A growing number of comedians are stepping up and speaking out in the hours after Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC indefinitely for comments he made connected to the killing of Charlie Kirk, with Marc Maron and Patton Oswalt making passionate pleas for action on Thursday morning.
“It’s happening,” Maron said in an Instagram video in which he looked rattled. “This is government censorship. This is the the Trump administration coming after people who speak out against him. This is the end of it. If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the Constitution or free speech, this is it. This is the deciding moment. This is what authoritarianism looks like right now in this country.”
Maron, who is retiring his WTF podcast later this year, took to task those who previously branded themselves as “free speech warriors,” saying now is the time to act.
“This isn’t about saying the R word or the T word or any of that,” he continued, nodding to right-wing comedians who previously complained about “censorship” over public pushback for using offensive language in their sets. “This is government censorship. This isn’t f–king Twitter. This isn’t people getting canceled because of a cultural pile-on. This is the United States government silencing voices that they disagree with.”
Maron concluded his video with a dire call to action: “If they can come for Kimmel, they can come for anybody. This is happening. It’s time to act. Figure it out. Find a way. Come together. Push back. Because if this goes, it’s over.”
Oswalt, similarly, rallied around Kimmel in his own Instagram video.
“I think everybody sees what’s happening, even the people that are benefiting from this who are pretending like they don’t see what’s happening,” he said before quoting science fiction author Isaac Asimov.
“Isaac Asimov said that there’s only three science fiction plots: ‘What if?’ ‘If only’ and ‘If this goes on.’ And, unfortunately, we are at the dark end of ‘if this goes on.’ That line that when we cross it, we’re all supposed to rise up? That’s way, way behind us. So we can’t just stand up anymore, we gotta roar up screaming and link arms. All of us. This thing is coming for all of us.”
Oswalt preempted complaints that he’s a “west coast elite” by noting that he was in an airport in Raleigh and spends his comedy career traveling all over the country, and he called on those who voted for Trump but disagree with his attacks on free speech to speak up.
“I meet people every day, every weekend, doing comedy. I know this is not what they voted for. Maybe they thought they were voting for something else. I know this is not what they were voting for. Everyone that’s been saying, ‘Oh, I support Trump but this isn’t what I voted for,’ well, now’s your time to actually show that.”
Maron and Oswalt’s comments came as fellow comedian Mike Birbiglia similarly called for action, saying, “If you’re a comedian and you don’t call out the insanity of pulling Kimmel off the air, don’t bother spouting off about free speech anymore.”
Kimmel raised hackles on the right for criticizing the response by “the MAGA gang” to the Kirk assassination, and implying the shooter might have come from that world. That led to a rising firestorm and an open threat by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to take action against ABC and its affiliated stations. First Nexstar, which owns dozens of ABC affiliates, and then ABC parent Disney, quickly followed by pulling Kimmel off the air on Wednesday.
