President Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress comedian Jimmy Kimmel were thwarted by the Streisand effect, whereby attempts to censor something only cause it to circulate wider.
Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue—the first since Jimmy Kimmel Live! was canceled, then uncanceled, by ABC—has reached a massive audience and garnered significant media attention.
Whereas, CNN data analyst Harry Enten reported, the median video on Kimmel’s YouTube channel in the last six months has been viewed 240,000 times, Kimmel’s returning monologue has already garnered more than 11 million views on YouTube, with the number still rapidly growing. Another indicator of significant interest in Kimmel’s show, Enten observed, is a record-high number of Google searches for the time Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs, which were up over 10,000 percent.
Kimmel joked about the influx of attention in his monologue, saying of Trump, “You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly! He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.”
ABC’s since-reversed decision to cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live! came after Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair threatened companies that platformed Kimmel, due to the host’s jokes about MAGA’s reaction to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
An hour before Kimmel’s show returned to air Tuesday, Trump complained, “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!” The president vowed to go after the network for being too favorable to his political opponents.
The post Trump’s Fascist Threats Make Jimmy Kimmel Go Viral Like Never Before appeared first on New Republic.
