Late night talk hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel are grappling with how to tackle sensitive issues as America remains polarized over President Donald Trump and shocked by allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
Kimmel went on Good Morning America Friday and explained why he was staying away from the ballooning Weinstein sexual assault scandal. ‘First of all, the Harvey Weinstein thing, people like this false equivalence of that’s somehow equivalent to what happened in Las Vegas.’
Kimmel also said that he fears ‘gun nuts’ angry about him being outspoken about the Las Vegas shooting will ‘try to take any comedy bit I did out of context and use it as some kind of proof’ that he is doesn’t speak up for women.
Jimmy Kimmel says he has shied away from talking about Weinstein on his show because he fears ‘gun nuts’ will twist his words. Meanwhile Jimmy Fallon says he doesn’t do a lot on Trump because he doesn’t ‘really care that much about politics’
The big issues of the day remain a void on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (pictured with Harvey Weinstein) as well as on Jimmy Kimmel Live
He has generally shied away from covering the disgraced media mogul’s fall, and when Kimmel did cover it Monday he used it as a platform to attack Donald Trump Jr.
Kimmel cracked ‘Next time you’re defending your father and you think it’s a good idea to draw a comparison between him and a freshly accused sexual predator, don’t. It doesn’t help.’
Fallon who meanwhile just lost his number one spot in the ratings to Kimmel, said in a clip that aired on the Today Show Friday- for a Sunday Today with Willie Geist- that he doesn’t attack Trump because it’s just not what he does.
‘I think it’d be weird for me to start doing it now,’ he said. ‘I don’t really even, you know, care that much about politics — I’ve got to be honest. I love pop culture more than I love politics. I’m just not that brain, you know?’
‘I think the other guys are doing it very well,’ he added. ‘Colbert’s doing great — I mean, that’s what he’s good at.’
Fallon added, ‘I think when it’s organic, I’ll dip into it as well. But with Trump, it’s just like, everyday is a new thing,’ he continued. ‘He gives a lot of material — a lot of stuff is hard to even make a joke about, because it’s just too serious.’
Fallon has previously had Trump on, as well as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He did say however there is a lot of material on Trump- but some of it is just ‘too serious’ to touch.
Kimmel said of Weinstein he is ‘not a friend of mine,’ adding, ‘I’m not in the movie business,’ neither of which should have any impact on his addressing the subject of the scandal in a reasonable way on his show.
While two of the number one men in the late night realm seem to be unable to adequately address issues like Weinstein and Trump, their fellow late night hosts have been hitting at the tough issues head on.
Thursday, Seth Meyers did a long-form segment connecting Harvey Weinstein, Trump and the ‘systematic misogyny’ of ‘male entitlement.’
Kimmel says he isn’t a ‘friend’ of Weinstein’s and he’s not in the ‘movie business’ as a partial explanation of why he wasn’t covering the scandal. Plus Kimmel says it’s not the same as the Vegas shooting which he has been outspoken about
‘This week, we’ve seen examples of powerful men at the highest levels of entertainment and politics from Harvey Weinstein to Donald Trump abusing their power to silence, bully, or coerce,’ the Late Night host said.
‘And it’s a reminder that our toxic culture of male entitlement is still very much intact… Of course, we have a president who built his political career almost entirely on bullying.’
‘His campaign and now his presidency have been in many ways a performance of dominance, a performance that has in many cases been explicitly misogynist,’ Meyers concluded.
The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah was able to get a quick crack in on Weinstein in his show Thursday, something Kimmel said he was unable to do as his show was about to tape as the New York Times bombshell report was released.
John Oliver was the first host to be able to fully address it Monday night, wile James Corden covered it Monday.