There seemed to be a pretty clean divide on political comedy among the late-night hosts: Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers do it, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon don't. For now, Kimmel seems to be muddying that water. His weighing in on health-care repeal was supposed to be a one-time thing; then he was grudgingly dragged back in by Bill Cassidy, the publicity-desperate senator. On Monday night, after a mass shooting that left 50 dead in his hometown of Las Vegas, Kimmel again got political.
That's where the humor peaks. This isn't like the monologues Kimmel delivered during the health-care repeal efforts, with explanatory skits and threats to pound hypocritical Fox News pinheads. There's nothing to soften this or to diffuse the sadness and desperation you can hear in Kimmel's voice, emotions that any not-deranged American is probably also feeling right now.
That might be nuts. But Kimmel points out that crazy-high percentages of both Democrat and Republican voters support tightened gun regulations. And the U.S. is usually pretty quick to respond to public-safety threats when the danger isn't a gun, like drunk driving or Kinder Eggs.
It's bold for a comedian to do a 10-minute monologue with basically no jokes in it. And especially for Kimmel, who doesn't usually follow the Jon Stewart model of late night and runs the risk of burning out audience patience already tested by health care. But this isn't what a play for ratings, or a pivot to a new format, normally looks like. Even Kimmel's sign-off is apologetic.