Greenwood. Greenwood is 82 but he’s a Trump supporter, which is all that matters to MAGA.
Fallon could never compromise The Tonight Show enough to please MAGA, but even if he could, imagine living during this period of history and having access to such a major platform and simply wanting to coast by like Max Detweiler.
Captain von Trapp could have played nice with fascists. He had as much to gain as Fallon does. However, there’s a reason movie audiences always applaud when Von Trapp rips the Nazi flag. He knows the risk, but he takes the moral stand. That’s why we remember his name.
Fallon will probably find out that even by avoiding offending the pricktator he's going to end up causing some slight somehow. And we all still remember when he ruffled the pricktator's head-gerbil.
In this current political environment, every time I hear some figure talk about "both sides" I get a little suspicious. And of course there is still the lack of solidarity.
I don’t really mind that a comedian like Fallon tries to be apolitical—some comedians’ comedy just works that way (Gaffigan, Regan, Bargatze—very funny comedians but their acts are not edgy or political at all, to the point that Gaffigan even had to publicly denounce Trump because a lot of fans had assumed he was a closet MAGA—same thing Taylor Swift had to do! In her case because the alt-Right held her up as their Nazi goddess. Nope, folks, Swift is just about a solid PR operation). I imagine if he tried being edgy, Fallon wouldn’t be able to pull it off.
But outside of his act, he really ought to be speaking out for his colleagues. Nazis always go after the jesters first, as ridicule is the one thing they cannot stand as it exposes them for their weakness in a way that serious criticism cannot. And even Falcon’s bland shit won’t insulate him from the rage of that orange bag of shit. Totalitarians cannot stand the idea of any culture that is even neutral—it must praise him, or not exist at all. Comedians should be loudly united on this, before they get buried.
Hey where are last year’s “free speech for comedy” warriors? A lot of them have gone quiet lately.